Makdisi Street

Ahead of the most important football match in the history of Palestine's national team, on the cusp of potential qualification for the 2026 World Cup, the brothers discuss with Bassil Mikdadi, Palestinian journalist and creator of footballpalestine.com, the impact of the ongoing Gaza genocide as well as the deeper context of Palestine national team's rich journey over many decades, its struggle to assert Palestinian national unity in the face of Israel's occupation, blockade and policy of fragmentation. We also discuss the grassroots solidarity with Palestinians across the football world and the campaign to kick Israel's national football team out of FIFA, which, along with the European association UEFA shamefully continues to allow it to play official matches during the genocide despite immediately suspending Russia after its Ukraine invasion. Finally, we discuss the role of media and the silence/complicity of all too many football journalists in covering Israeli atrocities and the intimidation of players when it comes to showing solidarity. Watch the video edition on our YouTube channel Date of recording: June 9, 2025. Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to access all the bonus content, including the latest one    

**Producer's note: The brothers are hosting their first livestream this coming TUESDAY (O6/03) at 10 am EST! It will be a Patreon-exclusive Q&A so only supporters of the show can submit questions or watch live. Sign up for as little as $5 a month and access all the great bonus content as well** The brothers explore the latest Gaza ceasefire negotiations, the abject failure of the corporate media to cover the crude and explicit expressions of racism and genocidal intent from across the spectrum of Israeli society, the sudden shift among European leaders as they attempt to rhetorically distance themselves from the genocide, and the continuing cost to those who speak out against the genocide in increasingly repressive Western societies. Credit to Nikita Gill for her poem concluding this episode Watch the video edition on our YouTube channel Date of recording: May 27, 2025. Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to access all the bonus content, including the latest one

**Producer's note: The brothers are hosting their first livestream! It will be a Patreon-exclusive Q&A so only supporters of the show can submit questions or watch live. Sign up for as little as $5 a month and access all the great bonus content** The brothers welcome legal scholar Noura Erekat to the show to discuss how the Gaza genocide has threatened to end the "rules-based international order;” the failure of international legal institutions to take meaningful action to stop the genocide; the collapse of Israel's standing and reputation in Western societies; and how to retain "infallible optimism" despite the most disturbing assessments of the status quo. Watch the video edition on our YouTube channel Date of recording: May 20, 2025. Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to access all the bonus content, including the latest one    

The brothers discuss the extent to which Trump represents a possible shift in US policy in the Middle East, contrasting the possibility of new deal-making in the Gulf region and elsewhere (Iran, Syria) with the retrograde pull of Zionist pressure to extend the genocide in Gaza and derail the drive towards profit-driven capitalist stabilization in the region. Watch the video edition on our YouTube channel Date of recording: May 15, 2025. Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii *Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to access all the bonus content, including the latest one*

The brothers welcome preeminent British Israeli historian Avi Shlaim to the show to discuss the richness of Arab Jewish identity, and how the ideology of Zionism is based on the negation and denial of this identity and coexistence, his own family's migration from Iraq to newly-created Israeli state, the reception they received there, and the wider story of Jewish minorities in Iraq and other Arab countries. Shlaim discusses the role Mossad played in the uprooting of Baghdad's historic Jewish community in the early 1950s and what he sees as the undeniable signs of the implosion from within Zionism. Watch the video edition on our YouTube channel Date of recording: April 15, 2025. Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii *Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to access all the bonus content, including the latest one*

The brothers welcome Sarah Leah Whitson,  the Executive Director of Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) and former director of the Middle East and North Africa division of Human Rights Watch, to discuss the role of human rights advocacy amidst the ongoing genocide, the initiative to hold Blinken, Biden, and Lloyd Austin legally accountable,  the failure of the ICC, and how Gaza has proven to be the "graveyard" of the "rules-based order." Watch the video edition on our YouTube channel Date of recording: April 8, 2025. Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii *Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to access all the bonus content, including the latest one*

