The Ida B. Wells Media Defense Network presents a Zoom film showing of “The Occupation of the American Mind” and a book talk with Emmaia Gelman on The Anti-Defamation League and the Racial State — exposing how propaganda, media power, and political influence are mobilized to silence dissent and manufacture support for apartheid, occupation, and war.
Friday, June 12, 2026
8 PM ET • 7 PM CT • 5 PM PT
Register: idabwellsmediadefense.org/
$15 suggested — no one turned away
The Ida B. Wells Media Defense Network invites you to an evening of political education, media criticism, and movement building dedicated to exposing and challenging the machinery that manufactures consent for occupation, apartheid, war, and censorship.
Registration and tickets available below.
Film: “The Occupation of the American Mind: Israel’s Public Relations War in the United States” (2014)
Film Description: Over the past few years, Israel’s ongoing military occupation of Palestinian territory and repeated invasions of the Gaza strip have triggered a fierce backlash against Israeli policies virtually everywhere in the world — except the United States. The Occupation of the American Mind takes an eye-opening look at this critical exception, zeroing in on pro-Israel public relations efforts within the U.S. Narrated by Roger Waters and featuring leading observers of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and U.S. media culture, the film explores how the Israeli government, the U.S. government, and the pro-Israel lobby have joined forces, often with very different motives, to shape American media coverage of the conflict in Israel’s favor.
From the U.S.-based public relations campaigns that emerged in the 1980s to today, the film provides a sweeping analysis of Israel’s decades-long battle for the hearts, minds, and tax dollars of the American people in the face of widening international condemnation of its increasingly right-wing policies.
Original, theatrical version: Narrated by Roger Waters / Featuring Amira Hass, M.J. Rosenberg, Stephen M. Walt, Noam Chomsky, Rula Jebreal, Henry Siegman, Rashid Khalidi, Rami Khouri, Yousef Munayyer, Norman Finkelstein, Max Blumenthal, Phyllis Bennis, Norman Solomon, Mark Crispin Miller, Peter Hart, and Sut Jhally.
Runtime: 85 minutes.
After the film discussion and book talk
Join us for a Zoom screening of “The Occupation of the American Mind,” the groundbreaking film on how media and political power shape public understanding of Palestine and Israel, followed by a book talk with Emmaia Gelman on The Anti-Defamation League and the Racial State — examining propaganda, surveillance, repression, and the struggle to defend dissent and liberation movements. She is also a co-founder and director of the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism.
When: Friday, June 12, 8:00 PM EDT (7 CT / 6 MT / 5 PT / 4 AKT / 3 HT)
Room opens: 7:45 PM EDT. and program starts promptly at 8 PM EDT.
Join the Struggle-La Lucha Telegram channel