Episode Description
In this latest episode of Beyond Israelism, Simone Zimmerman sits down with Yuli Novak, Executive Director of B’Tselem and one of the most uncompromising dissident voices within Israel. It’s a deeply honest and impactful conversation about political rupture, moral clarity, and the cost of telling the truth from inside a society that has become, in Yuli’s words, “completely genocidal.” Yuli reflects on her journey from an upbringing shaped by patriotism and belief in Israeli democracy to a painful reckoning with what she now calls an apartheid regime — and with the conditions that enabled mass complicity with genocide.
Yuli revisits her years leading Breaking the Silence — a group of former Israeli soldiers that documented abuses under occupation — which became the target of an all-out smear campaign involving government officials, mainstream media, legal harassment, and infiltration by right-wing groups. That experience, chronicled in her memoir Who Do You Think You Are?, marked a turning point: the moment she realized she had become a dissident against the regime. Today, as head of B’Tselem, Yuli explains why the organization chose to name Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide in its report ‘Our Genocide’.
If you enjoyed this conversation, here are some additional resources:
Pre-order Yuli Novak’s memoir, ‘Who Do You Think You Are’.
Read B’Tselem’s report about the genocide in Gaza, '‘Our Genocide’.
Read B’Tselem’s report about Israel’s network of torture prisons, ‘Welcome to Hell’.
Read B’Tselem’s report about Operation Protective Edge, ‘Whitewash protocol’.
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