Makdisi Street

The brothers talk with the distinguished legal scholar Richard Falk about the possible political, legal, and moral consequences of the International Court of Justice case brought by South Africa against Israel on the charge of genocide. Date of recording: January 9, 2024. Watch this episode on YouTube Follow us on X: @MakdisiStreet Follow us on YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Music by Hadiiiiii

The brothers welcome Palestinian lawyer Diana Buttu (@dianabuttu) to the show to provide a broader political context for the crisis in Gaza, including the growing contradictions within Israeli politics, the struggle for hegemony within Palestinian politics, the legacy and possible future role of the PLO, and the legal and political consequences of the war in (and on) Gaza. The conversation also offers perspective on the so-called peace process of the late 1990s and early 2000s, in which Diana was involved, and the parameters in which we can start to imagine possible resolutions of this conflict. Date of recording: January 2, 2024. Watch this episode on YouTube Follow us on X: @MakdisiStreet Follow us on YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Music by Hadiiiiii

The brothers welcome Dr. Mitri Raheb to the show to talk about the role and visibility of Christians in Palestine's ecumenical culture, so-called Christian Zionism, and how the Bible can be read either as a text authorizing empire and genocide (as with Netanyahu citing the extirpation of the Amalek) or as a text calling for liberation, equality, justice and resistance to empire. Check out his books, Decolonizing Palestine: The Land, The People, The Bible (2023) and I Am a Palestinian Christian God and Politics in the Holy Land: A Personal Testimony (1995) Date of recording: December 22, 2023. Watch this episode on YouTube Follow us on X: @MakdisiStreet Follow us on YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Music by Hadiiiiii

The brothers welcome this extraordinary Palestinian physician, @GhassanAbuSitt1, to the show, to talk about his recent experience in Gaza in comparison with other Israeli attacks on Gaza (2014, 2008-9). "One of the aims of catastrophization, the creation of a self-sustaining catastrophe in Gaza," Abu Sittah warns, "is that, once there is a ceasefire, the catastrophe is able to continue, with the help of the siege. And so, my biggest worry about the day after is that the Israelis will be allowed to achieve, in the siege, in the ceasefire, what they failed to achieve in the war." Date of recording: December 20, 2023. Follow us on X: @MakdisiStreet Follow us on YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Music by Hadiiiiii

In this episode, the brothers interview the historian Ilan Pappé, best known for his 2006 book The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, in order to gain some historical perspective on the catastrophe unfolding in Gaza as well as what the current situation tells us about shifting global and local attitudes and even how one can start to anticipate the terminal stage of the Zionist project in Palestine—and what that means for the future. Date of recording: December 12, 2023. Follow us on X: @MakdisiStreet Follow us on YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Music by Hadiiiiii

The Makdisi brothers welcome Francesca Albanese (@FranceskAlbs), the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, to the podcast. The discussion covers international humanitarian law, the concept of self-defense as it is understood in international law, the right to resist military occupation, the specificities of settler colonial occupation, and the question of justice given the Israeli bombardment of Gaza. Date of recording: December 4, 2023 Watch this episode on YouTube Follow us on X: @MakdisiStreet Follow us on YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Music by Hadiiiiii

In this episode, we discuss the international backdrop to the Gaza ceasefire/truce/pause (and what the distinctions are among all those terms). We also cover Israeli and US aims for Gaza in view of resistance on the ground and their failure to achieve their objectives in the 2006 war in Lebanon, as well as the significance of the prisoner exchange for the local legitimacy and standing of Hamas. Date of recording: November 26, 2023. Watch this episode on YouTube Follow us on X: @MakdisiStreet Follow us on YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Music by Hadiiiiii

In this episode, we discuss the coverage and framing of the ongoing Israeli bombardment of Gaza including media narratives, gaps between popular and establishment positions, and the stifling of dissent in the academy. Date of Recording: November 14, 2023. Music by Hadiiiiii Follow us on X: @MakdisiStreet Follow us on YouTube: @MakdisiStreet