In this episode of Occupied Thoughts, FMEP Fellow Ahmed Moor speaks with Yuli Novak, executive director of the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem. Their conversation covers a wide range of topics as Yuli addresses why it matters to understand the Israeli system from the inside. They discuss how Israelis were mobilized so quickly into supporting and committing genocide; the meaning and impact of the Zionist movement producing the Israeli apartheid state; and the expectation that Israeli violence and repression will continue to increase. Yuli states her belief that positive change is not coming soon, but the Israeli Jewish population has both the responsibility and ability to act to dismantle the paradigms of Jewish supremacy and militarism and work for both justice and equality.

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Yuli Novak is the Executive Director of B’Tselem. From 2012-2017, she was Executive Director of Breaking the Silence. In 2022, she published (in Hebrew) the memoir Who Do You Think You Are?, which will be published in English in 2026.

Ahmed Moor is a Palestinian-American writer born in Gaza and a Fellow at FMEP. He is an advisory board member of the US Campaign for Palestinian rights, co-editor of After Zionism (Saqi Books) and is currently writing a book about Palestine. He also currently serves on the board of the Independence Media Foundation. His work has been published in The Guardian, The London Review of Books, The Nation, and elsewhere. He earned a BA at the University of Pennsylvania and an MPP at Harvard University. You can follow Ahmed on Substack at: https://ahmedmoor.substack.com and on X at @AhmedMoor.