The Thin Veil with Ezra Lipp

In this episode of The Thin Veil, Ezra sits down for a cathartic and deeply personal heart-to-heart with comedian, writer, doula, Female Intern podcast host, and former Zionist Danielle Deluty.

Danielle grew up within an observant Modern Orthodox Jewish community, where political, familial, and religious ties to Israel were deeply intertwined. As she grew older, she began questioning the contradictions within the tradition she had inherited, particularly around gender equality. Those early cracks eventually led her to challenge both her Zionism and the religious framework that had shaped her identity, setting her on a path toward...

Rami Younis is a Palestinian journalist, filmmaker, and cultural activist from Lyd, a Palestinian city inside present-day Israel. He co-founded the Hebrew-language news outlet Local Call, the sister publication of +972 Magazine, served as a parliamentary consultant and spokesperson for Palestinian Knesset member Haneen Zoabi, and co-founded the Palestine Music Expo. He also hosted On the Other Hand, a pioneering Arabic-language daily news and political commentary show on Israeli public television, and co-directed the acclaimed sci-fi documentary Lyd, which explores the tragedy that befell his hometown in 1948 while imagining how history might have unfolded differently.

In this...

Ashira Darwish is a Palestinian investigative journalist, trauma healer, and former human rights activist whose work explores the relationship between occupation, resistance, trauma, and collective healing. After years working in journalism and advocacy, and following a spinal injury in 2012 that temporarily left her paralyzed, she developed Ashira Active Meditation, a trauma-integration practice rooted in somatic healing, ancestral wisdom, and liberation psychology.

I first encountered Ashira as a producer and one of the central voices in the extraordinary documentary Where Olive Trees Weep, alongside Dr. Gabor Maté. The film explores the deep psychological and spiritual wounds carried by P...

For years, Palestinian activist Hamze Awawde worked inside the world of Israeli-Palestinian dialogue organizations, NGOs, international conferences, donor networks, and what he now calls the “industrial-peace complex.”

Hamze Awawde Substack
I Was The Good Palestinian - Hamze's Essay
Hamze on Instagram

In this conversation, Hamze offers an insider’s critique of a well-funded system that he argues often substitutes the appearance of dialogue and managing audiences comfort levels for confronting the realities of occupation, dispossession, genocide, and Palestinian political agency.

He describes the subtle—and often explicit—pressure placed on Palestinians to moderat...

In this episode of The Thin Veil, I sit down with critically acclaimed British musician Alexi Murdoch for a wide-ranging conversation about art, activism, Western culture, and the personal and professional costs of speaking in support of Palestine.

Alexi reflects on why he has found it increasingly difficult to simply retreat into the creative process while witnessing the genocide in Gaza, and why he ultimately felt compelled to use his platform more directly. He discusses the tension between art as an indirect way of awakening empathy and the urgency of speaking plainly when people are suffering.

There is a common story that is told about Gaza that goes something like this:

Israel dismantled its settlements and withdrew from Gaza in 2005. Gaza was then free to govern itself, make peace with Israel, and develop what could have become a “Singapore on the Mediterranean.” Instead, Palestinians elected a terrorist organization, Hamas, which began firing rockets at Israel and building terror tunnels.

In this episode of The Thin Veil, Ezra welcomes Dr. Zachary Foster, historian of Palestine and PhD in Near Eastern Studies, to deconstruct some of the common narratives and assumptions surrounding Gaza in t...

Mo Hamzeh is a Palestinian American activist, content creator and author who has been repeatedly banned from Meta platforms—at the time of publishing now on his 45th Instagram account. In this conversation, he talks about growing up Palestinian in a heavily Zionist community, being bullied as a child for identifying as Palestinian, and finally visiting Palestine for the first time in September 2023, just weeks before October 7.

We talk about what happened after October 7 and why Palestinians were ignored, why Mo decided he was “done being polite,” his characterization of liberal Zionism as the most dangerous form o...

On this episode of The Thin Veil, Ezra sits down with Sam Avraham Stein, a Jewish anti-Zionist activist who, over the last five years, has repeatedly traveled to Palestine to do protective presence work in the occupied West Bank. They trace Sam’s ideological journey, from growing up in a right-wing Orthodox Zionist Jewish community in the U.S., to attending university in Tel Aviv, leading Birthright Israel trips, and eventually becoming involved in activism against the Israeli occupation and publicly advocating for anti-Zionism.