The brothers welcome Daniel Levy, president of the US Middle East Project (USMEP) and former negotiator, to discuss how Israelis employ negotiations to pursue their political goals of expansionism,  the role of the US as a supposed third-party guarantor, and the growing internal political chaos threatening the Israeli political status quo. Watch the video edition on our YouTube channel Date of recording: April 7, 2025. Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii *Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to access all the bonus content, including the latest one*

The brothers welcome Palestinian analyst and researcher Abdaljawad Omar (@hhamayel2) to the show to discuss the nature of the Palestinian Authority's collaborative dealings with the Israeli occupation, how it compares against other examples of collaboration historically, how supporters of the PA regime view their role through the prism of national liberation, and why Palestinians in the West Bank are not able to do more to fight colonial expansion. Check out Abduljawad's recent articles and interviews Watch the video edition on our Youtube channel Date of recording: April 1st, 2025. Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii *Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to access all the bonus content, including the latest one*

The brothers welcome artist and activist Wael Tarbieh from the occupied Golan Heights to discuss the Israeli colonization of the region since 1967, the mixed ethnic and confessional makeup of the Indigenous population, and their decades-long steadfastness in retaining their political and legal identity. For more information on the ethnic cleansing of the Golan, check out Al Marsad https://golan-marsad.org/category/map-en/ Watch the video edition on our Youtube channel Date of recording: March 24, 2025. Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii *Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to access all the bonus content, including the latest one*

The brothers welcome Palestinian anthropologist (and former chemical engineer) Hadeel Assali. They discuss the kidnapping of Mahmoud Khalil, the history of tunnels and the ecology of Gaza, the ontological relationship of the Palestinians to their indigenous environment that the US-backed Zionist colonizers seek to destroy, the different forms of resistance to incessant colonial surveillance, the story of a secret Israeli population transfer scheme to move Palestinians from Gaza to Paraguay, and the possibilities of life and mutual aid amidst the ongoing genocide. "Opacity in Gaza" http://www.arabstudiesjournal.org/ "Maintaining the Social Fabric: Mutual Aid in Gaza" https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/1656919 Watch the episode on our YouTube channel Date of recording: March 10, 2025. Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii *Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to access all the bonus content, including the latest one*  

The brothers welcome psychoanalytic scholar, professor and licensed clinical psychologist Lara Sheehi to discuss the historic role of psychoanalysis in national liberation struggles, the connection between the revolutionary work of Franz Fanon and the Palestinian resistance, and how liberal educational institutions are facilitating fascist attacks on oppositional voices. Watch the episode on our YouTube channel Date of recording: March 3, 2025. Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii *Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to access all the bonus content, including the latest one*      

The brothers welcome Ramallah-based journalist Mariam Barghouti (@MariamBarghouti) to discuss the ongoing de facto annexation of the West Bank, the unchecked growth of colonial outposts, the role of the mainstream Western media in whitewashing and censoring this violence, and the position of the Palestinian Authority as a subcontractor to the Israeli occupation. Watch the episode on our YouTube channel Date of recording: Feb 11, 2025. Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii *Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to access all the bonus content, including a live conversation with Samir Makdisi*      

The brothers welcome journalist and writer Mohammed el-Kurd to the show to discuss his new book, Perfect Victims and the Politics of Appeal (2025), his family's surreal experiences with Jewish Israeli settlers in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, the role of resistance in the broader meaning of the term, and why Palestinians can never surrender to the "politics of appeal." Watch the episode on our YouTube channel Date of recording: Feb 3, 2025. Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii *Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to access all the bonus content, including a live conversation with Samir Makdisi*    

