Peaced Off!

Peaced Off! is a film and conversation series born out of frustration, heartbreak, and the urgent, persistent desire for peace.

Presented by The Film Collaborative, Peaced Off! explores Israeli and Palestinian stories through podcast episodes, films, and dialogue events that center empathy, truth, and shared humanity.

The mission is simple yet vital: to foster empathy, promote honest dialogue, move beyond polarization, and build common ground—one story at a time.

Episode premiere dates subject to change.

Hosts

Orly Ravid is the Founder and Co-Executive Director of The Film Collaborative.

Abe Gurko is a producer, activist, and writer whose book, Won’t Be Silent — Don’t Stop ’Til It Matters, has also become his mantra. He promotes dialogue at the intersection of culture, politics, and storytelling.

Subscribe to get full access to the newsletter and publication archives.

Podcast Episodes:

Will be available as Video podcast on this website and as Audio podcasts on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other major podcast platforms.

Episode 1
”The Path Forward”

July 8, 2025

Guests
Julie Cohen: Academy Award-nominated, Emmy- and Peabody-winning documentary filmmaker, and co-director of RBG, My Name Is Pauli Murray, Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down, and Every Body.

Mo Husseini: Palestinian American peace activist and co-founder of The Path Forward

Julie and Mo discuss their short film, The Path Forward, about the Mo’s movement promoting dialogue, nonviolence, and mutual recognition between Israelis and Palestinians.

Episode 2
”My Hope for Palestine”

July 8, 2025

Guest
Samer Sinijlawi: Palestinian political strategist, heads the Jerusalem Development Fund, widely recognized for his efforts to promote dialogue and practical solutions for peace.

Abe Gurko moderates a discussion between Samer and Orly as they drill down on Samer’s November 2024 article in The Atlantic, entitled “My Hope for Palestine: There’s still a path to lasting peace. But we’ll need a new set of leaders.”

Episode 3
”Whispered in Gaza” (Part One)

July 15, 2025

Guests:
Joseph Braude: Middle East expert, author, founder of the Center for Peace Communications

Ahed Al Hendi: Syrian activist, writer promoting secularism, human rights in the Middle East.

Joseph and Ahed discuss Whispers in Gaza, a groundbreaking video series produced by Joseph Braude, that reveals firsthand accounts from Palestinians living under Hamas rule.

Episode 4
”Whispered in Gaza” (Part Two)

July 22, 2025

Guests:
Joseph Braude: Middle East expert, author, founder of the Center for Peace Communications

Ahed Al Hendi: Syrian activist, writer promoting secularism, human rights in the Middle East.

Moumen al-Natour: Palestinian politician, lawyer, human rights defender, “We Want to Live”

The team from The Center for Peace Communications joins us for a second episode, this time with Moumen, who lives in Gaza, as they discuss the status of humanitarian aid and the desire to move forward in peace. 

Episode 5
How to Realign for Peace

July 29, 2025

Guests
Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib: Palestinian American humanitarian activist, blogger, senior fellow at Atlantic Council, and founder and director of Realign for Palestine

Melanie Robbins: American peacebuilder, deputy director, Realign for Palestine  

Founders of Realign for Palestine discuss ways to shift narratives, how to change course. 

Episode 6
Twisted Words – Truth vs. Consequences

August 5, 2025

Guests
Laurel Leff: Professor; historian; author of Buried by The Times; Professor Emerita, Northeastern University

Sari Nusseibeh: Palestinian emeritus professor of philosophy and former president of the Al-Quds University in Jerusalem

Words Matter: A break down a few key terms with our panelists — not just definitions, but their etymology and how the words have shifted over time.

Genocide – Zionist – Ceasefire – Apartheid – Normalize

Episode 7
Reel Talk: “Holding Liat”

August 12, 2025

Guests:
Brandon Kramer: Director of Holding Liat. Washington, DC-based filmmaker and co-founder of Meridian Hill Pictures with his brother Lance.

Lance Kramer: Producer of Holding Liat. Washington, DC-based filmmaker and co-founder of Meridian Hill Pictures with his brother Brandon.