Sam describes how this work—and particularly his experience living full-time in rura...

In this episode of The Thin Veil, Esther and Ezra tear apart the liberal Zionist talking points that claim that if Palestinians resisted better they would not be oppressed. 

Haviv Rettig Gur one Middle East analyst at Bari Weiss', Free Press, known for his liberal zionist stance claims that the Palestinian problem comes down to not understanding that Israelis are here to stay and if Palestinians only accepted that truth and peacefully protested Israel would be a democracy. 

Point by point Ezra and Esther dismantle the projections and inversions of...

In this episode of The Thin Veil, host Ezra Lipp speaks with Canadian anti-Zionist Jewish writer, activist and academic Aaron Kreuter, author of Lake Burntshore, a novel set at a Jewish summer camp that explores Zionism, settler colonialism, Jewish identity, and the complicated relationship between diaspora Jews and Israel.

The conversation explores the strange and powerful world of North American Jewish sleep-away camp: the sense of living in an alternative society, the wealth and privilege that make that communal utopia possible, and the ways Zionism and Israeli nationalism can become embedded in the fabric of camp...

In this episode of The Thin Veil, Ezra sits down with Palestinian filmmaker, writer, podcaster, and storyteller Rolla Selbak for a wide-ranging conversation on propaganda, identity, Hollywood, and what collective liberation could actually look like.

They explore Rolla's journey growing up Palestinian, the moment she began questioning dominant narratives, and how filmmaking and satire have become powerful forms of resistance. Also discussed is Israel's propaganda apparatus, the changing media landscape after October 7th, her experience being dropped by Hollywood's Creative Artists Agency (CAA), and why she now sees that loss as one of the greatest gifts of...

Welcome to The Thin Veil Unfiltered—a new recurring conversation between Ezra Lipp and Rabbi Esther Azar that is meant to complement the long-form interviews on The Thin Veil.

In this pilot episode, Ezra and Esther revisit one of the most nuanced and often misunderstood points from Esther's previous appearance on The Thin Veil: Is what we're witnessing best understood as Jewish supremacy—or Western supremacy operating through Zionism? They wrestle with whether Jewish voices can ever be appropriately centered while Palestinians are being slaughtered, whether Zionism functions as the true "operating system" behind the genocide, why Chri...

In this episode of The Thin Veil, Ezra speaks with Palestinian-American filmmaker, historian, and Sacramento City College professor of Contemporary Palestinian History and Culture, Riad Bahhur.

After his parents were denied the right to return to Palestine following Israel's occupation of the West Bank in 1967, Riad spent his early childhood in Venezuela before his family settled in the United States. He reflects on his childhood visits to Palestine, the lessons he learned about living under Israeli military occupation, and the beauty, resilience, and depth of Palestinian culture as embodied by his grandmothers.

Later, Riad...

Dr. Mark Brauner is an emergency physician who has spent his career responding to trauma, but nothing prepared him for what he encountered while volunteering at Nasser Hospital in Gaza. In this conversation, he reflects on the overwhelming conditions inside the hospital, the starvation crisis, the moral weight of treating mass casualties, and the profound relationships that changed him forever.

Rather than finding hatred in the midst of unimaginable suffering, Mark describes encountering extraordinary generosity, compassion, and humanity from the very people enduring the violence. He shares how those experiences reshaped his understanding of medicine, witness...

What does it take to leave an ideology that has shaped your entire identity?

Daniel Klein was born and raised in a religious Zionist settlement in the occupied West Bank. From childhood through his service as a tank commander in the Israeli military, he was immersed in a worldview that framed Palestinians, security, history, and even morality through a single narrative.

Today, Daniel writes and speaks about identity, ideology, deconditioning, and the psychological processes involved in leaving systems of supremacy and domination.

In this conversation, Daniel reflects on what it was like...

In this wide-ranging conversation I spoke with Hakham Esther Azar—a Syrian American rabbi, social worker, writer, and educator raised in Brooklyn's Arab-Jewish community—to explore the psychological, historical, and spiritual foundations of Zionism and the systems of domination that sustain it.

Esther offers a deep framework rooted in collective shame, trauma, colonialism, and identity. She shares her own journey from growing up in a deeply Zionist environment to questioning everything she had been taught, while reflecting on Arab-Jewish identity, Christian supremacy, Western empire, and why she believes Zionism ultimately reproduces antisemitic logic rather than protecting Jews...

