In this special, joint episode of Talk of the Bay and Moment of Truth with Ami Chen Mills, three guests who are Muslim and/or Palestinian speak to a ceasefire resolution process in their city (Santa Cruz, CA) and its subsequent framing, to the history of the region called both “Israel” and “Palestine,” and to what they call the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people. This show centers the voices of those whom we have perhaps heard the least from so far, but for whom the war has profound and devastating impacts.
Ami is joined by Dr. Aly Mohamed–a writer and physician affiliated with Sutter Health and the Palo Alto Medical Foundation–who has written several opinion pieces for the Santa Cruz Sentinel; UCSC Assistant Professor and Palestinian-American Sophia Azeb, who contributes frequently to the Funambulist. Sophia teaches Black Studies in the Department of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Sophia’s current book project, Another Country: Translational Blackness and the Afro-Arab, explores the currents of transnational and translational blackness charted by African American, Afro-Caribbean, African, and Afro-Arab peoples across twentieth century North Africa and Europe. Prior to joining the faculty at UC Santa Cruz, Sophia was a member of the faculty collective that founded the Department of Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity at the University of Chicago. This show also welcomes Palestinian-American Suhail Qawasmeh, a board member at the Santa Cruz Center for Islamic Studies and a father of three and grandfather of six.
Topics:
- What did the ceasefire resolution process (which failed at city and county levels) mean to them?
- What does “being Palestinian” mean to Palestinians? Who gets to define “Palestinian?”
- Who gets to define “terrorism”?
- Views on the history of the region
- Views on the current war/genocide
- How does Black Lives Matter and Blackness relate to the movement for Palestinians and Palestine?
- What could next steps look like?
Notes and Resources:
Sophia Azeb in The Funambulist.
Dr. Aly Mohamed’s opinion pieces in the Santa Cruz Sentinel:
Guest Commentary | Echos of empathy: The ethical concern gap between Ukraine and Gaza
What a one sided and anti Jewish program. As a journalist you have a real responsibility to correct misinformation . Repeatedly saying targeting babies when that’s not what is happening. They say clearly they don’t want cease fire.
Who says clearly they do not want a ceasefire? In this show? See comments above regarding the targeting of children and babies. This has been reported on extensively, with the most legitimate testimony from doctors who have been serving in hospitals in Gaza. Many such doctors have been on the KSQD morning shows: “Democracy Now” and “Your Call.” Additionally, the organizations Unicef and Save the Children have issued various and increasingly urgent statements about the numbers of children killed by the IDF in this conflict in Gaza, which exceed the numbers of children killed in global conflicts combined in the last four years. It seems to me that rather than attack the messenger, people of conscience must investigate the message itself, and the actual reality on the ground, and unite to stop this bloodshed in whatever way they can.
https://edition.cnn.com/middleeast/live-news/israel-hamas-war-gaza-news-03-14-24/h_3645cd87d7f6618e2207c2728d17e1f7
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/18/world/middleeast/gaza-children-israel.html
This was a one sided podcast where misinformation was spread and there was no one there to correct it. Amy Chen the so called journalist called Holocaust and Oct 7th “This and That”. This podcast invited 3 antisemitic people to talk and she basically just agreed with them. Saying Israel’s military is using baby crying to kill more babies is just false, there is no proof of that and therefore should not be broadcasted. this is called misinformation and fake news. Please go educate yourself and see why Jewish people call the land of Israel home and stop saying most Jewish people are on your side (you can say some not most). Palestine was created by Romans to drive Jewish people out of their land. This is your history 101.
A few corrections: this podcast included three people of either Muslim or Palestinian descent who are, of course, angry and traumatized by the current situation in Gaza and the West Bank. None of them said they hated Jews and one of them argued that the two groups (Jews and Palestinians) are related and therefore the same, as human beings, and that we should focus upon their common humanity. I agree that I should have asked for the source for the “babies crying” tactic asserted by one speaker. Here is the Snopes report, which cannot deny this and states this is plausible. There was no comment from the IDF. https://www.snopes.com/news/2024/04/30/idf-sniper-drones-crying/ … As for targeting children and even babies, this has now been reported in several legitimate news outlets by doctors who have treated such children and babies in Gaza, and extensively reported on in the KSQD morning programs “Democracy Now” and “Your Call” with Rose Aguilar.