Radio Intifada by SWANA (South and West Asia and North Africa) Region Radio
U.S.-Iran Relations, Activism Against GKN, and the Anti-Defamation League's History
In this episode, we begin by discussing President Trump’s latest proclamation of an agreement with Iran, a statement that may hold beyond the next tweet storm, since Iran has suggested for once that the two sides have at least agreed to sign a “memorandum of understanding.” But with Israel doing its best to sabotage any peace accord, the outlook remains uncertain. David Lloyd speaks with Radio Intifada’s regional expert Hamoud Salhi in the hope of clarifying the elements and prospects of the “deal". We then come much closer to home to Garden Grove in Southern California, where the Palestinian Youth Movement has initiated a campaign with a coalition of other local groups to close down GKN, a corporation notorious for the recent failure of a chemical storage tank that forced the evacuation of 50,000 local residents and threatened an explosion that would have wiped out much of the neighborhood and spread toxic fumes all over Orange County and beyond. Though that immediate danger is over, PYM has drawn attention to GKN’s role as a subcontractor to Lockheed Martin, the manufacturer of the F35 bomber that Israel has used to carry out its ongoing genocide and war crimes in Gaza and Lebanon, and for which GKN supplies essential plastics. We speak with two organizers of the campaign, Sofia Awaida and Layal Bata of the Palestinian Youth Movement. The GKN campaign can be contacted at embargoforpalestine.com/LAOCIE where you can join the letter-writing campaign to Garden Grove city council, read the research brief and endorse the campaign. If you are local, you can show up to give public comment at the next Garden Grove city council meeting, Tuesday June 23 @ 6.30 pm and every other Tuesday going forward until the city truly holds GKN accountable. Follow the organizations leading this campaign on Instagram for future calls to action and updates:@PYMLAOCIE@VIETRISEOC@OCJPALESTINE@HARBORINSTITUTEOCTo support Palestinian youth grassroots organizing and our campaigns, donate via venmo to @PYM-LAOCIE https://venmo.com/u/PYM-LAOCIE . And finally, David Lloyd speaks with Emmaia Gelman , author of the new book, The Anti-Defamation League and the Racial State , a critical history of the Anti-Defamation League as a Cold War neoconservative institution, just out from the University of California Press. We talk about the political history of the ADL, its anti-communism and, in particular, its use of charges of antisemitism to close down speech and activism by supporters of Palestinian liberation. Emmaia also is the director of the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism, which examines the political and ideological work of Zionist institutions in Palestine and transnational contexts. She co-produces and often co-hosts the podcast Unpacking Zionism, on Apple podcasts and at the website criticalzionismstudies.org .
