Episode 26: One Day We Will be What We Want: Anas Qutob and Dave Snyder on Friendship and Transformational Praxis
In episode 26, I talk with Anas Qutob and Dave Snyder of Minneapolis about their friendship and their work as leaders in the Minnesota chapter of Friends of Standing Together—a grassroots progressive organization of Israeli Jews and Palestinians dedicated to peace, justice, and social transformation. Anas speaks of his childhood growing up during the Israeli invasion of his home city, Nablus, in the West Bank, and about working his way through law school before becoming a labor organizer in Minneapolis. Dave, the grandson of Holocaust survivors, and a longtime social justice organizer, speaks of his journey toward deep commitment to the Palestine justice movement. We talk what Standing Together means to us and about the sacred work of friendship grounded in listening, in mutual recognition of suffering, and in working relentlessly for change. We end by reading a section of one of Mahmoud Darwish’s final poems, “Mural,” in both Arabic and English.
“One day I will be what I want” is a line from “Mural” in John Berger and Rema Hammami’s translation.
Standing Together’s Theory of Change
Mahmoud Darwish, Mural, trans. John Berger and Rema Hammami
Music by Ben Roberts: Benjamin.Roberts447@gmail.com
Comments and ideas to Juliealicecarr@gmail.com
Anas Qutob and Dave Snyder
Anas J. Qutob was born and raised in Nablus (Shechem), Palestine. The son of a repatriated refugee born in exile in 1969, his family returned from Jordan to the Old City of Nablus in 1974, where they lived until 2007. His father, a tailor, supported the family through years of political and social upheaval. Anas earned his law degree in 2017 and joined the Palestinian Bar Association in 2020, practicing civil and criminal law in the West Bank until moving to the United States in 2023. He now works as an Organizer with SEIU Healthcare Minnesota & Iowa’s Member Action Center and is a Co-founder of Minnesota Friends of Standing Together (FoST–Israel/Palestine). He currently lives in Minneapolis with his turtle shell cat.
Dave Snyder grew up in Minneapolis, the grandson of Holocaust survivors who fled Austria in 1939. He has spent the last 30 years as a campus living wage activist, labor organizer with the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union local 7, housing justice organizer and then deputy director of Jewish Community Action (JCA), convenor of the Minnesota Asset Building Coalition (MABC), then statewide program director for “Family Assets for Independence in Minnesota” (FAIM). Dave has served on the Board of Directors of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC), and currently serves on the Board of Directors of Unidos MN, and as co-founder of the MN chapter of Friends Of Standing Together (FOST) - Israel/Palestine. Dave lives in Richfield with his wife Kristy, plus two massive teens, two obnoxious puppies, and two persnickity cats.
Return the Key
Jewish Questions for Everyone