The brothers welcome Aslı Bâli, Professor of Law at Yale Law School and President of the Middle East Studies Association. They discuss the increasingly repressive academic climate in the United States over the question of Palestine led by private sector as well as the current Trump Administration, how anti-Palestinian racism is used as a wedge issue in contemporary culture wars, how Zionist and rightwing organizations seek to criminalize dissent by claiming that it is discriminatory, and then how this politics is connected to the increasingly repressive Pax Americana in the Middle East itself. Finally, they discuss the stakes of fighting for international law and human rights, and the minimum duty of solidarity with Palestinians incumbent upon ethical scholars committed to justice. Watch the episode on our YouTube channel Date of recording: January 28, 2025. Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii *Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to access all the bonus content, including a live conversation with Samir Makdisi*    

The brothers welcome their cousin Wadie Said, Professor of Law at the University of Colorado, to reflect on Donald Trump's personalized domestic and Middle East agenda, the Gaza ceasefire deal and the demise of international legal order. The conversation then focuses on insidious concepts of “terrorism” in the US, and its legal implications for those accused on trumped up charges as well its weaponization against college students. Watch the episode on our YouTube channel Date of recording: January 21, 2025. Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii *Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to access all the bonus content, including a live conversation with Samir Makdisi*  

Note: we recorded this before the appalling AHA leadership veto on Jan. 17 of the democratic vote of its membership to condemn Israeli scholasticide The brothers welcome Professor Sherene Seikaly, historian at University of California at Santa Barbara and editor of the Journal of Palestine Studies and Anthony Alessandrini, Professor of English at Kingsborough Community College and of Middle Eastern Studies at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, to discuss the American Historical Association (AHA) and the Modern Language Association (MLA) engagement with the question of Palestine. We discuss the historic vote by the AHA membership on January 5, 2025 to condemn Israel's scholasticide in Gaza despite the deeply anti-Palestinian stance of the leadership of the AHA. We discuss how this leadership mobilized fear, "anticipatory obedience" to avoid taking an ethical position against the obliteration of every Palestinian university in Gaza, despite explicitly condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. We also discuss how the MLA leadership has systematically undermined discussions and resolutions about Palestinian liberation. They also discussed how ethical scholars have confronted the extraordinary silence and complicity of the two major scholarly associations about the Gaza genocide. Watch the episode on our YouTube channel Date of recording: January 13, 2025. Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii *Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to access all the bonus content, including a live conversation with Samir Makdisi*  

The brothers welcome the world-renowned economics professor and bestselling author, and Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs of Columbia University. They discuss the nature of U.S. global hegemony, idealism vs. realism, the possibility of de-dollarization, BRICS, the delusional notions of perpetual US and Israel hegemony, and why their killing lots of civilians does not translate into political victory, the influence of the Israel lobby in pushing for wars in the Middle East that goes against US interests, money in American politics, Arab state inaction given their leverage, what a “two state” solution actually means in the context of the genocide in Gaza and the end of the Biden administration.  Watch the episode on our YouTube channel Date of recording: January 7, 2025. Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii *Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to access all the bonus content, including a live conversation with Samir Makdisi*  

The brothers welcome University of Chicago Professor John Mearsheimer to the show to discuss the power of the Israel lobby in the US, the relationship between the US and the Israeli state (and whether the dog wags the tail or the other way around), the possibility of change in US policy on Palestine and the Arab world, recent developments in Palestine, Lebanon and Syria, and, finally, how transformations taking place in the United States may eventually overwhelm the lobby and its ability to manipulate decision-making from US college campuses to the White House. Watch the episode on our YouTube channel Date of recording: December 17, 2024. Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii *Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to access all the bonus content, including a live conversation with Samir Makdisi*  

The brothers welcome Syrian political economist and Hampshire College professor Omar S. Dahi (@omardahi) to offer personal reflections on the early days of the post-Assad era in Syria, who exactly Ahmad Shara/ Al Jolani is, Syrian policy choices and national interests in the context of external interventions and Turkish influence, and the implications of Israeli expansionism and destruction of Syria's military infrastructure. Watch the episode on our YouTube channel Date of recording: December 16, 2024. Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii *Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to access all the bonus content, including a live conversation with Samir Makdisi*  

