Unraveling the Root Causes of Violence in Israel and Palestine

Oct 11, 2023

A recent on a music festival in Israel has left hundreds dead and is considered the worst attack on civilians in Israeli history. Israeli forces have been attacking , flattening entire neighborhoods and destroying schools. It鈥檚 a deadly but familiar formula that has prompted the Biden administration to declare this Hamas attack as 鈥溾€� from earlier ones鈥攂ut is resulting in the same unequivocal United States support for the state of Israel.

Sandra Tamari, executive director of the , a Palestinian-led advocacy organization based in the U.S., spoke with YES! Racial Justice Editor Sonali Kolhatkar on YES Presents: Rising Up With Sonali about what it will take to end the cycle of violence.

Sonali Kolhatkar joined YES! in summer 2021, building on a long and decorated career in broadcast and print journalism. She is an award-winning multimedia journalist, and host and creator of聽YES! Presents: Rising Up with Sonali, a nationally syndicated television and radio program airing on Free Speech TV and dozens of independent and community radio stations. She is also Senior Correspondent with the Independent Media Institute鈥檚 Economy for All project where she writes a weekly column. She is the author of聽Rising Up: The Power of Narrative in Pursuing Racial Justice聽(2023) and聽Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence聽(2005). Her forthcoming book is called聽Talking About Abolition聽(Seven Stories Press, 2025). Sonali is co-director of the nonprofit group, Afghan Women鈥檚 Mission which she helped to co-found in 2000. She has a Master鈥檚 in Astronomy from the University of Hawai鈥檌, and two undergraduate degrees in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin. Sonali reflects on 鈥淢y Journey From Astrophysicist to Radio Host鈥� in her 2014聽聽of the same name.