Makdisi Street
A podcast co-hosted by Saree Makdisi, Ussama Makdisi, and Karim Makdisi. Follow us on X: @MakdisiStreet Follow us on YouTube: @MakdisiStreet
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“The Gulf, the Arab metropoles and shifting patterns of power” w/ Elham Fakhro
05/08/2024
“The Gulf, the Arab metropoles and shifting patterns of power” w/ Elham Fakhro
The brothers welcome Elham Fakhro to the show to discuss the shifting patterns of relations between the states of the Arab Gulf and the established metropoles of the Arab world, the interplay of education and political transformation, the trend towards normalization with the Zionist state and recent developments in attitudes towards and relationships with Iran. on our YouTube channel Date of recording: Apr 23, 2024. Follow us on X: Follow us on YouTube: Follow us on Insta: *You can now support Makdisi Street on Patreon! Sign up at to access future bonus content, including the first Q&A and the !*
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"The process of liberation is irresistible and irreversible" w/ Vijay Prashad
05/01/2024
"The process of liberation is irresistible and irreversible" w/ Vijay Prashad
The brothers welcome historian and journalist Vijay Prashad 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. on our YouTube channel Date of recording: April 30, 2024. Follow us on X: Follow us on YouTube: Follow us on Insta: *You can now support Makdisi Street on Patreon! Sign up at to access future bonus content, including the first Q&A and the !*
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“Learning how to be colonialists" w/ Rashid Khalidi
04/24/2024
“Learning how to be colonialists" w/ Rashid Khalidi
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. on our YouTube channel Date of recording: Apr 16, 2024. Follow us on X: Follow us on YouTube: Follow us on Insta: *You can now support Makdisi Street on Patreon! Sign up at to access future bonus content, including the first Q&A and the !*
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(Preview) "Distraction and Denial"
04/17/2024
(Preview) "Distraction and Denial"
[Producer's note: This is a preview of the latest bonus episode of Makdisi Street. You can listen to the by subscribing to the 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 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. on our YouTube channel Date of recording: Apr 13, 2024. Follow us on X: Follow us on YouTube: Follow us on Insta:
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"Famine is never a natural occurrence" w/ Michael Fakhri
04/08/2024
"Famine is never a natural occurrence" w/ Michael Fakhri
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. on our YouTube channel Date of recording: Apr 3, 2024. Follow us on X: Follow us on YouTube: Follow us on Insta: *You can now support Makdisi Street on Patreon! Sign up at to get access to future bonus content, including the first Q&A*
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“Stadiums are completely ungovernable spaces, spaces of liberation” w/ Tony Karon and Sean Jacobs
03/29/2024
“Stadiums are completely ungovernable spaces, spaces of liberation” w/ Tony Karon and Sean Jacobs
The brothers welcome Tony Karon and Sean Jacobs 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. on our YouTube channel Date of recording: March 22, 2024 Follow us on X: Follow us on YouTube: Follow us on Insta: *You can now support Makdisi Street on Patreon! Sign up at to get access to future bonus content, including the first Q&A*
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“Two sides of the same coin”
03/20/2024
“Two sides of the same coin”
The brothers discuss, among other things, Zionism and denial; Israel’s engineered starvation of Gaza; US-Israeli collaboration. on our YouTube channel Date of recording: March 19, 2024 Follow us on X: Follow us on YouTube: Follow us on Insta: *You can now support Makdisi Street on Patreon! Sign up at to get access to future bonus content, including the first (soon to be released)Q&A*
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"A kind of intergenerational civil war" w/ Peter Beinart
03/16/2024
"A kind of intergenerational civil war" w/ Peter Beinart
The brothers welcome Peter Beinart 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. on our YouTube channel Date of recording: March 12, 2024 Follow us on X: Follow us on YouTube: Follow us on Insta: *You can now support Makdisi Street on Patreon! Sign up at to get access to future bonus content, !*
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In solidarity with Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian
03/16/2024
In solidarity with Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian
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 Date of recording: March 15, 2024.