In this episode of The Thin Veil, Ezra speaks with Israeli writer and activist Einat Temkin—a former United Nations communications officer (2008–2025) and former IDF member—about her journey from growing up in Israel in a liberal Zionist family to becoming an outspoken anti-Zionist Jewish voice.

Together, they discuss Israeli society, military indoctrination, Zionism, Hasbara, the decline of the Israeli left, current Israeli politics, and why Einat believes a single democratic state is the only just long-term solution for both Israelis and Palestinians.

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What happens when a Palestinian writer and an anti-Zionist Jew agree on the destination—but disagree about some of the language and tactics we use to get there?

In this conversation, I sit down with Palestinian American filmmaker, writer, and speaker Mo Husseini for a thoughtful and challenging discussion, filled with agreement, but also some respectful tension.

We explore Palestinian identity, Zionism, Jewish historical trauma, empathy, antisemitism, the weaponization of antisemitism, as well as "the weaponization of the weaponization of antisemitism" (you read that right), power, language, and what genuine liberation might look li...

Rabbi Cat Zavis is a spiritual leader, activist, attorney, and rabbi at Beyt Tikkun — an anti-Zionist Jewish congregation in the Bay Area.

In this episode, we explore the process of untangling Judaism from Zionism — and what it means to reconstruct Jewish moral and spiritual life in the aftermath of deep political and theological rupture.

We discuss her personal journey through social justice work, Jewish education, Palestinian solidarity organizing, and rabbinic leadership, as well as the broader tensions inside contemporary Jewish life.

Topics include:

- childhood moral formation and empathy
- conf...

Yassar Dahbour is a Palestinian refugee from Haifa, a Sacramento-based political organizer, president of the Palestine American League, and co-founder of the Sacramento Regional Coalition for Palestinian Rights.

Born in a refugee camp in Syria after his family was expelled from Haifa during the Nakba, Yassar grew up surrounded by Palestinian political life, refugee memory, and the dream of return. His father, Ahmad Dahbour, was a renowned Palestinian poet whose work was shaped by exile, revolution, and the longing for Palestine.

In this episode of The Thin Veil, Yassar shares his family’s st...

Filmmaker, musician, writer, and abolitionist Matthew Solomon joins Ezra to discuss his new documentary Seeds for Liberation, a film that centers Palestine while tracing the connections between Zionism, U.S. imperialism, policing, Black liberation, the Chicano movement, Indigenous resistance, and broader anti-colonial struggle.

Matthew’s previous documentary, Reimagining Safety, explored abolitionist approaches to policing, prisons, crisis response, and community care. In this conversation, we talk about how that work shaped his understanding of Palestine, what he had to unlearn as an anti-Zionist Jew, and why the fight for Palestinian liberation is inseparable from other struggles against em...

Julie Wolk is a facilitator, strategist, and creator of Ashkenazi Ancestral Journeys, a spiritual pilgrimage and heritage program that brings Ashkenazi Jews to Poland to reconnect with ancestral lands, Jewish memory, diasporic culture, grief, and political histories that Zionist narratives often teach us to bypass.

In this conversation, Julie and Ezra discuss what it means to turn toward Eastern Europe not only as a site of Holocaust memory and “the dark place,” but as a place of Jewish life, culture, language, resistance, food, medicine, prayer, and song. They talk about March of the Living and the weap...

What does it mean to practice medicine in Gaza while hospitals collapse, chronic illness goes untreated, children carry water instead of going to school, and entire communities struggle simply to survive?

In this episode of The Thin Veil, Ezra speaks with Dr. Musallam Abukhalil, a physician in Gaza and founder of United for Dignity Alliance, a Palestinian-led humanitarian organization providing emergency aid, medical care, psychosocial support, education, and storytelling initiatives in Gaza.

Dr. Musallam joins from Nuseirat in central Gaza for a deeply moving firsthand conversation about practicing medicine amid catastrophe, the hidden “si...

In this episode of The Thin Veil, Ezra sits down with musician, activist, and La Gente SF frontman Rafa Sarria Bustamante for a wide-ranging conversation on identity, decolonization, Palestine, diaspora, anti-fascism, and political awakening.

