Falastin In Focus

It’s the olive harvest season in Palestine, although not in Gaza for obvious reasons. If you didn’t already know just how sacred the olive tree is to Palestinians, you’ll hopefully get a glimpse after this episode of Falastin where we turn to that season of connection, and to one of the organisations keeping it alive in spirit and action. The Dalia Association is a leading community foundation in the occupied West Bank. One of their most beautiful initiatives is the Olive Harvest Solidarity Volunteering Program, an effort that brings people from around the world to harvest side by side with Palestinian farmers, standing in solidarity with those whose lands and livelihoods are constantly under threat. Farmers in the West Bank face constant Israeli settler attacks, land confiscations, and the destruction of olive trees, acts meant not only to harm livelihoods, but to sever the deep bond between Palestinians and their soil. Yet, in the midst of this violence and uncertainty, the harvest continues, as a form of resistance, community, and hope. Joining me to discuss this is Nour Nusseibeh, the Executive Director of Dalia Association. Nour is a development professional with over 16 years of experience in community building, program design, and participatory rights-based development.

Just before the Gaza ceasefire was announced, the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, a convoy of civilian boats carrying aid and solidarity, was raided by Israeli forces in international waters. In this episode of Falastin, Jehan Alfarra speaks to David Heap, a long-time member and organiser of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, about the status of the most recent mission to Gaza and the flotilla effort as a whole. Heap is a Canadian academic and activist who has spent years working to challenge Israel’s blockade of Gaza, a blockade now entering its 18th year.

For today’s episode of Falastin I wanted to take a break from our usual interviews to share some personal thoughts on this significant moment. As we take a deep breath with Gaza, let us remind ourselves: a ceasefire is temporary. Justice is permanent. And until justice comes, our work and our attention cannot stop.

In Gaza City right now, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are under threat. Israel has ordered them to leave, calling it their ‘last opportunity’ before unleashing the full force of its assault. The message from Israel’s Defense Minister Katz is chilling: anyone who stays behind will be treated as a terrorist or a terrorist sympathiser. Paving the way for their slaughter. The children, the pregnant, the sick, the elderly. The continuous bombardment has reduced Gaza’s largest urban centre to rubble — schools, homes, entire neighbourhoods wiped out. Dozens are being killed every single day. Families are forced to flee south, often bombed along the way, to an unknown fate. Doctors Without Borders — MSF — has been forced to suspend its activities in Gaza City as the offensive intensifies. And yet, behind those headlines are the voices of people living this reality. This week, I’m speaking with one of them: Nour Al-Saqqa, a Palestinian, herself displaced from Gaza City, and works as a communications officer with MSF. This conversation is not about headlines or statistics. It’s about listening — to what it feels like to wake up in Gaza today, to carry grief and to hold on to the smallest fragments of life when everything around you is being destroyed.

Jamana Kaplanian is a Christian Palestinian psychologist & Mental Health Trainer from Bethlehem. In 2016, she launched Psychology spa, the first locally-run, non-profit wellness centre focusing on psychoeducation and fighting mental health stigma. It’s a space where people, women in particular, can receive support.

Joudie Kalla is a British-Palestinian chef and activist. She’s the author of Palestine on a Plate and Baladi, and a powerful advocate for her people.Through her food and her words, Joudie has helped carry the story of Palestine into kitchens and communities around the world, showing how cooking can be both preservation and resistance. But she’s also been a fearless voice for justice, speaking out about the ongoing genocide in Gaza, about the UK’s complicity, and about the duty of all of us to refuse silence.

Yousef Alhelou is a Palestinian journalist, political analyst and filmmaker from Gaza, now based in the UK.  Yousef has spent years reporting on Palestine. His most recent award-winning documentary film - The Phoenix of Gaza - captures his last visit to the Strip just months before October 2023 and offers an intimate look at the vibrant side of Gaza, its many landmarks and the resilience of its people who have endured nearly two decades under Israeli blockade. Yousef has just returned from Tunisia, where the Sumud Flotilla, an international civilian mission, is sailing towards Gaza in solidarity to deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinians, in defiance of Israel’s siege.

