Jerusalem Unplugged

This is an edited recast of the podcast I recorded with Oliver Webb-Carter, founder of Aspects of History home - Aspects of History. After the horrific attacks of 7th October our editor discussed the long running Israel Palestine conflict with historian and author Roberto Mazza. Covering the growing Zionist movement in the early 20th century, to the Balfour Declaration through to the British Mandate for Palestine, the 1948 war and the Six Day War in 1967 Roberto discusses how we got to where we are today and whether there is any prospect for peace.This is the link of the original podcast: Aspects of History - Israel Palestine with Roberto Mazza | RSS.com

In the Old City of Jerusalem, 80 kilometres from the war in Gaza, another religious conflict is taking place. An Australian property developer, aided by a group of armed Jewish settlers, has attempted to occupy a prized piece of land in the Armenian Christian quarter. Even though a deal to build a hotel was overturned, Armenian families are threatened with eviction from homes their community has held for centuries. Bedross tells us everything we need to know about the Armenians in Jerusalem and their struggle against armed settlers.

What is settler colonialism? How does this concept relate to Israel and Palestine? What about other countries? These are all great questions which I discussed in this episode with Arnon Degani. Arnon is currently a Fellow at Molad – Center for the Renewal of Israeli Democracy, specializing in the history of Zionism, Palestinian nationalism, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He recently released the Hebrew podcast series "Hesket Oslo," examining the Oslo Accords, and is currently working on the English adaptation, "Still Processing." His doctoral research focused on the integration of Palestinian Arabs into Israeli society from 1948 to 1967, as revealed through daily encounters with Israeli officials, and his upcoming manuscript titled "Our Arabs" explores this topic in depth. He is contributor to the scholarly and intellectual debate on if and how the settler-colonialism comparative framework benefits the study of Israel and Palestine. We hope you will enjoy this conversation.

I'm thrilled to bring you a thought-provoking talk by my good friend and friend of the podcast Louis Fishman. Our conversation today delves deep into the complex dynamics of the Middle East, focusing on "Israel, Palestine, Turkey in the post-Oct. 7th reality: A Historical Look Toward the Future." The talk was given at Northwestern University of Nov. 8.There's a twist to today's presentation. After the talk, I conducted a Q&A session with Professor Fishman, and although the questions were intriguing, a technical hiccup rendered the audience questions inaudible. However, fear not! We've preserved Professor Fishman's answers for your listening pleasure, ensuring you don't miss out on his invaluable wisdom.So, stay tuned for a journey through history and geopolitics as we explore the past, present, and future of Israel, Palestine, and Turkey in the ever-shifting post-Oct. 7th reality.

As the war keeps raging in Palestine, thousands have been killed, thousands are living under threat of immediate death, hundreds of hostages are still held somewhere in Gaza, the West Bank is on the brink of exploding, Islamophobia and anti-Semitism are on the rise, polarized views leave no room for dialogue, I choose to publish an interview I recorded some time ago and I was hoping to upload later in the year. I choose not to look the other way, but to keep giving the listeners crumbs of the history of Palestine and all the people that live there. With my good friend Vincent Lemire we discussed his latest book which presents the history of the Mughrabi Quarter, the one you can no longer see as it was demolished right after the conquest of the Old City by Israeli troops in 1967. In this fascinating discussion we talk about the history of the quarter, its destruction and its 'resurrection' through contemporary archaeology.

Dopo tante richieste personali, ho pensato di organizzare un webinar non-accadmeico dedicato alla questione israelo-palestinese e ad Hamas, un'occasione unica per esplorare il contesto storico che ha plasmato gli eventi contemporanei che hanno portato all'attacco del 7 Ottobre e la conseguente risposta di Israele. Durante questa sessione di 50 minuti, approfondiremo le origini del conflitto, i cambiamenti politici e sociali avvenuti nel corso degli anni e il ruolo chiave svolto da Hamas. Sono ansioso di condividere questa esperienza di apprendimento con voi e di esplorare insieme il contesto storico di questa complessa questione che in tanti modi diversi riguarda anche me e la mia famiglia direttamente. 

In this fast moving conversation with Lauren Banko we discussed her first book 'The Invention of Palestinian Citizenship 1918-1947' and the question of Palestinian citizenship as a product of colonial rule, but also adopted by local Palestinians. We also discussed hew new projects like 'Medical Deportees: narrations and pathographies of health at the borders of Great Britain, Egypt, and Palestine, 1919-1949'This three year project offers new approaches to the history of 20th century medico-legal borders and puts (im)(e)migrants’ voices at its centre. These migrants include the forcibly displaced, refugees, and labour migrants from across Asia and Africa who attempted to enter Great Britain by sea, and Palestine and Egypt overland. The second project is a monograph about icit and illicit Mobility along the Borders of Palestine between 1920 and 1950. Lastly I asked Lauren a reflection on the 30 years since the Oslo accords.

The Holy Land was the destination for many Muslim pilgrims during the late medieval and early modern period. In addition to worshipping on Jerusalem’s Haram al-Sharif, Muslim pilgrims in the Holy Land also visited important Christian holy sites, such as the Mount of Olives, the Tomb of Mary, and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. With fada’il al-Quds (“Merits of Jerusalem”) pilgrimage texts serving as their guide, Muslims visited these places and joined Christian worshippers in contemplating the sacred. Fada’il al-Quds texts informed Muslim pilgrims of the blessings (fada’il) of Christian holy sites by citing Islamic traditions, such as Qur’anic verses, hadith literature, and Companions’ sayings (athar), to sanctify each Christian site and to command Muslims to perform certain Islamic prayers there. While fada’il al-Quds texts extolled Christian holy sites, they simultaneously debated whether Muslims were permitted to enter churches in the Holy Land. Despite the debate on the legality of Muslim pilgrimage to churches and protestations against the practice by some conservative ‘ulama’, the fada’il al-Quds corpus, along with travelogue literature, reveals that Muslims increasingly visited churches, shared sacred spaces, and even participated in Christian ceremonies into the Ottoman period. Fadi in this interview and his work provides a broad historical sketch of Islamic pilgrimage to Christian holy sites and demonstrates that Muslims in the Holy Land shared sacred spaces with Christians in Jerusalem for centuries before the onset of the modern era.