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“There is so much love in Palestine" w/ Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian
03/08/2024
“There is so much love in Palestine" w/ Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian
The brothers talk with Dr. Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian 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. on our YouTube channel Date of recording: March 6, 2024 Follow us on X: Follow us on YouTube: Follow us on Insta: *You can now support Makdisi Street on Patreon! Sign up at to get access to future bonus content, !*
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"The world has been lied to" w/ Chris Gunness
02/28/2024
"The world has been lied to" w/ Chris Gunness
The brothers interview Chris Gunness , 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. Date of recording: Feb 26, 2024 Follow us on X: Follow us on YouTube: Follow us on Insta: *You can now support Makdisi Street on Patreon! Sign up at to get access to future bonus content, !*
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“Every single Palestinian is traumatized" w/ Dr. Hanan Ashrawi
02/21/2024
“Every single Palestinian is traumatized" w/ Dr. Hanan Ashrawi
The brothers welcome the Palestinian educator, political intellectual, and activist Dr. Hanan Ashrawi to discuss the political horizons after the trauma of Gaza, as well as the pitfalls of the so-called peace process, Oslo, the PLO vs PA, and moves to reform the PLO for the path to true liberation and self-determination. Date of recording: Feb 20, 2024 Follow us on X: Follow us on YouTube: Follow us on Insta: *You can now support Makdisi Street on Patreon! Sign up at to get access to future bonus content, !*
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"The purpose of lawfare is to distract us" w/ Dima Khalidi
02/17/2024
"The purpose of lawfare is to distract us" w/ Dima Khalidi
The brothers welcome Dima Khalidi, founder and director of Palestine Legal (), to the podcast to talk about the institutionalized Zionist assault on academic freedom and free speech in the United States as well as the convergence between the Zionist suppression of Palestinian rights advocacy on the one hand and right-wing reaction against the diversification of the university system in the US. Date of recording: Feb 15, 2024 Follow us on X: Follow us on YouTube: Follow us on Insta: *Announcement: You can now support Makdisi Street on Patreon! Sign up at to get access to future bonus content, !*
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"They carried a memory in their head" w/ Dr. Salman Abu Sitta
02/07/2024
"They carried a memory in their head" w/ Dr. Salman Abu Sitta
The brothers welcome to the show the preeminent scholar and Nakba survivor Dr. Salman Abu Sitta to discuss his personal journey after 1948, the relative simplicity of implementing UN resolution 194 for Palestinians to return to their lands, and his high hopes for younger generations. Read his article, "I could have been one of those who broke through the siege on October 7" Check out the Palestine Land Society Date of recording: Feb 5, 2024 Follow us on X: Follow us on YouTube: Follow us on Insta:
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"The ground zero of a liberated world is Palestine" w/ Robin DG Kelley
01/30/2024
"The ground zero of a liberated world is Palestine" w/ Robin DG Kelley
The brothers invite the American historian to the show to discuss the status and visibility of Palestine in Black American political culture from the 1940s through MLK and Malcolm X to Black Lives Matter and the present--and the ways in which Palestine remains one of the keys to a liberated world. Date of recording: Jan 29, 2024. Follow us on X: Follow us on YouTube: Follow us on Insta:
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“The murder of our colleagues has to stop” w/ Jeremy Scahill
01/24/2024
“The murder of our colleagues has to stop” w/ Jeremy Scahill
The brothers welcome the investigative journalist, Intercept Senior Correspondent and podcast host Jeremy Scahill to discuss the parameters of the media coverage of the genocide in Gaza and to reflect on the patterns, structures and limitations of Western corporate media as well as the growing alternatives to it. Date of recording: Jan 23, 2024. Follow us on X: Follow us on YouTube:
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“To think about Palestine is to be human”
01/17/2024
“To think about Palestine is to be human”
(Note: We are considering launching a Patreon feed to help defray the costs of producing this show, whereby for a low monthly rate, supporters will get access to different kinds of bonus content: a monthly Q&A, reposting of episodes hosts do with other podcasts, episodes featuring a single host interviewing guests, etc. We would love your feedback about this. Please get in touch with the show either through or with any ideas for potential bonus content) The brothers provide an assessment of where things stand after 100 days of Israel’s war on Gaza, the horror being suffered by the people in Gaza, as well as the forms that resistance takes and the paths toward an outline of liberation. Date of recording: Jan 16, 2024. Follow us on X: Follow us on YouTube:
