“You can’t hide the smoking gun of this genocide” w/ Sherene Seikaly and Tony Alessandrini
Release Date: 01/20/2025
“Trump, Venezuela and and empire in crisis” w/ Greg Grandin
Makdisi Street
The brothers welcome Professor to the show to discuss the US kidnapping of the Venezuelan president against the historical context of other American imperial interventions in Latin America, the recurring use of Latin America as a stage to reboot US interventions elsewhere around the world, different models of regime change, the collapse of international law and legitimacy and the specificities of Trump as a symptom of American decline and the crisis of empire. Date of recording: January 7th, 2026 Watch the on our YouTube channel Follow us on our socials: X: YouTube: ...
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"We are not defeated" w/ Mustafa Barghouti
Makdisi Street
The brothers talk with the prominent Palestinian politician, activist and medical doctor Mustafa Barghouti, Secretary General of the Palestinian National Initiative, and presidential candidate during the last elections in Palestine in 2005. We discuss the awful realities of Palestinians living under Israeli genocide and attempted ethnic cleansing despite a “ceasefire,” the essence of Palestinian steadfastness and the importance of international solidarity. We also debate the meaning of Palestinian unity as key to the liberation struggle connecting forces, movements and people globally. We...
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From Jerusalem to Cairo and Beirut w/ Jean Said Makdisi
Makdisi Street
Special Christmas/New Year edition with the brothers’ mother! The brothers welcome their mother, the author and educator Jean Said Makdisi, to the show, to discuss her books, her memories of growing up between Palestine and Egypt, living in America in the 1950s and 1960s and returning to Lebanon, where she raised her children through the 1975-1990 war while teaching at Beirut University College. She is the author of "Teta, Mother and Me: An Arab Woman's Memoir" and "Beirut Fragments: A War Memoir." This episode was recorded live and produced by Layla Makdisi. Date of recording: August...
info_outline![[ARCHIVE] Christmas—and Christians—in Palestine w/ Dr. Mitri Raheb show art](https://assets.libsyn.com/item/39533460?height=50&width=50)
[ARCHIVE] Christmas—and Christians—in Palestine w/ Dr. Mitri Raheb
Makdisi Street
***Producer's note: This is a repost of an episode we released two years ago. Wishing you a Merry Christmas from the Makdisi Street team! Thanks for your support! FREE PALESTINE*** The brothers welcome 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...
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“Pressuring schools to crack down" w/ Darryl Li
Makdisi Street
The brothers welcome Professor Darryl Li of the University of Chicago to the show to discuss the new on federal “antisemitism” investigations on US college campuses, revealing the extent to which US civil rights laws have been distorted and weaponized to suppress the advocacy of Palestinian rights across the United States, to suppress American academic freedom in order to protect the Zionist project in Palestine, as well as the extent to which this process, though taken to a new level by Trump, was actually initiated by liberal and Democratic administrations long before Trump came...
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"Anti-imperialism with solidarity at home" w/ Ali Abunimah
Makdisi Street
The brothers welcome of to the show to discuss mainstream media distortion of Palestine and the rise of alternative media, shifting public opinions on Zionism and solidarity for Palestine in the West, the growing divide between ordinary people and political elites, and the shared sense that we are witnessing the terminal decline of Zionism in the West. Date of recording: November 3, 2025 Watch the on our YouTube channel Follow us on our socials: X: YouTube: Insta: TikTok: Support the show on Patreon for access to all the great bonus content, i.
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“What did it take for so many Americans to not see" w/ Melani McAlister
Makdisi Street
**NOTE: The brothers are hosting a for patrons only. Please sign up today and drop your questions!** The brothers welcome professor of American Studies at George Washington University, author of the new book and scholar of American culture and evangelical culture. They discuss the meaning and nature of Christian Zionism, Melani’s own insight after growing up an evangelical in North Carolina, how she learned about Israel before discovering the question of Palestine, the diversity within the evangelical movement, the different ways American evangelicals are Zionist, the...
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"Public opinion is vastly different than the elites" w/ Mandy Turner
Makdisi Street
The brothers welcome , a senior researcher with , to discuss the world of think tanks, how they operate as hegemony factories, and the divergence between public opinion and elites on the Gaza genocide Check out her article, Date of recording: Sept 16, 2025. Watch the on our YouTube channel Follow us on our socials: X: YouTube: Insta: TikTok: Support the show on Patreon for access to all the great bonus content, including the latest .
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"At the Threshold of Genocide"
Makdisi Street
The brothers discuss the “ceasefire” in Gaza, the Trump plan, and the potential contradictions between Israel and its partners and enablers. Date of recording: Oct 21, 2025. Watch the on our YouTube channel Follow us on our socials: X: YouTube: Insta: TikTok: Support the show on Patreon for access to all the great bonus content, including the latest .
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"My fear is that this is a repackaging of the genocide" w/ Diana Buttu
Makdisi Street
**Producer's note: This episode was marred by technical problems and connection issues. Apologies for the sound quality** The brothers welcome the Canadian-Palestinian lawyer and former negotiator Diana Buttu to the show to discuss the ceasefire in Gaza and the context of the Trump-branded “peace plan” for Gaza and its historical antecedents and possible outcomes. Date of recording: Oct 9, 2025. Watch the on our YouTube channel Follow us on our socials: X: YouTube: Insta: TikTok: Support the show on Patreon for access to all the great...
info_outlineNote: 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.
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Music by Hadiiiiii
*Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to access all the bonus content, including a live conversation with Samir Makdisi*