The brothers welcome Nimer Sultany, a Reader in Public Law at SOAS University of London. They discuss the difference between the hypocrisy of the Western liberal legal order versus the Western liberal abandonment of its own international order to protect Israel, the imperatives of justice in Syria at a time of injustice in Palestine, the ICC and ICJ cases, the fact that South Africa stopped appealing to the ICJ earlier this year, the idea of law as a site of struggle, the need to prevent instead of simply documenting genocide after the fact, and Western and liberal genocide denial. Check out his recent article "A Threshold Crossed: On Genocidal Intent and the Duty to Prevent Genocide in Palestine" https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14623528.2024.2351261 ICJ Case against Israeli apartheid https://www.icj-cij.org/case/186 ICC Palestine  https://www.icc-cpi.int/palestine Watch the episode on our YouTube channel Date of recording: December 10, 2024. Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii *Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to access all the bonus content, including a live conversation with Samir Makdisi*  

The brothers welcome National Book Award for Poetry Finalist Fady Joudah (@fadyjoudah) for a searing and intimate discussion of Palestine in English versus Palestine in Arabic, about writing poetry in a time of genocide, about the limits and hubris of solidarity, about the necessity of common decency in the face of horror, and about the meaning of Palestinian love confronting the Israeli inferno of annihilation. Featuring a powerful reading of "Dedication" from his latest book [...] published by Milkweed Editions in 2024. Watch the episode on our YouTube channel Date of recording: November 6, 2024. Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii *Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to access all the bonus content, including a live conversation with Samir Makdisi*  

Ta-Nehisi Coates joins the brothers for a wide-ranging discussion drawing on his new book, The Message (2024), and covering the parallels and differences between the Black American and Palestinian experiences, the culture of denial suppressing the realities of the system of apartheid in Palestine, the challenges of gaining access to Palestinian voices, the power of conveying the raw reality of Palestinian life under apartheid tactics of resistance to oppression, and the historical contours of the Palestinian liberation struggle. Watch the episode on our YouTube channel Date of recording: Oct 14, 2024. Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii   *Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to access all the bonus content, including a live conversation with Samir Makdisi*  

The brothers welcome analyst Tareq Baconi, author of Hamas Contained (Stanford University Press, 2018) and president of the board of Al-Shabaka. One year into the Gaza genocide, they discuss the emergence Hamas and its role in the Palestinian political polity, its sweeping electoral victory in Gaza in 2006 as well as its subsequent governance in Gaza and attempts to contain its growth through blockade. They explore how October 7th upended the entire strategic alignments of the Western imperialist powers that are part of Israeli apartheid structure. Watch the episode on our YouTube channel Date of recording: Oct 15, 2024. Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii *Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to access all the bonus content, including a live conversation with Samir Makdisi*  

The Brothers welcome journalist and founder of Zeteo, Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) to the pod. They have a spirited discussion about anti-Arab and anti-Muslim bias in the mainstream media, the price of compromise to gain access, and whether voting for Harris is a vote against fascism or a vote endorsing genocide. Watch the episode on our YouTube channel Date of recording: Oct 22, 2024. Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii *Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to access all the bonus content, including the latest bonus episode: a live conversation with Samir Makdisi*    

Maya Berry (@imayaberry), Executive Director of the Arab American Institute, joins the brothers for a wide-ranging conversation covering anti-Arab racism in the United States, hate crime tracking, the location of Arab Americans in the US racial lexicon, and the impossible position Arab Americans find themselves in the build-up to the 2024 presidential election. Watch the episode on our YouTube channel Date of recording: Oct 10, 2024. Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii *Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to access all the bonus content, including the latest bonus episode: a live conversation with Samir Makdisi*  

