Around 15% of the Jewish settlers’ population in the West Bank are of American origin, American Jews who have made Aliyah (emigrated to Israel), and chose to settle the West Bank.
It feels as if their proportion is even larger, because they are so central to the ideological settlers’ movement, so active and so vociferous.
The expert on this issue is Dr. Sara Yael Hirschhorn, a lecturer at Oxford University in the UK. Her recently published book on this topic, is City on a Hilltop. Sara spoke about the focus of her research at a book event co-sponsored by the Foundation for Middle East Peace and Americans for Peace Now at Busboys and Poets in Washington DC on June 25th. This show is an edited version of her talk. I moderated the discussion, and learned a lot.
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Sara's Haaretz articles
The Atlantic's review of Sara's book
This episode is the second in a series that focuses on the Gaza Strip. APN's Ori Nir and Stephanie Breitsman interview Rania al-Hilou, a young professional woman living in Gaza City, who describes living conditions with only two hours of electricity a day, and UNRWA's Scott Anderson, formerly the Gaza operations director and currently the West Bank operations director of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees. And, as a kicker, an introduction to the Gaza Strip's only rock band.
Hyperlinks: UNRWA, ANERA, Rania's essay on life without power in Gaza, Typo band's "Dream of Dawn" on YouTube, Typo's Facebook page
This episode has two segments, both relate to the Gaza Strip.
The first segment is an interview with the World Bank’s country director for the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Marina Wes. She talked about the terrible state of the Gaza economy, about its dependence on external financial assistance, and about its grim future.
The second segment is a conversation with Haim Malka of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC, who focused on Gaza’s largest donor, the gulf emirate of Qatar.