In the first part of today’s two-part show, host Esty Dinur speaks with Branko Marcetic who writes about the Epstein case and Project 2029 for Jacobin. He calls the current status of the Epstein files, “a political crisis of the president’s own making.” 

Marcetic updates listeners about the status of the sealed and unsealed Epstein documents, cautions against relying on the word of the self-interested Ghislaine Maxwell, and says that Trump must, at the very least, have been aware of Epstein’s relationship to underage women. Marcetic’s article about the Epstein files describes the role of judge Loretta Preska–who is also related to the Steven Donziger case–in sealing a lot of material that could point to who was working with or enabling Epstein, from individuals to financial institutions. 

In the second-half of the show, Dinur is joined by Aman Abhishek to talk about the murder of Awdah Hathaleen by an Israeli settler on July 28. Hathaleen was a teacher and civil resister who was shot while defending his community. Abhishek describes how after Hathaleen’s killing, the village of Umm al-Khair in Masafer Yatta was raided and civilians were arrested without warrants. Hathaleen was buried only yesterday. 

Abhishek describes the role of NGOs in Israeli occupation, how difficult it is to construct new buildings in the West Bank, how Palestinian farmers are blocked from accessing their own land, and how settlers destroy Palestinian property by cutting water pipes and breaking solar panels. He says that if listeners want to act in solidarity with Palestinians in the West Bank they can call their lawmakers and support sanctions against Israeli organizations. 

Aman Abhishek is a PhD candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his research is about nonviolent anti-occupation activism in Israel/Palestine. His writing on this topic has appeared in the Jewish Currents, Vashti, and The Wire, and it has been awarded by the American Jewish Press Association.

Branko Marcetic is a staff writer with Jacobin magazine.

Featured image of a drawing of the US capitol building by Craig Fildes on via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).

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