Five Questions

Reem Abbas and Yousef Munayyer discuss the civil war in Sudan, which started a year ago in April 2023 and has regional actors supporting different sides of the conflict. Abbas is the Mohamed Aboelgheit Fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy.

Dr. Thaer Ahmad and Yousef Munayyer discuss Israel's war on Gaza's health system and Dr. Ahmad's decision to walk out of a Ramadan dinner in the White House. Dr. Ahmad is an emergency medicine physician based in Chicago, and an Assistant Clinical Professor at the University of Illinois. He spent time volunteering in Gaza's hospitals during Israel's war on the Strip.

Josh Paul and Yousef Munayyer discuss US weapons sales to Israel during the war on Gaza. Paul is the former Director of Congressional and Public Affairs at the US Department of State's Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, which oversees arms transfers to foreign nations.

Yara M. Asi and Yousef Munayyer discuss how Israel has been targeting the healthcare system in Gaza in order to drive Palestinians out of their towns. Asi is a Non-resident Fellow at Arab Center Washington DC and Assistant Professor at the University of Central Florida in the School of Global Health Management and Informatics.

Maysaa Shujaa al-Deen and Yousef Munayyer discuss the current situation in Yemen and the role of the Houthis in the regional unrest triggered by Israel's war on Gaza. Shujaa al-Deen is a senior researcher at the Sanaa Center for Strategic Studies.

Farah Nabulsi and Yousef Munayyer discuss her film The Present, which tells the story of a Palestinian father and daughter in the West Bank trying to buy a wedding anniversary gift but having to navigate the Israeli system of apartheid on their way home. Nabulsi is an Academy Award-nominated and BAFTA-winning British-Palestinian filmmaker and human rights advocate.

Nathan Thrall and Yousef Munayyer discuss Thrall's new book detailing the experience of a Palestinian father searching for his missing son and how the system of Israeli apartheid complicates his efforts at every turn. Nathan Thrall is also the author of The Only Language They Understand: Forcing Compromise in Israel and Palestine (Metropolitan, 2017). He spent a decade at the International Crisis Group, where he was director of the Arab-Israeli Project, and has taught at Bard College.

Aida Alami and Yousef Munayyer discuss the devastation in Morocco and the status of the rescue and recovery efforts. Alami is a Moroccan reporter who has been contributing to The New York Times since 2011. Based in Rabat, Morocco, and Paris, she mainly covers migration, human rights, religion, politics and racism.

Antony Loewenstein and Yousef Munayyer discuss the Israeli arms industry and how it relates to Israel's military occupation of Palestine. Loewenstein is an independent investigative journalist, best-selling author, and filmmaker.

Dahlia Scheindlin and Yousef Munayyer discuss the process of creeping Israeli annexation of the West Bank. Scheindlin is a Fellow at Century International, a public opinion expert and an international political and strategic consultant, as well as a scholar and a writer. 

Azad Essa and Yousef Munayyer discuss the implications of Narendra Modi’s visit to the United States and the relationship between India and Israel. Essa is a senior reporter for Middle East Eye based in New York City. He worked for Al Jazeera English between 2010-2018 and is the author of 'Hostile Homelands: The New Alliance Between India and Israel.'

Diana Buttu and Yousef Munnayer discuss the Israeli protests against Netanyahu proposed "judicial reform" and the Palestinian position on these unprecedented protests. Buttu is a Palestinian lawyer, writer, analyst, and a former legal advisor to the PLO.

Peter Beinart and Yousef Munayyer discuss the impact of Israel’s new government on the Jewish American community in the United States. Beinart is Professor of Journalism and Political Science at the City University of New York, Editor at Large of Jewish Currents, and a Fellow at the Foundation for Middle East Peace.

Nadim Bawalsa and Yousef Munayyer discuss Palestinian communities in Latin America as part of Bawalsa’s recent book, Transnational Palestine: Migration and the Right of Return before 1948.

Nadim Bawalsa is a historian of modern Palestine. His work has appeared in Jerusalem Quarterly, the Journal of Palestine Studies, NACLA Report on the Americas, and edited volumes. He earned a Master’s in Arab Studies from Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies in 2010 and a joint doctorate in History and Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies from New York University in 2017. In 2019­–2020, Bawalsa was awarded a PARC-NEH fellowship in Palestine. He currently serves as Commissioning Editor at Al-Shabaka and as a freelance editor at JerusalemStory.com.

Negar Mortazavi and Yousef Munayyer discuss the latest protests in Iran after the killing of Mahsa Amini by the Iranian morality police. Mortazavi is an Iranian-American journalist and the host of the Iran Podcast. 

Laila Al-Arian and Yousef Munayyer discuss the response by the White House and US media outlets to Shireen Abu Akleh’s killing. Al-Arian is an American Emmy-award-winning broadcast journalist, and executive producer of the Al Jazeera documentary series Fault Lines.

Sarah Yerkes and Yousef Munayyer discuss Kais Saied’s efforts to change Tunisia’s constitution and consolidate his power. Yerkes is a senior fellow in the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's Middle East Program, where her research focuses on Tunisia’s political, economic, and security developments, as well as state-society relations in the Middle East and North Africa.

Julia Bacha and Yousef Munayyer discuss the new film titled "Boycott," which explores the legal challenges faced by Americans who are asked to sign anti-BDS pledges in order to receive work, and the origins of these anti-boycott laws which violate the US Constitution. Bacha is the film's director and a Peabody Award winning filmmaker. She is also the Creative Director at Just Vision.

Yara M. Asi and Yousef Munayyer discuss the trends and challenges women experience while seeking employment and at the workplace in Arab countries. Asi is an Assistant Professor at the University of Central Florida in the School of Global Health and Informatics, and a Non-resident Fellow at Arab Center Washington DC. 