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“Legitimacy does, in the end, prevail" w/ Richard Falk
01/09/2024
“Legitimacy does, in the end, prevail" w/ Richard Falk
The brothers talk with the distinguished legal scholar Richard Falk about the possible political, legal, and moral consequences of the International Court of Justice case brought by South Africa against Israel on the charge of genocide. Date of recording: January 9, 2024. Follow us on X: Follow us on YouTube:
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"I truly hope this is our year” w/ Diana Buttu
01/02/2024
"I truly hope this is our year” w/ Diana Buttu
The brothers welcome Palestinian lawyer Diana Buttu () to the show to provide a broader political context for the crisis in Gaza, including the growing contradictions within Israeli politics, the struggle for hegemony within Palestinian politics, the legacy and possible future role of the PLO, and the legal and political consequences of the war in (and on) Gaza. The conversation also offers perspective on the so-called peace process of the late 1990s and early 2000s, in which Diana was involved, and the parameters in which we can start to imagine possible resolutions of this conflict. Date of recording: January 2, 2024. Follow us on X: Follow us on YouTube:
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Christmas—and Christians—in Palestine w/ Dr. Mitri Raheb
12/24/2023
Christmas—and Christians—in Palestine w/ Dr. Mitri Raheb
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 books, (2023) and (1995) Date of recording: December 22, 2023. Follow us on X: Follow us on YouTube:
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The day after in Gaza w/ Dr. Ghassan Abu Sittah
12/21/2023
The day after in Gaza w/ Dr. Ghassan Abu Sittah
The brothers welcome this extraordinary Palestinian physician, to the show, to talk about his recent experience in Gaza in comparison with other Israeli attacks on Gaza (2014, 2008-9). “One of the aims of catastrophization, the creation of a self-sustaining catastrophe in Gaza,” Abu Sittah warns, “is that, once there is a ceasefire, the catastrophe is able to continue, with the help of the siege. And so, my biggest worry about the day after is that the Israelis will be allowed to achieve, in the siege, in the ceasefire, what they failed to achieve in the war.” Date of recording: December 20, 2023. Follow us on X: Follow us on YouTube:
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"The beginning of the end of the Zionist project?" w/ Ilan Pappé
12/13/2023
"The beginning of the end of the Zionist project?" w/ Ilan Pappé
In this episode, the brothers interview the historian , best known for his 2006 book , in order to gain some historical perspective on the catastrophe unfolding in Gaza as well as what the current situation tells us about shifting global and local attitudes and even how one can start to anticipate the terminal stage of the Zionist project in Palestine—and what that means for the future. Date of recording: December 12, 2023. Follow us on X: Follow us on YouTube:
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"I just look for the day there will be justice" w/ Francesca Albanese
12/04/2023
"I just look for the day there will be justice" w/ Francesca Albanese
The Makdisi brothers welcome Francesca Albanese (), the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, to the podcast. The discussion covers international humanitarian law, the concept of self-defense as it is understood in international law, the right to resist military occupation, the specificities of settler colonial occupation, and the question of justice given the Israeli bombardment of Gaza. Date of recording: December 4, 2023 Follow us on X: Follow us on YouTube:
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"Saying ‘pauses’ implies there’s more harm to come"
11/26/2023
"Saying ‘pauses’ implies there’s more harm to come"
In this episode, we discuss the international backdrop to the Gaza ceasefire/truce/pause (and what the distinctions are among all those terms). We also cover Israeli and US aims for Gaza in view of resistance on the ground and their failure to achieve their objectives in the 2006 war in Lebanon, as well as the significance of the prisoner exchange for the local legitimacy and standing of Hamas. Date of recording: November 26, 2023. Follow us on X: Follow us on YouTube:
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"An unmitigated human catastrophe"
11/25/2023
"An unmitigated human catastrophe"
In this episode, we discuss the coverage and framing of the ongoing Israeli bombardment of Gaza including media narratives, gaps between popular and establishment positions, and the stifling of dissent in the academy. Date of Recording: November 14, 2023. Follow us on X: Follow us on YouTube:
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