Middle East Monitor Conversations

Ever wondered about the origins of some of your favourite Middle Eastern dishes? Many recipes date back to medieval times but have been tweaked and amended to create the modern take and flavours we now know. Join us as Daniel Newman takes us on a journey of food through the ages. During the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, where believers abstain from food and drink from dawn to dusk, food takes on a whole new significance and despite people not eating during the day, for Muslims across the world, the holy month is associated with all sorts of culinary delights. MEMO has decided to deep dive into the history of food in the Arab World. Along the way, we learn of interesting recipes, we hear of connections between food and home, we understand how health concerns influenced the way people used to eat. Did you know Arabs and Europeans used to eat similar dishes in medieval times? Did you know Arab food used to be renowned for being spicy, but went on became less and less spicy? Helping us to make sense of all of this is Daniel Newman of Durham University. Newman holds the Chair of Arabic Studies at the University of Durham (UK). His research interests include Arabic travel literature, 19th-century Arab reform movements, Islamic medicine and medieval Arab culinary history. He is the author of the best-selling 'An Imam in Paris; Account of a stay in France by an Egyptian cleric (1826-1831)' and was the co-recipient of the World Award of the President of the Republic of Tunisia for Islamic Studies for the book entitled 'Muslim Women in Law and Society'. His book 'The Sultan’s Feast. A Fifteenth-century Cookbook' was longlisted for the Peter Mackenzie Smith Book Prize 2021 and received the Gourmand World Cookbook Award 2021. His most recent book is 'The Exile's Cookbook: Medieval Gastronomic Treasures from Al-Andalus and North Africa'. His research was showcased in a six-part Al Jazeera series on the history of medieval Arab food. He maintains a blog and Instagram account where he shares his passion for bringing medieval Arab dishes to life by recreating recipes.

America is Israel's closest ally today. Every US administration since the 1967 Arab-Israeli War has closely embraced Tel Aviv. Washington's political elite's support for Israel goes beyond strategic interest and is treated as a fundamental moral issue. US President Joe Biden's reaction to 7 October 2023 and the subsequent war on Gaza by Israel follows the moral script set out by both previous US administrations and DC elites. Despite this, Israel's war on Gaza is not in America's strategic interests and is harmful to US foreign policy. We are joined by former US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Chas Freeman who believes support for Israel's current war has wrecked American credibility, isolated the United States and will destabilise the Middle East. In this MEMO conversation, we delve into why Freeman believes Israel does not share American values and how Tel Aviv's racism has led to a genocidal war. We also speak to Freeman about his diplomatic career including working for US President Richard Nixon, going to China, dealing with King Fahd and his observations of Saudi society. Freeman is the author of five books and numerous articles on statecraft and the editor of the Encyclopedia Britannica article on “diplomacy”. He is a former US assistant secretary of defence, ambassador to Saudi Arabia, principal deputy assistant secretary of state for African affairs, chargé d’affaires a.i. at Bangkok and Beijing, acting US commissioner for refugee affairs, and director of programme coordination and development at the US Information Agency. He was the principal American interpreter during the late President Nixon’s 1972 opening of US relations with China.

Mahmood Mamdani, a distinguished historian and the Herbert Lehman Professor of Government at Columbia University, discusses the genocidal nature of nation-state building, particularly in Gaza. He explores the historical roots of the Gaza crisis, linking it to colonial practices and the implications of Zionism. Mamdani critiques the relationship between nation-building and ethnic cleansing, advocating for 'de-Zionisation' as a path to peace. He also highlights the need for more inclusive governance models that embrace diverse identities across Palestine and beyond.