The brothers welcome Laila al-Arian, executive producer for the Al Jazeera English documentary series Fault Lines. They discuss the anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab and anti-Muslim orthodoxies of the mainstream Western media, the coverage of the genocide in Gaza, the dissenting spaces opened up by critical alternative and social media, and Laila's harrowing documentary The Night Won't End that tracks the ordeals of 3 Palestinian families in Gaza, including the family of six-year old Hind Rajab who was killed by Israel. Are there actual prospects for changing the narrative framework on Palestine and the Palestinians? Watch the episode on our YouTube channel Date of recording: Oct 3, 2024. Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii *Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to access all the bonus content, including the latest bonus episode.*  

The brothers welcome the war correspondent Elijah Magnier (@ejmalrai) to the show to discuss the expansion of Israel's war on civilians to Lebanon, as well as the tactical and strategic challenges and opportunities in confronting it on the ground and the implications of Iran's direct intervention in what is already a regional war. Watch the episode on our YouTube channel Date of recording: Oct 4, 2024. Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii *Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to access all the bonus content, including the latest bonus episode.*  

The brothers welcome Trita Parsi (@tparsi), co-founder and Executive Vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, to discuss the three-way relationship between the US, Israel, and Iran, the pathetic state of US diplomacy, the role of the Zionist lobby in defining US interests, and the consequences of any potential Iranian military intervention. Watch the episode on our YouTube channel Date of recording: Sept 26, 2024. Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii *Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to access all the bonus content, including the latest bonus episode.*  

The brothers discuss the latest developments from the Gaza genocide, the murder of American citizen Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi followed by the wholesale media silence around it, and to what degree the US is calling the shots over the looming regional war. Watch the episode on our YouTube channel Date of recording: Sept 11, 2024. Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii *Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to access all the bonus content, including the latest bonus episode.*  

The brothers welcome Yara Hawari (@yarahawari), Co-director of Al-Shabaka, to discuss how the Oslo Accords transformed Palestinian civic life, the emergence of the PA from the PLO, the significance of the increasing number of political and social ruptures among Zionist settlers, and what role the Global South can play in the movement to liberate Palestine. This episode is co-published with Al-Shabaka's Rethinking Palestine podcast Watch the episode on our YouTube channel Date of recording: Sept 2, 2024. Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii *Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to access all the bonus content, including the latest bonus episode.*  

The brothers welcome distinguished writer, novelist, and intellectual of the New Left Review Tariq Ali to Makdisi Street. They discuss the similarities and differences between the anti-Vietnam war demonstrations of the 1960s and 1970s and contemporary demonstrations against the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza; the role of the U.S. empire and global capitalism as a bitter opponent of popular liberation globally; the loss of India as opposed to gaining South Africa on the question of Palestine, the significance of the huge divergence between U.S. and British politics on Palestine and popular sentiment in both countries, the question of whether there is still a Global South, the loss of the hegemony of Zionism in the West evidenced by both mass student protests and the overt repression of these students, Biden's delusional contention that he has done more than anyone to help the Palestinians, the question of hope and realism, and the meaning of a new left for new generations. Watch the episode on our YouTube channel Date of recording: July 16, 2024. Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii *Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to access all the bonus content, including the latest bonus episode.*      

The brothers gather in the garden of their family home in the mountains of Lebanon to discuss recent Israeli escalations and the possible consequences from Lebanon, Iran and elsewhere, following the Israeli bombings in Beirut and Tehran; the focus of the discussion is the fact that, despite inflicting massive and irreparable trauma on civilian life in Gaza, the Israelis have been sinking deeper and deeper into a losing war in Gaza, and may now be looking for a way to drag the US into a wider war to “save” themselves.   Date of recording: August 3, 2024. Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii *Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to access all the bonus content, including the latest bonus episode.*  

The brothers welcome journalist Lina Attalah (@linaattalah), the co-founder and chief editor of MadaMasr, an independent online Egyptian newspaper. They discuss the current situation in Egypt, political despotism and the war on normal politics, media censorship, the question of Camp David and why the political and military elite are so wedded to it, the nature of Egyptian sovereignty in Sinai, and the popular as well as official attitude toward the genocide in Gaza and towards the Palestinian people. Watch the episode on our YouTube channel Date of recording: June 18, 2024. Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii *Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to access all the bonus content, including the latest bonus episode.*            

