Beyond Israelism with Simone Zimmerman

‘We’re Not Mad Enough’ - Hannah Einbinder, Isabella Hammad, and Mahmoud Khalil LIVE in NYC

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit zeteo.com [https://zeteo.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_7] For the first-ever ‘Beyond Israelism’ LIVE event, host Simone Zimmerman sat down with Emmy award-winning actor and comedian Hannah Einbinder, British-Palestinian novelist Isabella Hammad, and Columbia University graduate and former ICE detainee Mahmoud Khalil at New York City’s famous Riverside Church. Filmed in front of an audience of over 700 people in a historic space that has long been home to movements for justice and liberation, Simone and guests unpacked the meaning and material impact of Zionism, increased political repression in the US, the importance of solidarity, the changing landscape of public opinion on Israel-Palestine, and took an array of questions from the audience. Together, Hannah, Isabella, Mahmoud, and Simone wrestled with questions of identity, power, empire, and collective liberation, and what it means to imagine a future beyond violence and supremacy. This event was produced and presented by Zeteo, Project 48, Tikkun Olam Productions, Palestine Circle of The Riverside Church. Special thanks to everyone who helped us organize this event: Ibrahim Zubairi, Miriam Yousaf, Lucas Brooks, Sekar Paramitta, Carly Shaffer, Columbia SJP, and Columbia/Barnard JVP. If you enjoyed this conversation, here are some additional resources: Hannah’s recommendation: Donate to Pal Humanity [http://www.chuffed.org/project/palhumanity] Isabella’s essay in The Yale Review: Reading During a Genocide: What Etel Adnan’s Novel Taught Me [https://yalereview.org/article/isabella-hammad-etel-adnan]

Meet the Jewish 'Troublemakers' Who Zionists Hated: The Radical, Unknown History of the Bund

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit zeteo.com [https://zeteo.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_7] In her new book Here Where We Live Is Our Country [https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/646320/here-where-we-live-is-our-country-by-molly-crabapple/], Molly Crabapple does something both radical and disarmingly simple: she tells a story that was never supposed to be remembered. Through years of research and her signature visual storytelling, Molly resurrects the world of the Bund – a once mass movement of Jewish socialist revolutionaries who were unabashedly anti-nationalist and insisted that liberation could only come through struggle and solidarity, wherever Jews already lived. They called it “doykait,” or “hereness.” It meant fighting antisemitism not by fleeing, or by building a state elsewhere, but by linking arms with neighbors and refusing to abandon their homes and communities across Eastern Europe. In this new episode of ‘Beyond Israelism’, Molly and Simone Zimmerman revive the Bund’s lost history and political tradition. “Bundists and Zionists hated each other from the start. Bundists totally rejected this idea that they should leave their homes in order to colonize Palestine — a land where almost none of them had ever been.” Bundists organized workers, built schools and summer camps, created art and literature, and fought against the competing forces of European fascism and the Zionist movement who were both urging Jews to flee Europe. While most Bundists were murdered in the Nazi gas chambers and Soviet gulags, some, like Marek Edelman – a leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising – carried that commitment forward long after the Holocaust, insisting that Jewish identity demanded standing with the oppressed, including with Palestinians. It is for this reason — the Bund’s principled anti-Zionism — that they have been mostly excluded from history. Molly’s vivid communing with the past offers a powerful companion to our present. She insists that history is not foreclosed, and that the traditions we inherit are, in part, a matter of choice. In a time of genocide and fascism, the Bund’s ideas could not feel more prescient, and their stories and lessons more urgent to learn from. ‘Beyond Israelism with Simone Zimmerman’ is a provocative new video podcast series from Tikkun Olam Productions [https://www.tikkunolamproductions.com/], the team behind the viral and award-winning 2023 film Israelism [https://www.israelismfilm.com/]. In this series, Simone will host bold and inspiring conversations that face, head on, the growing global reckoning with Zionism, the debates over Jewish identity, and the urgent struggle for Palestinian freedom. The episodes will unpack the myths of Zionism; dive deep into the meaning of Palestinian liberation, and through raw and fearless discussions examine the Jewish relationship with Israel. If you enjoyed this conversation, here are some additional resources: Order Molly’s book: Here Where We Live Is Our Country [https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/646320/here-where-we-live-is-our-country-by-molly-crabapple/] Molly’s op-ed in The Guardian: ‘They tried to smear him as an antisemite – but Mayor Zohran Mamdani walks in a rich Jewish tradition’ [https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jan/01/zohran-mamdani-new-york-mayor-antisemitism] More of Molly’s work on her official website: www.mollycrabapple.com [http://www.mollycrabapple.com/]

