203 - Vijay Prashad: Colonialism, Israel-Palestine, Marxism, and European Anti-Semitism

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7

Vijay Prashad is a historian and journalist. He obtained his PhD in history at the University of Chicago and was most recently the George and Martha Kellner Chair in South Asian History at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. Vijay is a Marxist, and much of his work and writing has been devoted to critiques of capitalism and colonialism, and this notably includes research on Israel, Palestine, and the Middle East. In this episode, Robinson and Vijay discuss the Israel-Palestine conflict as a problem of anti-semitism and colonialism, and touch on various other dimensions of the issue, such as how the war might end, Noam Chomsky’s contributions to the discussion, and the legitimacy of Palestine.

Tricontinental: https://thetricontinental.org/institutes/

OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

04:20 Human Rights and the Crisis in Palestine

10:50 Decolonizing Palestine and the Problem of European Antisemitism

19:33 Is Israel a European Colonialist Enterprise?

31:06 Is Palestine a Legitimate Nation? 

43:14 On Noam Chomsky and a One-State Solution to Israel-Palestine

53:26 Communism, Israel-Palestine, and Dreams of Utopia

59:46 Is There a Practical Solution to the War in Gaza?

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.