S3 E21. Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib: From Campus Radical to Radical Pragmatist - Part 1

Like so many of us, Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib’s life took a hairpin turn on October 7, 2023. Until age 15, he lived in the Gaza Strip. He then attended high school in the U.S. on an exchange program and has never left. Ahmed has returned to Gaza often over the decades and still has many family members living there. After October 7, he left his old life in California and relocated in Washington D.C. Since that time he has emerged as a leading intellectual activist articulating an alternate Palestinian view, which he says is far truer to reality. Ahmed openly loathes and criticizes Hamas, believing their destructive ideology to have brought ruin and misery on his people. That was true before October 7, he says, but has been more egregious since. He writes, speaks, engages; all in the hope of forging and finding a better way forward for Palestinians and Israelis. In Part I of our conversation, Ahmed discusses how he moved from aligning with a more simplistic and hateful view of Israel and Jews to what he calls radical pragmatism. I call it moderate. See what you think.

We are all so divided. And it is important, in my view, to engage outside of our opinion silos, whatever our comfort zone might be. Ahmed does that. And he has a lot of very interesting things to say.

Part II drops tomorrow. We get into October 7. And all that has followed. Thanks for listening.

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Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib leads Realign For Palestine, a groundbreaking new project at the Atlantic Council. This project challenges entrenched narratives in the Israel-Palestine discourse and develops a new policy framework for rejuvenated pro-Palestine advocacy. Realign For Palestine aims to cultivate a new generation of Palestinian voices committed to a two-nation solution, nonviolence, and radical pragmatism.

Alkhatib serves as a resident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Middle East Programs, where he writes extensively on Gaza’s political and humanitarian affairs, is an outspoken critic of Hamas, and a promoter of a radically pragmatic approach to peace and Palestinian statehood as the only path forward between Palestinians and Israelis. His writing and opinions have been published and featured across the US, Israeli, and international press, and his views are prominently featured across social media platforms, with his accounts that have tens of thousands of engaged followers.

Alkhatib holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a master’s in intelligence and national security studies. He grew up in Gaza City and left Gaza in 2005 to attend college in the United States as an exchange student. Much of Ahmed’s experience is influenced by having grown up in Gaza during the Oslo peace process, and the difficulties resulting from Oslo's failure, and the rise of Hamas and Islamism in Gaza.

Following the deadly October 7 massacre, Alkhatib’s life was deeply impacted when three different airstrikes killed 33 of his immediate and extended family members. Still, he has made a deliberate choice to be part of breaking the cycle of dehumanization and defying the cycle of hatred, incitement, violence, and revenge. In his presentations to students, policymakers, and thought leaders, Alkhatib exemplifies how others can exercise individual responsibility, spread empathy, and engage peacefully in the often-divisive Israel and Palestine discourse.

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