The Podcast
Since June of 2024, I’ve been working on a special limited Holding up the Ladder (HUTL) series around the events that lead up to 7th October and the ensuing war in Gaza. Through a series of interviews with Israelis and Palestinians, 11 in total, we’ve been looking at ideas around occupation, anti-semitism, whether the events that lead up to 7th October were isolated or inevitable and if a 1 or 2 state solution is possible.
Why me?
You may be wondering why me, a non Israeli and non Palestinian would want to explore this subject. Well, to know that you need to know about my childhood-an extremely international, politically engaged, anti-apartheid one.
Also as someone with both Israeli and Palestinian friends, I was aware of how contradictory and opposing the information I was seeing online. And it often put me in challenging situations. For example, I played at a concert raising money for medical aid in Palestine and some of my Jewish friends were upset with me for playing. And prior to that some of my pro Palestinian friends felt that my silence on social media was a tacit complicity with the Israeli government’s actions.
Underlining all of that was my awareness of an ever-increasing divide, a deep polarisation among people, personally I’ve had friendships fracture as a result of this war. This ‘war on peace’ that dehumanises us all and I was deeply grieved by it.
I felt compelled to do something and my podcast felt the logical choice - in reality I was simply recording the conversations I’ve been having, both with Jews and Palestinians, some of whom I know, others were recommendations.
Where are we now?
The interviews are completed and I’ve done a large chunk of the editing, but I began to feel overwhelmed with the burden of accurately representing these stories because of my closeness with the subjects, I needed an editor-producer. Your support will help me finalise the editing and produce the episodes properly ready for release.
To listen to the podcast trailer, follow this link - https://on.soundcloud.com/FFwyqfmKY5ukcrxF7
Podcast Website - https://www.holdinguptheladder.com/
Thank you for your support!