Earlier this year, on the last Friday of Ramadan, Israeli defence forces stormed the al-Aqsa mosque, the third holiest site in Islam, with tear gas, rubber bullets and stun grenades.

As Palestinians in annexed East Jerusalem continued to protest Israeli evictions in Sheikh Jarrah, between the 10th and the 21st, Gaza endured its worst aerial bombardment since 2014.

Yet, as Israeli bombs rained down on Gaza, in the Italian city of Livorno, the local port worker’s union downed their tools and refused to load a shipment of Israeli weapons and explosives bound for Ashdod. The port workers refused to be “accomplices in the massacre of the Palestinian people”.

Elsewhere, in city centres and town squares across the globe, thousands took to the streets as part of the Save Sheikh Jarrah” movement to show solidarity with the Palestinian people in their fight against oppression.

In Palestine, on May 18th, the people called a general strike in protest of the IDF’s barbarism. In sectors of Israeli business like construction which depend on a Palestinian workforce, the entire industry ground to a halt for the day. In 24 hours alone, the strike was estimated to have cost £28 million.

In spite of these demonstrations, the illegal settler-colonial occupation of Palestine continues.

To evaluate this summer’s “Save Sheikh Jarrah” movement and discuss the occupation, for the second episode of the Internationalist’s new season, Varsha Gandikota-Nellutla speaks to Progressive International Council member Yara Hawari.

Yara is a Palestinian activist, academic and political analyst. She currently works as the Senior Analyst for Al Shabaka, a Palestinian transnational think tank and is a frequent political commentator for many mainstream outlets.