ISRAEL / PALESTINE 3-Pack

Includes:

Palestine: A Case of Settler Colonialism

The conflict over Palestine is a century-long war involving a settler-colonial movement–Zionism–which succeeded in forming a national entity–The State of Israel. The term settler colonialism may not be well known but it accurately describes what has happened to multiple regions of the world from Ireland to Canada and from New Zealand to Palestine where indigenous populations have been subjugated and displaced. In the case of Palestine, the Zionist movement was supported by superpowers, first Britain and then the U.S. President Truman was told by State Department diplomats that an overtly pro-Zionist policy would harm U.S. interests in the Middle East.  To them, Truman said, “I am sorry gentlemen, but I have to answer to hundreds of thousands who are anxious for the success of Zionism. I do not have hundreds of thousands of Arabs among my constituents.”

Palestine: The Pendulum Is Shifting

For decades Palestine and Palestinians were associated with terror and terrorism. In political discourse and popular culture Palestinians were often typecast as blood thirsty killers. As the great Palestinian-American scholar Edward Said once ruefully observed, “Palestine is a thankless cause, one in which if you truly serve, you get nothing back but opprobrium, abuse, and ostracism. How many friends avoid the subject? How many colleagues want none of Palestine's controversy? How many bien pensant liberals have time for Bosnia and Somalia, Rwanda and South Africa and Nicaragua and human and civil rights everywhere on earth, but not for Palestine and Palestinians?” There are signs that may be changing. A new generation of activists has breathed fresh energy into the question of Palestine. The BDS, Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, has attracted more and more adherents. The pendulum is shifting. Interviewed by David Barsamian. Recorded at KSFR.

An Israeli Dissident View

Occupation has a corrosive and corrupting effect not just on the occupied but on the occupiers as well. The British learned this in Kenya as the French did in Algeria and maybe the U.S. did in Iraq. People don’t like to be occupied. Thus, severe measures are employed to keep them controlled. Israel is a case in point. Palestinians have endured more than five decades of occupation. They have been subjected to land seizures, destruction of homes and fruit trees, torture, checkpoints, curfews, barriers, collective punishment and extrajudicial killings. In terms of the tactics of repression Israel is no different from other occupiers. But there is one crucial difference: U.S. support. Washington has given over the years more than $130. billion in aid to Israel. That’s more than any other country gets by far. The U.S. by its largesse enables the occupation.

Recorded at Seattle Pacific University.

Speakers

Rashid Khalidi

Rashid Khalidi is the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University and editor of the Journal of Palestine Studies. His articles appear in the New York Times, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times and many other journals. He is the author of Palestinian Identity, Brokers of Deceit, The Iron Cage and The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine.

Ilan Pappe

Ilan Pappé is professor of history at the University of Exeter. He was formerly a senior lecturer in political science at the University of Haifa and chair of the Touma Institute for Palestinian and Israeli Studies in Haifa. He is the author of many books including The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, On Palestine with Noam Chomsky and The Biggest Prison on Earth: A History of the Occupied Territories.

Miko Peled

Miko Peled was born in Israel to a prominent Zionist family. His grandfather signed Israel’s Declaration of Independence. His father, Matti Peled served as a general in the 1967 war. He is an advocate for Palestinian rights and lectures widely on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He is the author of The General’s Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine and Injustice: The Story of the Holy Land Foundation Five.