Rafa reflects on growing up Colombian-Nicaraguan in San Francisco’s Mission District, navigating mixed cultural identity, confronting racism and colorism, and how those experiences shaped his activism. The conversation explores connections between Indigenous struggles across the Americas, Palestinian liberation, Zionism, diaspora identity, and the ongoing work of decolonizing inherited narratives.

They also discuss activism, music as resistance, solidarity movements, el...

In this episode of The Thin Veil, Ezra Lipp speaks with Palestinian artist, musician, producer, and organizer MC Tarik "Excentrik" Kazaleh about diaspora grief, sumud, burnout, and what solidarity asks of people in the West. Tarik reflects on his family’s roots in Palestine, the emotional toll of watching the genocide in Gaza from the diaspora, and why performative empathy is not enough. He also shares the story of co-founding Prosthetics for Palestine with his wife, a project focused on building long-term care infrastructure for Palestinian amputees.

The conversation moves through Tarik’s life in revolutionary musi...

In this episode of The Thin Veil, Ezra sits down with artist and organizer Dottie Lux.

Dottie shares her journey from a Zionist upbringing to anti-Zionist activism, and how that shift reshaped her identity, her relationships, and her work. She speaks about her time in Palestine doing protective presence in the West Bank with the International Solidarity Movement, and her involvement founding Artists Unite for Palestine, a collective of Bay Area artists doing work to provide mutual aid for Palestinians in Gaza.

Dottie is a deep and soulful person and this conversation is dynamic and...

Ahmed Sarsour is a poet and artist currently living in Gaza, trying to survive through the ongoing effects of genocide and raise money for his extended family and community through Project Sarsour.

After spending much of his life in Sudan as a telecommunications engineer and Palestinian exile, Ahmed fled violence there in 2023—only to return to Gaza just months before the genocide began. In this conversation, he shares what daily life looks like now—navigating grief, hunger, and uncertainty—and how he turned to poetry as a way to process, express, and ultimately survive.

We e...

Ezra sits down with acclaimed musician/songwriter Alexi Murdoch for a wide-ranging conversation on art, activism, and what it means to speak up in a time of crisis.

They discuss Alexi’s recent visit to Palestine and what he witnessed under Israeli occupation. The conversation moves between the personal and the political—exploring the tension between creative expression and direct advocacy, and the moral responsibility to break silence in the face of injustice.

They also reflect on propaganda, dehumanization, and the challenge of reaching people across deeply entrenched narratives—while holding onto the belief that transf...

Ezra sits down with Rabbi David Mivasair for a conversation on unlearning, responsibility, and what it means to live out ethical commitments in real time.

They explore Connecting Gaza, a grassroots mutual aid project started by Rabbi Mivasair that provides direct support to families in Gaza, and reflect on the limits of traditional political advocacy compared to person-to-person action.

The conversation touches on cognitive dissonance, ideological transformation, and the challenge of confronting deeply held beliefs around Zionism, identity, and justice.

They close with a reflection on the tension of celebrating Passover...

In this episode of The Thin Veil, Ezra sits down with Sacramento-based musician, educator, and organizer Eli Conley to explore the intersections of identity, music, and movement work.

Eli shares his journey from growing up in Richmond, Virginia, to coming out as trans, to becoming deeply involved in anti-racist organizing and community-based activism. The conversation traces how those experiences shaped his political framework, including his relationship to anti-Zionism and his path toward Jewish spiritual practice and community-building.

They discuss the role of music as both a personal and collective tool — from songwriting and te...

In this conversation, Ezra speaks with Sarah Al Zanoon, a Palestinian-Venezuelan organizer whose family has been directly impacted by the ongoing war in Gaza.

They explore Sarah’s experience growing up in the diaspora, navigating identity and belonging, and the process of “decolonizing” her own thinking. Sarah shares what it was like visiting Palestine for the first time, including a moment at a military checkpoint that shifted her understanding in a lasting way.

The conversation moves through grief, activism, and the tension of holding both gratitude and devastation at once—while continuing to take act...

For the first episode of The Thin Veil, Ezra welcomes filmmaker Skyler Carrico—whose chance online critique became a turning point in Ezra’s journey toward a deeper understanding of Palestine and the systems shaping our world.

Together, they trace their parallel paths of political awakening, including a shared reckoning with the influence of figures like Sam Harris, and what it feels like to confront the possibility that you’ve been deeply misinformed.

Skyler shares his experience traveling to the West Bank in 2024, where he encountered both the realities of life under occupation and the resili...