Dr. Samah Jabr is a leading Palestinian psychiatrist, psychotherapist, writer, and public intellectual. She is former chair of the Mental Health Unit at the Palestinian Ministry of Health, and for over two decades, she has explored the psychological dimensions of life under occupation — not as an academic exercise, but as a lived reality. Her new book, Radiance in Pain and Resilience: The Global Reverberation of Palestinian Historical Trauma, brings these ideas into global relief.

“One day, when it's safe, when there's no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it's too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this.”This was a tweet posted by award-winning Egyptian-Canadian novelist and journalist Omar El Akkad on X in October 2023. It is also the title of his recently published New York Times Bestseller which has also been shortlisted for the 2025 Palestine Book Awards. A memoir, and a reckoning with what it means to live in a West that betrays its fundamental values. Omar spent the past two decades reporting on major world events, the so-called War on Terror, Ferguson, climate change and more. And for almost 2 years now, watching the carnage, the genocide in Gaza, enabled by the West.

A writer, editor, filmmaker, organiser, and longtime advocate for justice in Palestine, Frank Barat has spent years holding space for difficult and necessary conversations. He has worked with iconic voices like Angela Davis, Noam Chomsky, and Ilan Pappé, curating powerful collections like Gaza in Crisis and Freedom is a Constant Struggle. He was a coordinator of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine. And his work with the Ciné-Palestine film festival in Paris is an extension of his activism through storytelling and visual culture. In this episode of Falastin, we talk not only about Palestine as a cause, but also as a cultural and political lens — a way of seeing and understanding global struggles for liberation, how storytelling and film can shift the global conversation and what solidarity means and looks like in this moment of genocide.Music: Al-Quds Arabiya | Edward Said National Conservatory of Music

Today on Falastin, we speak with Shareef Safadi, a Palestinian citizens of Israel whose identity challenges the very foundation of a state that calls him its own, while denying his Palestinianhood.  As someone whose family remained on their land during and after the Nakba, Sharif is part of a group that Israel refers to as ‘Arab Israelis’ or ‘Israeli Arabs’. Arab-Israelis’ or ’48 Palestinians, as referred to by Palestinians, make up some 20% of Israel's population. His existence forces uncomfortable questions. What does it mean to hold Israeli citizenship as a Palestinian? What does it mean to be part of a population that was never meant to stay, but did? And how does one carry the full weight of Palestinian identity inside a state built on Palestinian erasure?

Cactus Pear for my Beloved is the story of a family from Gaza, starting in Palestine under British rule and ending in Redland Bay in Queensland, Australia. It is a memoir by Palestinian‑Australian author, playwright and scholar Samah Sabawi.This is an intimate family chronicle and a testimonial to the broader Palestinian story, and it reinvigorates Gaza’s pre-1967 history—its literary, social and cultural layers. And the book has been nominated for the 2025 Palestine Book Awards.Falastin In Focus is a weekly podcast dedicated to centring Palestinians and their allies and exploring the history, identity, culture, art and politics of Palestine. Presented by Gaza-born journalist Jehan Alfarra in collaboration with the Palestine Museum and Middle East Monitor's Palestine Book Awards. Catch Falastin every Thursday on YouTube or your favourite podcast platform.Music: Al-Quds Arabiya | Edward Said National Conservatory of Music

Today, we speak to a man who has built a museum not for a state, but for a people. Faisal Saleh is the founder and executive director of the Palestine Museum, which first opened as Palestine Museum US in Woodbridge, Connecticut, and has since travelled across the Atlantic. The first European branch of the Palestine Museum opened in the Scottish capital Edinburgh in May, as Palestinians marked the 77th anniversary of the Nakba. Born to refugee parents forced out in 1948, Faisal’s journey spans continents and disciplines, from business to art. Today, he is on a mission to centre Palestinian artists and to protect and project Palestinian art and identity in all its complexity.Falastin In Focus is a space to examine the history, identity, culture, art and politics of Palestine in depth. Presented by Gaza-born journalist Jehan Alfarra in collaboration with the Palestine Museum and Middle East Monitor's Palestine Book Awards. Catch Falastin every Thursday at 18:00 BST and follow us on Instagram @FalastinFM. Music: Al-Quds Arabiya | Edward Said National Conservatory of Music