Contributing Writers

We spend the hour looking at how artists, writers and other cultural workers in the United States and Europe are facing a growing backlash after expressing solidarity for Palestine. We begin with one of these “canceled” cultural workers: renowned Palestinian American artist Samia Halaby, whose first U.S. retrospective was canceled by her graduate alma mater, Indiana University, after she criticized Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.

Military actions by various actors across the Middle East are compounding fears that Israel’s assault on Gaza is escalating into a full-blown regional war. In recent days, the United States has carried out strikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen who have resumed their attacks on container ships in the Red Sea; Iran has struck targets in northern Iraq, Syria and Pakistan; while Hezbollah and Israel have escalated the intensity of fighting across their border.

We continue our conversation with the renowned Israeli journalist Gideon Levy, who says there are growing questions about the IDF’s response to the October 7 Hamas attack that cannot wait until the end of fighting in Gaza. That includes intelligence failures in the lead-up to the attack, as well as reports of troops killing Israeli civilians when they opened fire on homes taken over by Hamas militants. “The fact is that those people were killed and might have been rescued.

We speak with acclaimed Israeli journalist Gideon Levy, columnist for Haaretz and a member of its editorial board, about how the Israeli media has covered the war on Gaza, the genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice and more. Levy says the domestic Israeli media all but ignores the Palestinians being killed, focusing mostly on its own soldiers and the families of hostages. “The Israeli average viewer doesn’t see Gaza at all,” he says.

We hear from Democracy Now! correspondent Sharif Abdel Kouddous, whose recent article for The Intercept documents how Israel bombed two Al Jazeera journalists in mid-December while they were accompanying rescue workers, seriously injuring both.

Gaza is now the deadliest place on Earth for media workers. By some estimates, over 110 journalists have been killed there since Israel began its assault on the territory following the October 7 Hamas attack, and the Committee to Protect Journalists says more journalists were killed in the first 10 weeks of the war than have ever been killed in a single country over an entire year.

Today is the federal holiday that honors Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He was born January 15, 1929. He was assassinated April 4, 1968, at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. He was just 39 years old. While Dr. King is primarily remembered as a civil rights leader, he also championed the cause of the poor and organized the Poor People’s Campaign to address issues of economic justice. Dr. King was also a fierce critic of U.S. foreign policy and the Vietnam War.

Former President Donald Trump has won the Iowa caucuses by a landslide, but polls reveal almost a third of voters believed Trump would not be fit to serve as president if convicted in his ongoing criminal trials.

Worldwide protests this weekend called for a ceasefire while marking 100 days of Israel’s unrelenting bombardment and siege of the Gaza Strip since the October 7 Hamas attack. United Nations humanitarian leaders issued a joint demand Monday for dramatically increasing the flow of aid into Gaza. “The situation is spiraling out of control” in Gaza, says pediatric neurologist Omar Abdel-Mannan, who shares on-the-ground health worker reports of the “apocalyptic” scenes in collapsing hospitals.

Bernardo Arévalo was sworn in as president of Guatemala Monday after conservative leaders attempted for months to disqualify Arévalo’s landslide victory in August’s runoff presidential election by claiming election fraud and persecuting his progressive Semilla party up until the final hours before his inauguration.

Israeli Knesset member Ofer Cassif is being threatened with expulsion from Israel’s legislature after he signed a petition supporting South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, accusing it of acts of genocide. Cassif says the impeachment is based on an antidemocratic law that suppresses free speech. “They want me and my friends to shut up,” he says of the government’s persecution of dissenting legislators.

The second day of South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice at The Hague saw Israel take the stand, defending against accusations that its government is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. South Africa is demanding an emergency suspension of Israel’s aerial and ground assault on Gaza in front of the United Nations’ highest court.

The United States and Britain launched dozens of military strikes on Yemen on Thursday, raising fears of an escalation of conflict in the region. The strikes, launched in response to Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea that have disrupted global trade, left at least five people dead.