Stunned by the events of the past two weeks – the slaughter of young people at a music festival, of children, of grandparents, the kidnapping of hundreds, the murder of thousands more, the starvation and displacement of hundreds of thousands – I found myself searching for a podcast that would provide some context not just for the Israel-Hamas conflict but also for the wider Israel-Palestine conflict. I wasn’t looking for a big media round-up or a think-tank hot take; I wanted a podcast that engages directly with those in disputed territories, whose families have lived this conflict for generations.
And so I came upon Unsettled, a podcast that’s made by American Jews, with 81 episodes published since it debuted, in 2017. The producers offer a full disclosure: they have also been members of IfNotNow, a leftist activist group that opposes the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. On first glance, what that seems to mean is that many of the episodes focus on the Palestinian experience: those being evacuated in south Hebron; activists attempting to take back a spring claimed by Israel; those mounting a legal battle to prevent Israel taking over Masafer Yatta and with it the removal of some 1,300 Palestinians from their homes.
These stories are well reported and affecting, and they often bring in the voices of Jewish people helping Palestinians defend their homes. Much of the political landscape is finally, for me, contextualised: the recent challenges to the Israeli judicial system and its inherent flaws, the right-to-return movement, the confederal model versus the two-state solution. There is an excellent four-part series on the Gaza Strip, first aired in 2019, that dives into the impetus behind and experiences of the Great March of Return in 2018, personal stories of refugees forced from their homes to seek asylum in Gaza, a gripping overview of the origins of Hamas, and Israel’s control of energy into Gaza and what that means for those attempting to build their lives there.
Yet in this ranging and profoundly engaging podcast, some of the most elucidating episodes are deeply personal, examining the diverse viewpoints even within one Israeli family that can make a peaceful solution seem so unattainable. When producer Asaf Calderon, born in Israel and whose grandparents survived the Holocaust, records an emotionally fraught two-part discussion with his parents about the future of Israel and Palestine, he uncovers real differences about Zionism and the way forward for Israel, even between people who love each other and largely identify as left wing.
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These are the kinds of conversations we need to listen to but cannot hear over the sound of violence. Back in May 2021, against the backdrop of a fresh outbreak, Calderon and his fellow producer Ilana Levinson tried to talk through their personal pain and the political complexities of even expressing it, in an episode titled Politicized Pain. “How do we grieve publicly without negating the experience of the ‘other side’?” asked Levinson. She might well ask that today, as any expression of grief or compassion – for all the dead, for all those mourning – is interpreted as taking a side. What has changed in two years, in five, in 10?
Unsettled’s most recent episode at time of writing, recorded on October 13th, is a follow-up with the writer Tareq Baconi, a Palestinian who previously appeared on the podcast soon after his book, Hamas Contained: The Rise and Pacification of Palestinian Resistance, was published. His shock is palpable as he grapples with a changed world. “It feels,” he says, “like there are no adults in the room.”
Two years ago Levinson was stuck on one question: “I want to know how to maintain my humanity through all this.” In a time of monstrous acts, it’s on all of us to stay human.