The 13th century saw the Middle East invaded and occupied by both the Crusaders and the Mongols, but both invaders quickly built their own political systems and transformed the Middle East. The 13th century ushered in a violent transformation of the Middle East. Crusader armies burst into the Levant and took large swaths of territory. Towards the east the Mongols crossed into the heartlands of Islam. While the initial sentiment to the invaders was one of terror, both the Crusaders and the Mongols came to be seen as part of the landscape, and societies under their rule came to see them as people they could do business with. The region was forever changed, but what were these changes and what was the legacy of this period? Dr Nicholas Morton joins MEMO to help answer these questions.Dr Morton is the course leader for History at Nottingham Trent University and the author or editor of several books. His most recent publication is The Mongol Storm: Making and Breaking Empires in the Medieval Near East (2022) which offers a multi-perspective account of the Mongol invasions into the Middle East during the 13th century. 

In this week’s MEMO conversation we speak to Professor Haim Bresheeth-Zabner, author of the acclaimed book An Army Like No Other, to discuss the outsized role of the military in Israeli nationhood. Professor Haim's research chronicles how the Israeli army has ascended beyond a military body to become the most revered institution in Israel - with profound implications on politics, society, national psychology and on the prospect of peace.Professor Haim traces the roots of the primacy of the Israeli army within the apartheid state and explains how a deep-rooted sense of military dominance and mythic invincibility inculcated over decades has been shaken by the 7 October attack. We explore how the special status of the Israeli army makes peace based on justice and international law an impossibility and what that might mean for the future.Professor Haim Bresheeth is a filmmaker, photographer and a film studies scholar, retired from the University of East London where he worked since early 2002. He now teaches at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). His books include the best-selling Introduction to the Holocaust, which he co-authored, and An Army Like No Other: How the IDF Made a Nation (2020).

Canadian Professor of Law Mohammad Fadel joins us for a conversation on the ongoing crisis in Gaza, including Israel's military operations and blockade. With Professor Fadel's legal expertise, we analyse the implications of the International Court of Justice case alleging Israeli genocide against Palestinians. We also address the campaign against academic freedom unfolding in Canada, where pro-Israel groups seek to censor university lectures and events about Gaza. Professor Fadel outlines the threat this poses to free speech and peaceful opposition to state policies.Mohammad Fadel is a professor at the faculty of law at the University of Toronto. He is the former Canada Research Chair for the Law and Economics of Islamic Law. His research areas include business corporations, economic analysis of law, Islamic law, and political philosophy and theory. He received his PhD from the University of Chicago and his JD from the University of Virginia School of Law.

Israel's war on Gaza shows no sign of letting up with over 30,000 Palestinians dead and 70,000 wounded since 7 October 2023. With Israel seemingly preparing a full scale military operation in Rafah and reports the north of Gaza are heading for a famine, the humanitarian catastrophe in the besieged Strip is set to get worse. Hospitals and medics are key to Gaza's survival, but they are also targets for the Israeli military, with over 600 healthcare facilities, attacked according to the United Nations. Dr Amagad Elsherif went to Gaza with a team of doctors from Canada and the US, where he encountered a tired and overstretched medical system full of unpaid healthcare workers, children suffering from a variety of traumatic injuries and uncertainty over where Israel will attack next. He also saw a surprising sense of resilience, strength and ambition among Gaza's children to go on living. Dr Elsherif joins MEMO conversations to share his experiences. Elsherif is a thoracic surgeon in Canada who has returned to Gaza since this interview was carried out.

