'The Roundtable' hosts first Palestinian-American guest since start of Gaza war
WAMC producers give in to community demands following 19 months of activism -- but more is needed to diversify racial inclusion on the program and station
August 8, 2025
Concerned people acting together can make change!
Producers of The Roundtable — Sarah LaDuke, Madeleine Reynolds, and host Joe Donahue — shifted from their policy of total exclusion of Palestinians by including Dr. Ahmad Abu-Hakmeh on last Monday’s panel (7/28/25). The inclusion of Abu-Hakmeh, a Biomedical Engineer and Principal Scientist at Regeneron, follows 19 months of efforts by activists and community members of the station’s broadcast region. Abu-Hakmeh’s presence helpfully prompted discussions of Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian lands and ongoing propaganda efforts to dehumanize Palestinian people — topics rarely addressed on The Roundtable.
Congratulations to The Roundtable and WAMC for taking this important step. The regular inclusion of Dr. Abu-Hakmeh and panelists like him is the way to balance, fairness, and democratic communication!
Dr. Abu-Hakmeh’s inclusion is clear evidence of the power exercised of grassroots activism by a loose alliance of activists and listeners. Hopefully this victory energizes listeners to also demand change to the program’s extreme pattern of White preference and over-representation of Democrats and military-affiliated sources. (The station’s largely White board, newsroom, and all-White senior staff remain issues needing community redress.)
Questions remain whether Roundtable producers will regularly include Abu-Hakmeh and others like him to balance out the prominent presence of guests from the Democratic party and US military institutions.
How the campaign pushed for change
Activists from Jewish Voice for Peace Hudson Valley provided his name among 3 others to Roundtable producers in October of 2024 and February of 2025 but received no response. As early as February of 2024 members of the Palestinian-American community and pro-Palestine leaders contacted the station seeking to balance the prominent presence of guests from pro-Israel institutions without success.
A year later, WAMC CEO Sarah Gilbert also refused to reply to emails regarding the situation despite its clear violation of the station’s own federally mandated Community Representation policy: “In our journalism, diversity means the inclusion in our reporting of the vastly different voices and opinions of mis or under-represented people and those often ignored. WAMC strives to include differing opinions in our content”.
By the end of February 2025, Berkshire Democratic Socialists of America took up the cause with a campaign generating hundreds of 300 signatures and over 130 emails. Activists also raised their concerns directly to WAMC’s volunteers answering phones during the station’s spring fund drive. During the live Roundtable episode in Pittsfield, MA, one audience member asked host Joe Donahue to address the exclusion of Palestinians and over-representation of Whites. Donahue then dodged the question. (The exchange starts around 1:05:00 in the audio file.) This blog began posting research on the topic in May 2024. I addressed the station’s Board of Trustees and Community Advisory Board in June 2025.
A view into station’s internal decision making behind the choice to include Dr. Abu-Hakmeh is unfortunately unavailable as yet. However, the continued public interjection of community disapproval of Roundtable’s discriminatory policy into WAMC daily work seems likely to have complicated efforts to ignore these demands.