'Zionism Will Collapse' - Palestinian Scholar Tareq Baconi on The Nakba, Apartheid, and the Significance of Gaza

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit zeteo.com [https://zeteo.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_7] NOTE: This episode was recorded prior to the US-Israel attack on Iran. In the latest episode of ‘Beyond Israelism’, Simone Zimmerman engages in a powerful and timely conversation with Palestinian scholar and author Tareq Baconi, author of ‘Hamas Contained’ and his newly released memoir ‘Fire in Every Direction’. Tareq is regarded as one of the sharpest analysts when it comes to Gaza and Hamas, but this conversation moves beyond headlines into something more intimate. In his memoir, he weaves together his journey of coming out as a queer Palestinian with his family’s history of dispossession. He tells the story of finding his grandmother’s home in Haifa that she had fled during 1948 — a reminder that history is not abstract, but rather lived and carried across generations. “Even before the genocide began, Gaza felt to me like the most truthful place of what the Palestinian experience is.” Tareq explores the legacy of the Nakba as an ongoing structure rather than a closed chapter. He reflects on what it means to tell family stories in the midst of mass violence, and why publishing a personal memoir during a genocide has felt both unbearable and necessary. Tareq recently wrote in ‘+972 Magazine’ that “even if Hamas were dismantled tomorrow, the siege of Gaza, apartheid, and the denial of return would persist. At the same time, resistance would reconstitute itself in new forms because the condition that gives rise to it — colonial domination — remains.” Tareq offers historical depth and clarity in a moment saturated with distortion and political theater. This episode also lands at a critical political moment: Donald Trump unveiling his so-called “Board of Peace,” promoting glossy redevelopment schemes for Gaza while sidelining Palestinians. Against this backdrop, Tareq’s emphasis on the enduring realities of colonialism and apartheid feels clarifying and urgent. For anyone trying to make sense of this moment, this conversation offers something rare: moral seriousness, historical grounding, and a refusal to look away. This is a conversation that doesn’t just inform — it grounds us in our humanity, and invites us into a deeper understanding of what’s at stake. ‘Beyond Israelism with Simone Zimmerman’ is a provocative new video podcast series from Tikkun Olam Productions [https://www.tikkunolamproductions.com/], the team behind the viral and award-winning 2023 film Israelism [https://www.israelismfilm.com/]. In this series, Simone will host bold and inspiring conversations that face, head on, the growing global reckoning with Zionism, the debates over Jewish identity, and the urgent struggle for Palestinian freedom. The episodes will unpack the myths of Zionism; dive deep into the meaning of Palestinian liberation, and through raw and fearless discussions examine the Jewish relationship with Israel. If you enjoyed this conversation, here are some additional resources: Order Tareq’s books ‘Fire in Every Direction [https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Fire-in-Every-Direction/Tareq-Baconi/9781668068564]’ and ‘Hamas Contained [https://www.sup.org/books/middle-east-studies/hamas-contained]’. Tareq in ‘+972 Magazine’ - ‘The Gaza Genocide Radicalized The World’ [https://www.972mag.com/gaza-genocide-world-radicalized/] and ‘A Colonized Palestine Isn’t The Answer To The World’s Guilt’ [https://www.972mag.com/hijacking-memory-palestine-antisemitism/].

‘Israeli Society Has Become Completely Genocidal' - B'Tselem Head on Israel's Growing Extremism

