"Law as a cudgel that you deploy selectively" w/ Sarah Leah Whitson
Release Date: 04/30/2025
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...
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Return to Makdisi Street w/ Samir Makdisi
Makdisi Street
The brothers welcome their father, Samir Makdisi, Professor Emeritus at the American University of Beirut, to the show. They discuss the significance of Makdisi Street—the street itself!— in Beirut’s cultural history, the social and political location of Ras Beirut in the larger context of Beirut and Lebanon itself, student movements in the 1950s and 1960s, the gradual consolidation of a sectarian political culture in Lebanon and the many forms of resistance to it, and the transformations in Beirut and Lebanon since the onset of the Lebanese war in 1975. They also discuss the...
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Bonus episode - To proxy or not to proxy?
Makdisi Street
***Producer's note: This is a preview of the . Sign up on Patreon for as little as $5 a month to access this and other great bonus content.*** The brothers get together for a spirited debate on the age-old question: Is Israel a proxy of the US? Date of recording: Sept 9, 2025. Watch the on our YouTube channel Follow us on our socials: X: YouTube: Insta: TikTok: Thanks for supporting Makdisi Street!
info_outlineThe 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.
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Music by Hadiiiiii
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