Here are some print and video links from October 2023, as well as a handful produced/published prior, which provide just a sliver of context far too absent from Western mainstream media narratives (to say nothing of those deployed by Western politicians).
Firstly, thanks to activist, researcher, former Constellation staffer, and eternal comrade Graham Latham for this recent set of reading links he shared with his close newsletter community:
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This Q+A at The New Yorker with Tareq Baconi, a scholar and historian of Hamas, which has some useful thoughts on how to conceive of the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7 and the organization’s role within the broader horizon of the Palestinian resistance movement (published Oct. 11).
• This piece by Arielle Angel, editor-in-chief of Jewish Currents, which is a really beautiful attempt to take stock of the horror and the grief and the politics of this moment (published Oct. 12).
• This exchange at Dissent between Joshua Leifer and Gabriel Winant, on the left’s responses to the Hamas attacks and the political implications of public mourning in this moment (published Oct. 12/13).
• This beautiful and terrifying piece by Sarah Aziza at The Baffler, which walks you through the first week of this madness through the eyes of a Palestinian with family in Gaza, who’s living in New York (published Oct. 18).
• This piece by Adam Shatz at London Review of Books, which runs down a cogent and lucid contextualization of the October 7 attacks and how they fit into the broader arc of the history of the conflict (published Oct. 19).
• This piece by Timothy Demay at the N+1 website, which talks about the uses of violence in decolonization struggles, comparing the current case of Palestine to that of Algeria during the 1950s and 1960s (published Oct. 20).
• This opinion piece by Khaled Beydoun for CNN, which talks about what it’s like to be a Muslim in the United States right now, with its echoes of the wild wave of Islamophobia unleashed under the guise of the “war on terror” post-9/11 (published Oct. 21).
• This piece by Hala Aylan at the New York Times, originally titled “Why Must Palestinians Audition for Your Empathy?” before being clipped down to “The Palestine Double Standard,” is essential reading (published Oct 25).
• This report at Mondoweiss by Michael Arria, comparing the current movement against the bombardment and the occupation to the massive mobilizations against the invasion of Iraq in 2003 (published Oct. 28).
• This piece at London Review of Books by Eyal Weisman, who has written books on the architecture and built environment of the Israeli apartheid regime (published Oct. 30).
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One of our favourite culture journals N+1 has published several worthy, nuanced pieces (yes, we do care about nuance, which is not the enemy of history, justice and solidarity).
https://www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/online-only/have-we-learned-nothing/
https://www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/online-only/a-surge-in-suppression/
https://www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/online-only/the-cafe-and-the-colony/
https://www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/online-only/freedom-for-the-one-who-thinks-differently/
https://www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/online-only/no-human-being-can-exist/
Also this:
https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-weekend-essay/the-view-from-my-window-in-gaza
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VIDEO
Tareq Baconi • Amnapour • 25 Oct
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwckjA_DJW0
Tareq Bacon • Democracy Now! • 20 Oct
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjrvEJ3IdeY
Ilan Pappé • Berkeley Speech • 19 Oct
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OcjOP8iUCU
Norman Finkelstein • Chris Hedges Report • 18 Oct
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0aemeCbRTk
Daniel Levy • Democracy Now! • 17 Oct
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1FruK36luM
Pakistan Ambassador calls out Canada at UN
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAhY4S27-TY
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A TINY SAMPLING OF BACKGROUND
Israel/West Bank spring 2023 • Vice News
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=km-ciyqmAus
Settlers/Plans in Israeli Govt • July 2023 • +972 Magazine
https://www.972mag.com/settlements-roads-infrastructure-smotrich/
Jerusalem Day Flag March • Jun 2022 • AlJazeera
https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2022/6/1/racism-violence-of-jerusalem-march-is-mainstream-analysts-say
Palestine in the Israeli education system • 2019 • Middle East Monitor
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190726-how-israel-teaches-its-children-to-hate/amp/
Blowback / Mehdi Hasan • Feb 2018 • The Intercept
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7grSsuFSS0
Gideon Levy 2018
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQS-_9K5-Dk
