Voices From Gaza, Israel, And North Carolina
Good afternoon! It’s way past time to get up!
First off, a couple programming notes! Your Uprising correspondent is traveling for the next few days, so the newsletter will be coming out in the afternoon rather than at the start of your day.
This is also week four of this newsletter, which will be the last one when most of the content and the comment sections are free and open to everyone. Starting next week, most of the newsletter will only be available to paid subscribers.
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THE PANEL: Despite going on air every now and then, I kind of hate cable news. With short segments jammed in between commercial breaks, the content is often superficial. But cable shows sure do manage to get great guests! With a daily politics Substack, I think there’s a unique opportunity to do the kind of discussions I want to see more of; guest interviews that are longer, more conversational, and live online in a searchable way.
The ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas struck me as a great opportunity to debut this feature since much of our coverage seems to be lacking conversations with people in the region. So for this issue, I have lined up two experts from the region: Hind Khoudary, a Gaza-born journalist who has worked extensively in the Gaza Strip, and Mairav Zonszein, a Tel Aviv-based senior analyst with Crisis Group.
Khoudary discussed the experiences of people living in Gaza and her frustrations with coverage of the conflict in the international media.
“We don’t have shelters,” Khoudary said. “I saw a tweet from an Israeli settler who wrote that, ‘My children and wife are terrified. We’re in the shelters now, and I don’t know when this will end, and we’re very scared.’ You’re in shelters and you’re scared? People in Gaza don’t have anywhere to hide.”
Zonszein talked about what Israelis are experiencing living under the Iron Dome anti-rocket system. She also discussed the political landscape within the country and whether President Biden can do more to end the conflict.
“Biden hasn’t even reversed any of the major things that Trump did,” said Zonszein. “He hasn’t reversed the embassy. Even if he’s not going to move it back, he could at least recognize East Jerusalem as the future Palestinian state capital. He hasn’t even done that.”
These were fascinating conversations and I am very grateful to both women for taking the time to speak with me. Read the full conversation here.
LAW & ORDER: Speaking of fascinating conversations, when I wrote the profile on attorney Ben Crump and his work on civil rights cases earlier this month, there was a lot from our discussion that I had to leave on the cutting room floor. I have finally put together the full transcription of our conversation and I am making it available as the first exclusive benefit for paid subscribers.
I was particularly struck by Crump’s comments on the role he believes the White House and white people have to play in addressing police violence in the Black community.
“I think oftentimes people forget that the hashtags and the cases are real life people, that after the cameras go and everybody goes they’re still trying to mend together the pieces that have been broken,” Crump said. “I think that and then I think that, man, I really think that it’s not going to stop until we can make our white brothers and sisters see that it’s bad for them as much as its bad for us.”
Subscribers can read that full conversation here.
FUN FACT: It feels a bit weird to include these fun facts on the days this newsletter is full of heavier topics. However, since I love Brooklyn very much and Nets star Kyrie Irving has recently talked about the fact that “basketball is just not the most important thing” going on with the conflict raging in the Middle East, I figured I could note his historic achievement on the court this weekend.
With the close of the Nets season on Sunday night, Irving became just the ninth NBA player in history to have a shooting percentage of over 50 percent, a three point shooting percentage of over 40 percent, and 90 percent shooting from the free throw line over the course of an entire regular season.
The list of players who have achieved this feat includes greats like
Larry Bird, Dirk Nowitzki, Steve Nash, and Steph Curry, though Kyrie is the only one who also averaged over 25 points per game at the same time.
Go Nets!
That’s all for today! If you haven’t already, please subscribe to The Uprising and tell your friends! And if you work in politics, please don’t forget to leave a (news) tip on your way out → hunter.walker@protonmail.com
Hunter, do you actively practice Judaism?
Is there a link to the Israel/Palestine discussion that I missed? Many thanks!