Libby Lenkinski: founding President of Albi, a new fund, institute and lab that uses cultural vehicles to establish paradigm-shifting narratives by and about Palestinians and Jews.

Brandon, Lance and Libby discuss Holding Liat, which premiered in at the Berlin International Film Festival earlier this year, where it won the Berlinale Documentary Award for Best Documentary. It recently had its North American premiere at the Tribeca Festival.

Episode 8
Discourse Over Discord on Campus

August 19, 2025

Guests
Elijah Kahlenberg: President and Founder of Atidna International.

Jadd Hashem: Vice President of Atidna International.

Elijah and Jadd join us to discuss their grassroots, campus-based peace and open dialogue initiative which seeks to solidify Arabs and Jews as cousins, one unified family, and not enemies.

Episode 9
Story Matters: Communication, Narrative, Advocacy

August 26, 2025

Yuval David: Emmy Award–winning performer, filmmaker, and actor, as well as a prominent advocate for Jewish and LGBTQ rights. Yuval serves as a strategic advisor to international NGOs, policy institutes, and advocacy organizations, bringing expertise in media, communications, and sociopolitical analysis.

Yuval joins us to discuss the importance of narrative and communication in his advocacy work, in his capacity as an advisor, and as a citizen of both the United States and Israel.

Episode 10
Pondering “Pallywood”

September 16, 2025

Tom Divon is an ethnographer of user-platform interactions, focusing on creator culture, platform affordances, and user-generated content. His research explores socio-political subcultures on TikTok and Instagram, with emphasis on Palestinian, Israeli, and Jewish creators, platform governance, and the role of play and trauma in activism during war.

Richard Landes was trained as a medievalist and taught European history at Boston University for 25 years. He coined the term Pallywood to describe staged media from the Israeli Palestinian conflict. He now lives in Jerusalem, writing and speaking widely on antisemitism, propaganda, and the battle over truth.

In a supersized episode, we take up what is being called “Pallywood,” the portmanteau of “Palestine” and “Hollywood.” Is it a derogatory term used by pro-Israel commentators to falsely accuse Palestinians of staging suffering and civilian casualties to manipulate the media? Or, is it a global symbol of Palestinian suffering born out of the current state of affairs in which Palestinians lack authentic mainstream media outlets? We asked two different scholars—Tom Divon, an ethnographer and media scholar at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Richard Landes, a former history professor at Boston University and now an independent historian living in Jerusalem—about the origins of the term and their respective takes on its significance and received two very different, but very interesting, answers!

Episode 11
Sharing Histories

March 18, 2026

Einat Wilf is a former Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for the Labor Party and Independence, from 2010-2013. She is the author of the 2020 book, The War of Return, with co-author Adi Schwartz and founder of the Oz Party.

Yardena Schwartz is an award-winning journalist, Emmy-nominated producer, and author of Ghosts of a Holy War: The 1929 Massacre in Palestine that Ignited the Arab-Israeli Conflict. Her reporting from four continents has appeared in dozens of publications, including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, New York Review of Books, The Economist, TIME, National Geographic, and Foreign Policy. She was based in Israel from 2013-2023. Yardena previously worked at NBC News and MSNBC. She graduated with honors from Columbia Journalism School in 2011, received an Emmy nomination for her work at MSNBC in 2013, and the Religion News Association award for excellence in magazine reporting in 2016.

Mo Husseini is a Palestinian American writer, filmmaker, and strategic advisor from a Jerusalem family. A former commercial film director, his viral essay “50 Completely True Things” reached over 500,000 readers and established him as a distinctive Palestinian American voice. He serves on the National Steering Committee for Friends of Standing Together USA, the Palestinian-Jewish grassroots movement, and co-directed the documentary The Path Forward with Emmy-winning filmmaker Julie Cohen. He is currently co-authoring The Moral Floor with Daniel Sokatch, CEO of the New Israel Fund, a framework for honest engagement across the deepest divides. His work is rooted in a simple conviction: that none of us has access to the big-T Truth, and the only way we get closer is by genuinely contending with perspectives that make us uncomfortable.