In this episode of Occupied Thoughts, FMEP Fellow Ahmed Moor speaks with Rabbi Sarah Brammer-Shlay of Rabbis for a Ceasefire and Oriel Eisner of the Center for Jewish Nonviolence. They talk about the activists who join with Palestinians in the West Bank, especially now during the olive harvest, looking at the difference in the framing of “protective presence” versus solidarity work. They discuss the nature of Israel settler violence and its impact on Palestinian livelihoods and look at the possible role of sanctions in producing a different future in Palestine/Israel.

Rabbi Sarah Brammer-Shlay serves as the Dean of Religious Life and Chaplain at Grinnell College in Iowa. She graduated from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and is part of Rabbis for Ceasefire.

Oriel Eisner is an Israeli-American activist and organizer living in Jerusalem. He is an on-the-ground organizer with the Center for Jewish Nonviolence.

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.