The Zionist movement and Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, sought to revive the biblical Book of Joshua and use it to give the state a new identity. Here Israel was Joshua and the Palestinians were the Canaanites, but who is Joshua and can better understanding of his story help dismantle Israel's narrative and its treatment of Palestinians? In the late 1950s, gatherings would take place at Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion's house. Scholars, generals and ministers would debate and study the Book of Joshua, which is the sixth book of the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament and follows the story of Joshua who led the Israelite conquest of the Canaanites. Largely reviled by Jews down the ages, the Zionist movement and David Ben-Gurion sought to revive the biblical text and use it to give Israel a new identity. Israel was Joshua and the Palestinians the Canaanites in this reinvention of the narrative and each Israeli prime minister since Ben-Gurion has cast themselves as the new Joshua. The Zionist and Israeli reading of Joshua provided the moral framework for the occupation of Palestine and Tel Aviv's excessive militarisation. Who is Joshua, how did Israel reinvent the narrative and what possibilities does the biblical text have for dismantling both Israel's Joshua narrative and treatment of the Palestinians? Joining us to explore this is Rachel Havrelock.A Professor of English at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Rachel Havrelock also directs the Freshwater Lab, focused on water protection as a means of political reconciliation and climate change adaptation. Rachel’s latest book, 'The Joshua Generation: Israeli Occupation and the Bible', tells the story of how the Bible became militarised yet still holds lessons for de-escalation and cohabitation. While writing 'River Jordan: The Mythology of a Dividing Line' , Rachel became involved in environmental peacebuilding with the Israeli-Palestinian-Jordanian NGO Ecopeace Middle East. Rachel also researches and writes about oil pipelines and how to make the transition from fossil fuels.

As The Soil and the Sea premiers in London this month, Rugo discusses the harrowing stories from the Lebanese Civil War which he unearthed in his new film and the generational impact of these life changing events.  In this week’s MEMO in Conversation we speak to acclaimed filmmaker Daniele Rugo about his new documentary The Soil and the Sea, which premiers in London this month. The documentary brings to light harrowing stories from the Lebanese Civil War that have long been hidden away, buried along with victims in undiscovered mass graves across the country.Rugo's film grapples with the nation's collective trauma and concerns over the reopening of wartime wounds that still fester. But can Lebanon heal without truth and reconciliation? We ask Rugo about the importance of the film in helping Lebanon recover from the trauma of the civil war and get his thoughts on the lessons from the past in understanding the generational impact on Palestinians subjected to genocide in Gaza by Israel.  Rugo is an award-winning filmmaker and author. His previous film About a War explored social change through the stories of former militiamen from Lebanon’s civil war. He is Professor of Film at Brunel University London and has been a Senior Fellow at the London School of Economics (LSE).

Lebanon's history of civil unrest means its political landscape is based on sectarianism, which have repeatedly caused its governments to collapse and pushed the country to the brink of civil war. But how does its conservative Christian movement mould society? And how does it differ from other prominent traditional groups that have a firm grasp on the country's affairs?Lebanon is famed for having 18 different religions, a multitude of different political parties and a large cultural and media output. However, the Mediterranean country is also characterised by a political system based on sectarianism, governments that constantly fall, terrible economic woes and the it seems to be in a permanent state of crisis. Lebanon is not isolated from the rest of the world, unlike some other states in the world in crisis, rather it is globalised and reflects wordily trends. Christian political conservatism is a key feature of the Middle Eastern country's political landscape and is both a local dynamic and heavily influenced by conservative movements across the world. But what does Christian conservatism mean and how does it compare to non-Christian traditionalism seen in groups like Hezbollah? Joining us to answer this question is Chloe Kattar. Dr Chloe Kattar is an Early Career Leverhulme Fellow at the University of Oxford. Her project examines the links between Islamophobia and right-wing thought. Right-wing groups around the world have displayed strong anti-Islam sentiment in recent years, she seeks to rethink this connection as a global rather than a Western phenomena, by offering the first historical account of the ways in which Islamophobia became a tenet of global conservatism in past decades. A historian by formation, Dr. Kattar obtained her PhD from the University of Cambridge where she examined right-wing intellectual circles and production during the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1982). Excerpts of this work have been published in academic journals such as the Historical Journal and the Arab Studies Journal and she has spoken at multiple conferences in Beirut, Paris, Berlin, and Amsterdam. She was previously a lecturer in the History of the Middle East at Northumbria University. In her spare time, she writes analysis and personal opinions on Lebanon and the Middle East on her instagram page leb.historian.