The second half of the conversation between the brothers and historian Abdel Razzaq Takriti (@abedtakriti). In this part, they do a deep dive into the Oslo negotiations, the effect of the Camp David Agreement, Yasser Arafat's leadership of the PLO, and why he signed the Oslo Accords. They also discuss the rise of Hamas and its significance within Palestinian politics and the long history of resistance. Watch the episode on our YouTube channel Date of recording: June 11, 2024. Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii *Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to access all the bonus content, including the latest bonus episode.*  

[Producer's note: This is a preview of the latest bonus episode of Makdisi Street. You can listen to the entire episode by subscribing to the Patreon for as low as $5 a month and get access to other great bonus content. Since we want to make as much content accessible as possible, we have unlocked this for the YouTube channel.] The Brothers discuss the deceptive conflation of antizionism with antisemitism to shut down Palestinian solidarity, how a synagogue in LA was used by Zionists to sell properties in “Anglo” neighborhoods in occupied Palestine, and the escalating Israeli threats against Lebanon and Hizbullah amidst its ongoing genocide in Gaza. WikiLeaks "Collateral Murder" https://collateralmurder.wikileaks.org Watch this episode on our YouTube channel Date of recording: June 25, 2024. Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet  Music by Hadiiiiii

The brothers welcome historian Abdel Razzaq Takriti (@abedtakriti), the author of Monsoon Revolution: Republicans, Sultans, and Empires in Oman 1965-1976 (2016) and “Before BDS: Lineages of Boycott in Palestine.” They take a deep dive into the history of Palestinian resistance in the 20th century, explore the difference between eliminationist and genocidal forms of settler colonialism, discuss the mutilation of Palestine in 1948 to make way for the last settler-colony in a world on the brink of an anti-colonial revolution, the subsequent rise of Fatah and the Palestine Liberation Organization, and the role of Arab states in helping and hindering the quest for Palestinian liberation. Watch the episode on our YouTube channel Date of recording: June 11, 2024. Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii *Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to access all the bonus content, including the latest bonus episode, the second Q&A*  

The brothers welcome Maya Wind, the author of Towers of Ivory and Steel, a searing critique of the Israeli academic establishment's complicity in the regime of apartheid and genocide. They discuss the role played by Israeli universities in the establishment and maintenance of the Zionist project in Palestine, the nexus between universities and political repression and military violence, the appalling treatment of Professor Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, and the urgent need for an academic boycott of the Israeli university system. Towers of Ivory and Steel: How Israeli Universities Deny Palestinian Freedom (2024)  https://www.versobooks.com/en-ca/products/3009-towers-of-ivory-and-steel Watch the episode on our YouTube channel Date of recording: June 5, 2024. Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii *Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to access all the bonus content, including the latest bonus episode, the second Q&A*  

The brothers take on some of the most popular and entirely mendacious Zionist talking points and debunk them. Watch the episode on our YouTube channel Links mentioned in the episode Relevant links   A.L. Tibawi, Anglo-Arab Relations and the Question of Palestine, 1914-21 (1971) George Antonius, The Arab Awakening (1938) Edward Said, The Question of Palestine (1992) Edward Said, “The Morning After” (1993) Avi Shlaim, Three Worlds (2024)  Abdel Razzaq Takriti on Palestinian revolution  Rashid Khalidi, Hundred Years War on Palestine (2020) Shira Robinson, Citizen Strangers (2013)  Ilan Pappe, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (2007) Benny Morris, "Survival of the Fittest: An Interview with Benny Morris" (2004)  Ella Shohat, On the Arab-Jew, Palestine, and Other Displacements (2017)  Vladimir Jabotinsky, “The Iron Wall”  (1923) Amnesty International, "Israel's apartheid against Palestinians: Cruel system of domination and crime against humanity" (2022) B'Tselem, "A regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This is apartheid" (2021) Original suppressed ESCWA report on apartheid. Israeli Practices towards the Palestinian People and the Question of Apartheid (2017) Orit Bashkin, Impossible Exodus (2017) Saree Makdisi, Tolerance Is a Wasteland: Palestine and the Culture of Denial (2024) Ussama Makdisi, Age of Coexistence: The Ecumenical Frame and the Making of the Modern Arab World (2021) UN OCHA Map of West Bank and other OPT. Date of recording: May 28, 2024. Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii *Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet  to access all the bonus content, including the latest bonus episode, the second Q&A*              