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit zeteo.com [https://zeteo.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_7] In this latest episode of Beyond Israelism, Simone Zimmerman sits down with Yuli Novak, Executive Director of B’Tselem and one of the most uncompromising dissident voices within Israel. It’s a deeply honest and impactful conversation about political rupture, moral clarity, and the cost of telling the truth from inside a society that has become, in Yuli’s words, “completely genocidal.” Yuli reflects on her journey from an upbringing shaped by patriotism and belief in Israeli democracy to a painful reckoning with what she now calls an apartheid regime — and with the conditions that enabled mass complicity with genocide. Yuli revisits her years leading Breaking the Silence — a group of former Israeli soldiers that documented abuses under occupation — which became the target of an all-out smear campaign involving government officials, mainstream media, legal harassment, and infiltration by right-wing groups. That experience, chronicled in her memoir Who Do You Think You Are?, marked a turning point: the moment she realized she had become a dissident against the regime. Today, as head of B’Tselem, Yuli explains why the organization chose to name Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide in its report ‘Our Genocide [https://www.btselem.org/publications/202507_our_genocide]’. If you enjoyed this conversation, here are some additional resources: Pre-order Yuli Novak’s memoir, ‘Who Do You Think You Are’ [https://shop.ayinpress.org/products/who-do-you-think-you-are-preorder?_gl=1*418xc7*_ga*NzIyMTczNDE1LjE3NjM0MTMzMTY.*_ga_VSERRBBT6X*czE3NjgzMjE1MjIkbzMkZzEkdDE3NjgzMjE1MjIkajYwJGwwJGgw]. Read B’Tselem’s report about the genocide in Gaza, '‘Our Genocide [https://www.btselem.org/publications/202507_our_genocide]’. Read B’Tselem’s report about Israel’s network of torture prisons, ‘Welcome to Hell [https://www.btselem.org/publications/202408_welcome_to_hell]’. Read B’Tselem’s report about Operation Protective Edge, ‘Whitewash protocol [https://www.btselem.org/publications/summaries/201609_whitewash_protocol]’. SUBSCRIBE TO ZETEO TO SUPPORT INDEPENDENT AND UNFILTERED JOURNALISM: https://zeteo.com/subscribe [https://zeteo.com/subscribe] Twitter: https://twitter.com/zeteo_news [https://twitter.com/zeteo_news] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zeteonews [https://www.instagram.com/zeteonews] TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@zeteonews [https://www.tiktok.com/@zeteonews]

‘The Moment We Are Hopeless, They Win’ - Mahmoud Khalil Sits Down with Jewish Anti-Zionist Simone Zimmerman

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit zeteo.com [https://zeteo.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_7] In this interview filmed right before the tenuous ceasefire was announced in Gaza, Simone sits down with a man whose name has become synonymous with the pro-Palestinian movement around the world: Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate who was targeted by the Trump administration earlier this year. After months in ICE detention and even missing the birth of his first child, he emerged with his commitment to justice even stronger than before. “I don’t identify as an activist…Being Palestinian, by definition, you have to be an advocate for your rights,” he tells Simone. “The fact that you’re Palestinian, you have to prove that you’re not a threat, you have to prove that you’re not an extremist, you have to prove that you’re just a human.” Simone also traces her own connection to the Columbia organizers in their conversation, beginning with her invitation to speak at a screening of Israelism [https://www.israelismfilm.com/] amid months of efforts to silence student voices. And Mahmoud shares new stories about his harrowing experience in ICE detention, the people he met there, the poignant letters he wrote to his family, and how the dreams of many marginalized communities are the same. “In my case, immigration laws were weaponized to suppress dissent… and how to feed the white supremacy agenda in this country,” he says. “It’s not about one person, it’s about creating this new environment of division, of hate, in this country so you can divide and conquer.” Simone and Mahmoud also speak about Mahmoud’s solidarity with anti-Zionist Jewish students at Columbia, the political journeys he saw them undertake, and how they worked together to demand divestment and speak out against a genocide. It’s a powerful, grounding episode, and one that offers both an inside view of a pivotal student movement and a reminder of the human beings who continue to bear the weight of speaking out. Free subscribers get a 6-minute preview of the video above while Zeteo’s paid subscribers can watch it in full. As always, you can also listen wherever you get your podcasts. If you enjoy this conversation, here are some additional resources: Read Mahmoud’s letters from detention [https://www.aclu.org/news/free-speech/detained-activist-mahmoud-khalils-letter-to-his-son] More about the Columbia encampment [https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/19/mahmoud-khalil-statement] Beyond Israelism with Simone Zimmerman is a provocative new video podcast series from Tikkun Olam Productions [https://www.tikkunolamproductions.com/], the team behind the viral and award-winning 2023 film Israelism [https://www.israelismfilm.com/]. In this series, Simone will host bold and inspiring conversations that face, head on, the growing global reckoning with Zionism, the debates over Jewish identity, and the urgent struggle for Palestinian freedom. The episodes will unpack the myths of Zionism; dive deep into the meaning of Palestinian liberation, and through raw and fearless discussions examine the Jewish relationship with Israel.