Makdisi Street

The brothers welcome Professor Greg Grandin 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 video edition on our YouTube channel Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to access all the bonus content, including the latest Q&A

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 end by talking proposed upcoming elections, the importance of democratizing the PLO, and the gap in solidarity between Arab peoples and their leaders. Date of recording: December 23, 2025 Watch the video edition on our YouTube channel Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to access all the bonus content, including the latest Q&A

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 8, 2025. Watch the video edition on our YouTube channel Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to access all the bonus content, including the latest Q&A  

***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 Dr. Mitri Raheb 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, Decolonizing Palestine: The Land, The People, The Bible (2023) and I Am a Palestinian Christian God and Politics in the Holy Land: A Personal Testimony (1995) Date of recording: December 22, 2023. Watch this episode on YouTube Follow us on X: @MakdisiStreet Follow us on YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Music by Hadiiiiii    

The brothers welcome Professor Darryl Li of the University of Chicago to the show to discuss the new AAUP/MESA report 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 along.   Date of recording: December 2, 2025 Watch the video edition on our YouTube channel Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii Support the show on Patreon for access to all the great bonus content, including the latest bonus episode.

The brothers welcome Ali Abunimah of The Electronic Intifada 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 video edition on our YouTube channel Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii Support the show on Patreon for access to all the great bonus content, including the latest bonus episode.

**NOTE: The brothers are hosting a live Q&A on NOVEMBER 18 for patrons only.  Please sign up today and drop your questions!**   The brothers welcome Melani McAlister, professor of American Studies at George Washington University, author of the new book Promises, Then the Storm 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 significance of the evident generational fracture over Palestine, and her sense of the indictment of American liberalism over its denial of the Gaza genocide. Date of recording: Oct 13, 2025. Watch the video edition on our YouTube channel Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii Support the show on Patreon for access to all the great bonus content, including the latest bonus episode.

The brothers welcome Mandy Turner, a senior researcher with Security in Context, 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, "Hegemony factories or independent thinkers? Western think tanks on Israel and Palestine after October 7"    Date of recording: Sept 16, 2025. Watch the video edition on our YouTube channel Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii Support the show on Patreon for access to all the great bonus content, including the latest bonus episode.

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 video edition on our YouTube channel Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii Support the show on Patreon for access to all the great bonus content, including the latest bonus episode. www.patreon.com/makdisistreet  

**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  (@dianabuttu) 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 video edition on our YouTube channel Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii Support the show on Patreon for access to all the great bonus content, including the latest bonus episode. www.patreon.com/makdisistreet

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 history of their own family in relation to Makdisi Street, Ras Beirut, Beirut and Lebanon, in addition to Palestine and the Arab world more generally. This episode was recorded live and produced by Layla Makdisi. Date of recording: August 8, 2025. Watch the video edition on our YouTube channel Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to access all the bonus content, including the latest Q&A

***Producer's note: This is a preview of the latest bonus episode. 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 video edition on our YouTube channel Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii Thanks for supporting Makdisi Street!

The brothers welcome the prominent violinist, classical musician and Professor at the Barenboim-Said Akademie Michael Barenboim to have a heart-felt discussion about the relationship between classic music and dissent, his regret at not speaking out earlier in his life about Palestine, his horror at the ongoing Gaza genocide, and the implications of anti-Palestinian racism and repressive climate in Germany despite Berlin having the largest Palestinian community in Europe, the question of boycott, and the legacy and current meaning of his father and (our uncle) Edward Said's famous collaboration in creating the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra and the Barenboim-Said Akademie in Berlin. Date of recording: September 1, 2025. Watch the video edition on our YouTube channel Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to access all the bonus content, including the latest Q&A

The brothers welcome back to the show Michael Fakhri (@michaelfakhri), United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, to discuss the open war of starvation on Gaza, how international institutions have abjectly failed their moral and legal duties, the role of the media, and what individuals can do to hold the responsible actors to account. Check his episode from April 2024, "Famine is never a natural occurrence" Date of recording: Aug 26, 2025. Watch the video edition on our YouTube channel Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to access all the bonus content, including the latest Q&A

The brothers welcome to the show the Palestinian theologian and pastor Munther Isaac to discuss Palestinian Christianity in the context of the depravity of the Gaza genocide, the theology of empire, the anti-Palestinian distortions in both so-called Christian Zionism and liberal Western Chrisian churches, the urgent need for rethinking the meaning of witness and the need for global intervention because of the horrors of the Gaza genocide, as well as his recent book Christ in the Rubble: Faith, the Bible, and the Genocide in Gaza (2025). Date of recording: August 19, 2025. Watch the video edition on our YouTube channel Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to access all the bonus content, including the latest Q&A  

We welcome two brave California educators, Dr. Theresa Montano of Cal State Northridge and Dr. Christine Hong of UC Santa Cruz, who have been at the forefront of developing and advocating for a California Ethnic Studies Curriculum grounded in liberation and social justice rather than identity politics. We discuss how Ethnic Studies went from an insurgent field of knowledge in the 1960s to one adopted in 2017 by California. We also cover why the racist Palestine exception remains alive and well in the state of California; how educators, progressive politicians, and union organizers are pressured into complicity in denying Palestinian history; and we examine, as a generational shift takes place in support of Palestinian freedom and humanity, the insidious California Assembly Bill 715, which was brought by the Jewish Legislative Caucus in the midst of Israel's genocide against Palestinians in Gaza; we discuss how the bill would censor as "antisemitic" the teaching of Palestinian history by defining anti-Zionism as antisemitism, by amending the state education code to define nationality as a social group with shared values, and by creating a statewide K-12 antisemitism "coordinator" to police teachers and prevent students from learning about Palestine. Date of recording: July 16, 2025. Watch the video edition on our YouTube channel Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to access all the bonus content, including the latest Q&A

The brothers welcome historian and headline fixer Assal Rad to discuss the mainstream media's role in manufacturing consent and perpetuating Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism, how it enables the Gaza genocide, how it accepts Israeli state propaganda as fact while rendering suspect Palestinian eyewitness accounts, and the differences between the coverage of Israel's genocide in Gaza from its war on Iran. Date of recording: July 15, 2025. Watch the video edition on our YouTube channel Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to access all the bonus content, including the latest Q&A

The brothers welcome back historian Ilan Pappé to the show to discuss whether he still believes that the Gaza genocide marks "the beginning of the end of the Zionist project", his understanding of the nature of Israel's decline,  the attacks on institutions of higher learning, and how Palestine has become the keystone for liberatory projects. Date of recording: July 8, 2025. Watch the video edition on our YouTube channel Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to access all the bonus content, including the latest Q&A

**Producer's Note: This is a preview of the latest bonus episode. You can listen to the entire episode by becoming a member of the Makdisi Street patreon, where you can also find all our other bonus content, including the latest Q&A** The brothers hosted a special live episode as part of the Socialism 2025 conference in Chicago. Date of recording: July 4, 2025. Watch the video edition on our YouTube channel Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii  

The brothers welcome the writer and podcaster Alon Mizrahi (@alon_mizrahi) to discuss the Israeli state's institutionalized and systematic dehumanization of Arabs and Palestinians, the racial hierarchy structuring and defining Israeli society, and the psychopathologies of colonial violence in such a racialized environment. Alon is the host of The Mizrahi Perspective on YouTube and can also be found on Substack Date of recording: June 23, 2025. Watch the video edition on our YouTube channel Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to access all the bonus content, including the latest Q&A