The brothers welcome the political analyst Mouin Rabbani (@MouinRabbani) to the show to discuss the broader implications of Israel's genocidal campaign in Gaza, the loss of Israeli military credibility, the implications of the recent ICJ and ICC decisions for Israel's growing global isolation, and the growing sense that we may be at an inflection point in the Zionist conflict with the Palestinian people as Israel becomes more of a liability than an asset, politically, militarily and electorally. Watch the episode on our YouTube channel Date of recording: May 21, 2024. Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii *The hosts are doing another Q&A for Patrons only! Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to submit your questions and get access to all the bonus content, including the first Q&A and the latest bonus episode!*    

The brothers welcome Professor Stephen Walt to the show to discuss US foreign policy in the Middle East, the role of the Israel lobby in influencing US decision-making, and how all these dynamics may develop in the wake of Israel's genocidal campaign in Gaza. Watch the episode on our YouTube channel Date of recording: May 14, 2024. Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii *You can now support Makdisi Street on Patreon! Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to access future bonus content, including the first (now published!) Q&A and the latest bonus episode!*  

The brothers welcome Elham Fakhro to discuss the varied and evolving role of the Persian Gulf monarchies to Palestine, their alignment with the United States, the rivalry with Iran for regional influence, and the rise of the Abraham Accords despite the widespread opposition to normalization. Watch the episode on our YouTube channel Date of recording: Apr 23, 2024. Follow us on X: @MakdisiStreet Follow us on YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Follow us on Insta: @Makdisist Music by Hadiiiiii *You can now support Makdisi Street on Patreon! Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to access future bonus content, including the first (now published!) Q&A and the latest bonus episode!*  

The brothers welcome historian and journalist Vijay Prasad (@vijayprashad) to the show to discuss the emergence of Palestine as the keystone struggle of the Global South, the importance of the PLO, the question of sovereign national interests vs. solidarity with Palestinian liberation, and the radical student movements rising up across the West. Watch the episode on our YouTube channel Date of recording: April 30, 2024. Follow us on X: @MakdisiStreet Follow us on YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Follow us on Insta: @Makdisist Music by Hadiiiiii *You can now support Makdisi Street on Patreon! Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to access future bonus content, including the first (now published!) Q&A and the latest bonus episode!*  

The brothers welcome the historian Rashid Khalidi of Columbia University to the show to discuss the history of the Palestinian people's struggle against the Zionist project in Palestine, the colonial affiliations of Zionism, the background to the 1948 Nakba, and the role of Arab and Palestinian leaders and forms of resistance in bringing about change. Watch the episode on our YouTube channel Date of recording: Apr 16, 2024. Follow us on X: @MakdisiStreet Follow us on YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Follow us on Insta: @Makdisist Music by Hadiiiiii *You can now support Makdisi Street on Patreon! Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to access future bonus content, including the first (now published!) Q&A and the latest bonus episode!*      

[Producer's note: This is a preview of the latest bonus episode of the Makdisi Street. You can listen to the entire episode by subscribing to the Patreon for as low as $5 a month and get access to other great bonus content. Since we want to make as much content accessible as possible, we have unlocked this for the YouTube channel.] The brothers discuss the latest developments in and around Palestine, including European denial and complicity, the role of the ICJ and other systems of accountability in international politics, the possible expansion of the conflict, and whether dogs wag tails or tails wag dogs. Watch the episode on our YouTube channel Date of recording: Apr 13, 2024. Follow us on X: @MakdisiStreet Follow us on YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Follow us on Insta: @Makdisist Music by Hadiiiiii

