Loving Palestine with Esmat Elhalaby

Hello!

We’re back in a new arrangement (Andy and Tammy this time) for our second of two episodes on what’s happening in Palestine. Our special guest is Esmat Elhalaby, a post-doc at UC Davis who will soon join the faculty of the University of Toronto.

Esmat tells us about his family ties to Palestine, especially Gaza, the scope of recent bombings by Israel, and what is excluded and silenced by the US media’s framing. He also places US actions—and Americans’ evolving views—in the context of broader global support for the Palestinian people and explains why we should revisit and revive histories of internationalism.

Finally, we discuss the poet Rashid Hussein, the late Edward Said’s seminal book Orientalism, the metaphor of Palestine for “the east,” and the historical possibilities and limits for pan-Asian + Asian-American + anti-colonial solidarity — all covered in + inspired by Esmat’s recent essay about the new biography of Edward Said.

Some recommendations from Esmat for more reading:

* “This time it’s different” by Ahmed Abu Artema Electronic Intifada

* “Protests by Palestinian citizens in Israel signal growing sense of a common struggle,” Maha Nassar The Conversation

* Teach-in “Palestine in Resistance: Voices of Anticolonial Mobilization”: https://www.facebook.com/ArabStudiesUH/videos/753092018711925

* An account from Haifa, by Muhannad Abu Ghosh: https://ctjournal.org/2021/05/20/haifa-war/

* Coverage of Gaza from the Middle East Research and Information Project: https://merip.org/2021/05/revisiting-merip-coverage-of-gaza-jerusalem-and-the-israeli-palestinian-conflict/

* @JehadAbusalim on Twitter

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