Rania Muhareb and Yousef Munayyer discuss the Amnesty International report on Israeli apartheid from a Palestinian point of view. Muhareb is an Irish Research Council and Hardiman PhD Scholar at the Irish Centre for Human Rights at the National University of Ireland, Galway. Munayyer is a Non-resident Senior Fellow at Arab Center Washington DC. 

Maysaa Shuja al Deen and Yousef Munayyer discuss the current status of the war in Yemen, the regional and international dynamics affecting the conflict, and the impact of the Ukraine crisis on it. Shuja al Deen is a senior researcher at the Sanaa Center for Strategic Studies. Munayyer is Non-resident Senior Fellow at Arab Center Washington DC.

Sherine Tadros and Yousef Munayyer discuss the Amnesty International report that called for Israeli authorities to be held accountable for committing the crime of apartheid against Palestinians. Tadros is the UN Representative and Head of Office for Amnesty International in New York.

Laura Rozen and Yousef Munayyer discuss the Vienna nuclear talks, how close the parties are to a deal, and what needs to happen to reach one. Rozen is a veteran foreign policy journalist and the editor of the Diplomatic newsletter on Substack. She also serves as a member of Just Security's editorial board.

Sarit Michaeli and Yousef Munayyer discuss Israeli settler violence against Palestinian villagers under the protection of the IDF. Michaeli is the International Advocacy Officer at B'Tselem. 

Yousef Munayyer speaks with Khalil al-Anani regarding his new book on Islamism and revolutions in the Middle East. Al-Anani is a Senior Fellow at Arab Center Washington DC and Associate Professor of Political Science at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies in Doha, Qatar. 

Laryssa Chomiak and Yousef Munayyer discuss the constitutional crisis in Tunisia which started after Kais Saied sacked the prime minister and suspended parliament. Chomiak is the director of the Centre d’Études Maghrébines à Tunis (CEMAT).

Yousef Munayyer and Mona Harb discuss Lebanon's collapsing economy and the oligarchy's control over the country, as well as the lasting effects of the Beirut blast. Harb is Professor of Urban Studies and Politics at the American University of Beirut and a Nonresident Fellow at Arab Center Washington DC.

Yousef Munayyer and Diana Buttu discuss the recent Palestinian uprising, which started in Sheikh Jarrah, and its impact on Israeli and American politics. Buttu is a Palestinian lawyer and a former spokesperson for the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Yousef Munayyer and Jillian Schwedler discuss Jordan's royal family tensions and the current situation in the kingdom. Schwedler is a professor of political science at the City University of New York’s Hunter College and the Graduate Center.

Yousef Munayyer and Dalia Ghanem discuss the Algerian protests that ousted Abdelaziz Bouteflika and the future of democracy in the country. Ghanem is a resident scholar at the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, where her work examines political and extremist violence, radicalization, Islamism, and jihadism with an emphasis on Algeria.

Yousef Munayyer and Noura Erakat discuss the International Criminal Court's ruling allowing it to investigate war crimes in the West Bank and Gaza. Noura Erakat is a human rights attorney and an Assistant Professor at Rutgers University in the Department of Africana Studies and the Program in Criminal Justice.

Yousef Munayyer and Holly Dagres discuss the Iran nuclear deal and the possibilities of reviving it under the Biden Administration. Holly Dagres is a Non-resident Senior Fellow and IranSource Editor at the Atlantic Council.

Yousef Munayyer and Yara Asi discuss how Israel excluded Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip from receiving the Coronavirus vaccine. Yara M. Asi is Non-resident Fellow at Arab Center Washington DC, and a 2020-2021 Fulbright US Scholar to the West Bank.

Yousef Munayyer and Zaha Hassan discuss Biden's Palestine policy and the prospects of returning to a pre-Trump status for US-Palestinian relations. Zaha Hassan is a human rights lawyer and Visiting Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Previously, she was the coordinator and senior legal advisor to the Palestinian negotiating team during Palestine’s bid for UN membership

Yousef Munayyer and Sarah Leah Whitson discuss US-Egypt relations under the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations as well as current human rights conditions in Egypt. Sarah Leah Whitson is the Executive Director of DAWN. Previously, she served as executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa Division. 

Podcast host Yousef Munayyer and guest Lara Friedman discuss the expected Israel/Palestine policy of the incoming Biden Administration and the damage caused by the Trump Administration to Middle East peace. Lara Friedman is the president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace. She is a leading authority on US foreign policy in the Middle East, with particular expertise on the Israeli-Arab conflict.

Podcast host Yousef Munayyer and guest Diala Shamas discuss the efforts by Israel to silence any criticism of the occupation in the United States and go after BDS activists. Diala Shamas is a staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, where she works on challenging government and law enforcement abuses perpetrated under the guise of national security.

Yousef Munayyer and Elham Fakhro discuss democracy and normalization in the Arabian Gulf. As Crisis Group’s Senior Analyst for Gulf States, Elham Fakhro works on security, conflict, and governance in the Gulf region. 

Podcast host Yousef Munayyer and guest Dana El-Kurd unpack the UAE-Israel deal and discuss the prospect of Arab states normalizing relations with Tel Aviv. El-Kurd is an assistant professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies and a researcher at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies.

In the first episode of 5 Questions, podcast host Yousef Munayyer, who is a senior nonresident fellow at ACW, welcomes his first guest, Nadine Naber, to discuss Arab Americans and US race relations. Nadine Naber is a professor in the Gender and Women's Studies Program and the Global Asian Studies Program at the University of Illinois, Chicago, and the co-founder of Arab and Muslim American Studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. The discussion addresses issues of race in America, race relations as they relate to the Arab American community, definitions of race and racialization, and the political ramifications of racial structures.