Benjamin Moser, author of Anti-Zionism: A Jewish History, told Rashid Khalidi that his 80-year-old mother, who had all but called him a Hamas member, apologized after reading his book: “I’m ashamed I ever said I was a Zionist.” His book traces Jewish opposition to Zionism over the past century and challenges their exclusion in discussions over Palestine. “No, you don’t get to set the rules anymore. We’re setting the rules now,” Moser said. Khalidi added that he had never seen so many people change their views so rapidly, noting that major publishers are now embracing books on Palestine that would have been virtually unpublishable just three or four years ago.

“If those Palestinians hadn’t come and started throwing rocks, I probably would not have survived,” veteran Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine told Jasper Nathaniel after she was brutally beaten by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, according to Nathaniel. Speaking to Ben Rhodes on Pod Save the World, Nathaniel recounted the details of the October 16 attack on Palestinian olive harvesters, how Palestinian villagers risked their lives to rescue Levine, and how Israeli soldiers subsequently shot a Palestinian man and blocked paramedics. “Do Palestinians have a right to defend themselves through armed struggle, if that’s what it takes?” Nathaniel asked. “And if not, do you suggest they lay down and die and let their village get overrun and let Heidi Levine get killed and accept the fate that the settlers have in mind for them, which they will openly tell you is to wipe them off the map?” 🔗 Full interview linked in reply. @infinite_jaz | @brhodes

🇪🇬 Lina Attalah, the editor-in-chief of Mada Masr, one of Egypt’s last remaining independent media outlets, was referred to trial on Thursday. The escalation comes one day after prosecutors questioned her for more than six hours. Rights groups describe her case as an unprecedented attack on press freedoms in Egypt. The Supreme State Prosecution referred Attalah to trial on a charge of establishing and managing a website without a license. She was also questioned on a charge of publishing false news, but that charge was not included in her court referral. Atallah was released Wednesday evening on bail of 100,000 Egyptian pounds (around $1,800). She is due in court on October 27. If convicted, she faces a fine of one million to three million Egyptian pounds (roughly $18,000 to $54,000). The court may also order the closure of Mada Masr and the confiscation of its equipment. Over 100 independent media outlets and civil society organizations around the world, including Drop Site News, signed a joint statement condemning Attalah’s referral to trial, calling it “an unprecedented escalation that threatens the future of the entire independent media, knowledge production, and civil society space in Egypt.” Drop Site News and Mada Masr have co-published several articles over the past two years. Examples linked below.