Aug 26, 2026 · 1 hr 3 min · 15 segments
Over the last three years Israel has systematically destroyed Gaza's healthcare, education and agricultural infrastructure. It has deliberately targeted medical workers, journalists, academics and…
Shahd HammouriGuest
Jeremy CorbynGuest
Neve GordonGuest
Chris BrownHost
So it would be useful to provide some of the history regarding Gaza, you know, going back to the Nakba and maybe to the British mandate before that.
You know, how did the conditions that were present on October 7th, on October 6th, in Gaza come into being?
So it's very important to also see this as the history of imperialism in the whole of West Asia and North Africa, in the sense that the British arrived in, uh, West Asia around the 18th century to facilitate their own trade.
And with that, facilitated a very good coalition with, uh, some of the elite classes in the region.
Um, and with, uh, the case of Palestine, what happened is the, uh, is the effort to cut apart, uh, or create the Berlin Conference of the Levant by cutting apart the whole region, which was one whole entity, the Levant itself, with its indigenous people, uh, according to the pieces of cake that, uh, appealed best to the French and the British.
When it came to Palestine specifically, it was both the Zionist project, um, as well as places within the British government that thought it would be a very good idea to resolve the, uh, Jewish question of Europe, and predominantly the question of European Jews, uh, into creating their new homeland in, uh, Palestine.
And inevitably, it's the, the same settler colonial logic that facilitated, uh, the settler colonial projects in Australia, in the United States, in South Africa.
And indeed, when Herzl first wrote his book on the Jewish state, he imagined the same modes with which the other colonies were colonized, uh, into taking, uh, Palestinian land.
And inevitably, of course, the whole logic of it is premised on the idea, uh, that the people there have a life that is less worthy of living.
Uh, either the way you could justify that is on racial premises or just taking forward that colonial logic.
So forgetting the fact that this is a place with thousands of years of history, and these are simply the continuously living inhabitants of the place.
The infrastructure of the British mandate in Palestine is indeed what facilitated the space of the, uh, colonization of, uh, uh, the settler colonization of Palestine as a whole, uh, in the sense of facilitating also the economic system of it.
So the manners with which the, uh, split, let's say, inevitably facilitated the fact that one faction of the society had the upper hand in terms of the money and the weapons, and the other faction did not.
And here we're talking about pre-'48, and indeed the Palestinians did rebel multiple times.
And indeed, uh, those rebellions were quashed with British weapons all the way up until indeed when we know of the 19, um, uh, '48 Nakba.
And with the Nakba indeed happened the most, uh, let's say the biggest betrayal by the international community as a whole, in the sense that, uh, there was a recognition of what we now call the state of Israel and a recognition of the settler colonial population's, um, right to engage and take away the land of the local population.
And not only that, cause a refugee crisis that up until today has, uh, created what we now even call al-Shatat, which is people just living dispersedly.
So indeed, um, on the side of the weapons and the side of the building and side of...
Indeed up until now, uh, because Israel provides such an important hand to facilitate access to natural resources in the area as well as serving the overall project, it has served as a tool that Britain as well as the United States have guaranteed support for at all the different junctures, leading not just to problems in Palestine, but across the whole region, uh, for its contemporary history, facilitating all the wars that we see, uh, and all the destruction and the death there, with complete impunity.
And indeed, with reversing the narrative as a narrative where we are incapable of, uh, recognizing a right of self-determination without being sanctioned, and it's being distorted into only a humanitarian space.
So it would be useful to provide some of the history regarding Gaza, you know, going back to the Nakba and maybe to the British mandate before that.
You know, how did the conditions that were present on October 7th, on October 6th, in Gaza come into being?
So it's very important to also see this as the history of imperialism in the whole of West Asia and North Africa, in the sense that the British arrived in, uh, West Asia around the 18th century to facilitate their own trade.
And with that, facilitated a very good coalition with, uh, some of the elite classes in the region.
Um, and with, uh, the case of Palestine, what happened is the, uh, is the effort to cut apart, uh, or create the Berlin Conference of the Levant by cutting apart the whole region, which was one whole entity, the Levant itself, with its indigenous people, uh, according to the pieces of cake that, uh, appealed best to the French and the British.
When it came to Palestine specifically, it was both the Zionist project, um, as well as places within the British government that thought it would be a very good idea to resolve the, uh, Jewish question of Europe, and predominantly the question of European Jews, uh, into creating their new homeland in, uh, Palestine.
And inevitably, it's the, the same settler colonial logic that facilitated, uh, the settler colonial projects in Australia, in the United States, in South Africa.
And indeed, when Herzl first wrote his book on the Jewish state, he imagined the same modes with which the other colonies were colonized, uh, into taking, uh, Palestinian land.
And inevitably, of course, the whole logic of it is premised on the idea, uh, that the people there have a life that is less worthy of living.
Uh, either the way you could justify that is on racial premises or just taking forward that colonial logic.
So forgetting the fact that this is a place with thousands of years of history, and these are simply the continuously living inhabitants of the place.
The infrastructure of the British mandate in Palestine is indeed what facilitated the space of the, uh, colonization of, uh, uh, the settler colonization of Palestine as a whole, uh, in the sense of facilitating also the economic system of it.
So the manners with which the, uh, split, let's say, inevitably facilitated the fact that one faction of the society had the upper hand in terms of the money and the weapons, and the other faction did not.
And here we're talking about pre-'48, and indeed the Palestinians did rebel multiple times.
And indeed, uh, those rebellions were quashed with British weapons all the way up until indeed when we know of the 19, um, uh, '48 Nakba.
And with the Nakba indeed happened the most, uh, let's say the biggest betrayal by the international community as a whole, in the sense that, uh, there was a recognition of what we now call the state of Israel and a recognition of the settler colonial population's, um, right to engage and take away the land of the local population.
And not only that, cause a refugee crisis that up until today has, uh, created what we now even call al-Shatat, which is people just living dispersedly.
So indeed, um, on the side of the weapons and the side of the building and side of...
Indeed up until now, uh, because Israel provides such an important hand to facilitate access to natural resources in the area as well as serving the overall project, it has served as a tool that Britain as well as the United States have guaranteed support for at all the different junctures, leading not just to problems in Palestine, but across the whole region, uh, for its contemporary history, facilitating all the wars that we see, uh, and all the destruction and the death there, with complete impunity.
And indeed, with reversing the narrative as a narrative where we are incapable of, uh, recognizing a right of self-determination without being sanctioned, and it's being distorted into only a humanitarian space.
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