The brothers welcome to the show Michael Fakhri, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food and Professor of Law at the University of Oregon, to discuss the ongoing starvation war against Gaza and how intentional law can be wielded to fight against it. Watch the episode on our YouTube channel Date of recording: Apr 3, 2024. Follow us on X: @MakdisiStreet Follow us on YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Follow us on Insta: @Makdisist Music by Hadiiiiii *You can now support Makdisi Street on Patreon! Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to get access to future bonus content, including the first (now published!) Q&A*  

The brothers welcome Tony Karon (@TonyKaron) and Sean Jacobs (@africasacountry) to the show to discuss their experience of the politics of sport in their native South Africa, the lessons that the country's anti-apartheid struggle might have for the struggle for freedom in Palestine, and football as a potential site for galvanizing a broader boycott movement against Israel's genocidal system of apartheid.   Watch the episode on our YouTube channel Date of recording: March 22, 2024 Follow us on X: @MakdisiStreet Follow us on YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Follow us on Insta: @Makdisist Music by Hadiiiiii *You can now support Makdisi Street on Patreon! Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to get access to future bonus content, including the first (now published!) Q&A*  

The brothers discuss, among other things, Zionism and denial; Israel's engineered starvation of Gaza; US-Israeli collaboration.   Watch the episode on our YouTube channel Date of recording: March 19, 2024 Follow us on X: @MakdisiStreet Follow us on YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Follow us on Insta: @Makdisist Music by Hadiiiiii *You can now support Makdisi Street on Patreon! Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to get access to future bonus content, including the first (soon to be released)Q&A*  

The brothers welcome Peter Beinart (@PeterBeinart) to the show to discuss the role of the Gaza genocide in the generational transformation taking place in the United States (including within Jewish communities across the country), as well as the campaign to redefine antisemitism to include criticism of Zionism and the Zionist state, and the many pathways leading from Zionism to democracy and freedom for all.   Watch the episode on our YouTube channel Date of recording: March 12, 2024 Follow us on X: @MakdisiStreet Follow us on YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Follow us on Insta: @Makdisist Music by Hadiiiiii *You can now support Makdisi Street on Patreon! Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to get access to future bonus content, including the first Q&A!*  

The brothers reflect on the suspension of Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian for having committed herself to justice, equality, rights, freedom and love: principles which Zionist institutions and the Zionist state clearly find themselves to be incompatible. Call to Action: Support academic freedom for Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian https://mondoweiss.net/2024/03/call-to-action-support-academic-freedom-for-nadera-shalhoub-kevorkian/ Date of recording: March 15, 2024.     

The brothers talk with Dr. Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian (link) about life under occupation in East Jerusalem, the scattering and reconstitution of Palestinian bodies and Palestine itself, and the affirmation of life and love that lie at the heart of the Palestinian struggle for freedom. Date of recording: March 6, 2024 Follow us on X: @MakdisiStreet Follow us on YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Follow us on Insta: @Makdisist Music by Hadiiiiii *You can now support Makdisi Street on Patreon! Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to get access to future bonus content, including the first Q&A!*  

The brothers interview Chris Gunness (@MyanmarAProject), former chief spokesperson for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), about journalistic coverage and distortion, the shaping of representation of Palestine, the work of the Agency, the moral responsibility of those funding it, and how calumnies spread by Zionist organizations about its workers provided a pretext for Western countries to cut their support.   Watch this episode on YouTube Date of recording: Feb 26, 2024 Follow us on X: @MakdisiStreet Follow us on YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Follow us on Insta: @Makdisist Music by Hadiiiiii *You can now support Makdisi Street on Patreon! Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to get access to future bonus content, including the first Q&A!*