On this edition of Parallax Views, US-Palestinian journalist Ramzy Baroud and Israeli historian Dr. Ilan Pappé join us to discuss the movement for Palestinian liberation and the new book they've co-edited related to it Our Vision for Liberation: Engaged Palestinian Leaders & Intellectuals Speak Out.
A synopsis of Our Vision for Palestine from the publisher, Clarity Press, sums up the book and its aims better than Parallax Views can:
Our Vision for Liberation: Engaged Palestinian Leaders & Intellectuals Speak Out aims to challenge several strata of the current Palestine discourse that have led to the present dead end: the American pro-Israel political discourse, the Israeli colonial discourse, the Arab discourse of purported normalization, and the defunct discourse of the Palestinian factions. None promote justice, none have brought resolution; none bode well for any of the parties involved.
Here, engaged Palestinian leaders and intellectuals, those who have been actively involved in generating an ongoing Palestinian discourse on liberation, take into account the parameters of their struggle as it now stands. Drawing on their own personal experiences as educators, community leaders, spiritual leaders, artists, historians, human rights activists, political prisoners, and the like, they address what now, what next, is to be done, in a manner that reflects not only Palestinian aspirations, but their view of what is possible.
In this conversation Dr. Pappé and Baroud discuss a number of different topics including the historical distortions, myths, and language that has often blurred the discourse around Israel/Palestine. Dr. Pappé goes over the myths that he covered in his previous book Ten Myths About Israel and Baroud discusses why such myths persist. Additionally, Dr. Pappé gives a historical overview of what is known among Palestinians as the Nakba, or the Catastrophe, that led to the expulsion of Palestinians from their homeland. Baroud critiques the ways in which Palestinian liberation have been framed over the years and argues that liberation will, as Che Guevera put it in one quote, come not from ordained liberators but rather the people themselves. In this regard, Ramzy Baroud criticizes the ways in which the Palestinian struggle is framed by Westerners, including the Western Left, and the need to make Palestinians the core of Liberation movement. In addition to all of this, Dr. Pappé and Baroud discuss the voices of Palestine and how their individual struggles inform collective struggles; the Palestinian voices that exist beyond the realms of diplomatic and armed struggle; pessimism and hope; settler-colonialism, occupation, and ethnic cleansing; the Nakba and its trauma as ongoing; the failure of the peace process and U.S. policy on Palestine; Palestinians in Gaza and their hope; Palestinian perseverance and creative ways of survival; decolonization; and much, much more.
Parallax Views w/ J.G. Michael