Audio: Crossing the Line interviews author Joel Kovel

This week on Crossing The Line: In part one of a two part series, host Christopher Brown speaks with Joel Kovel, scholar, lecturer and author of the book Overcoming Zionism: Creating a Democratic State In Israel/Palestine. Kovel discusses the misconception of Zionism as a socially just movement to create a Jewish utopia in Palestine, which in reality has proven itself as a racist construct designed so that one group of people can rule over another. Kovel adds that Zionism has polluted its own people and its allies, mainly the United States, into believing that the land of Palestine was pre-ordained for the Jews by God.

Next, Brown speaks with Dr. Franklin Lamb, Director of Americans Concerned for Middle East Peace and a senior fellow of the The Institute for Middle East Policy Dialogue about the Sabra and Shatila Massacre. It was 25 years ago this past week that at least 1,700 Palestinian refugees were massacred by a Lebanese Christian Phalangist militia who carried out orders given by then Israeli military commander Ariel Sharon. As commemorations mark those gory 48 hours a quarter century ago, survivors and family of the deceased wonder: Will justice ever be served?

As always, Crossing the Line begins with “This week in Palestine,” a service provided by The International Middle East Media Center.

Crossing the Line is a weekly podcast dedicated to giving voice to the voiceless in occupied Palestine. Through investigative news, arts, eyewitness accounts, and music, Crossing the Line does its best to present the lives of people on the ground.

Crossing the Line’s host, Christopher Brown, is an independent journalist currently living in San Francisco. Brown’s South African roots and desire for social change are the reason for his strong solidarity with the Palestinian people. In 1990 Brown was arrested in South Africa where he was detained and tortured for nearly two years by the South African secret police. Brown also lived and worked in the Old City of Hebron in the occupied West Bank.