‘Seeing is more than looking’
On this page, you will find a curated collection of important essays, videos, and other resources that offer a perspective different from mainstream news media. Curation, in this context, is a deliberate process aimed at providing those who engage with it a different way to enrich and inform an otherwise fractious, flattened, and inevitably emotive topic. Some of the choices may strike you as unconventional, such as an episode of Sayeeda Warsi and David Baddiel’s podcast, A Muslim and A Jew Go There. In this episode, Warsi and Baddiel explore the connections between South Asia and Israel-Palestine. While the violent events of October 7, 2023, may at first seem distant from this conversation, the forces that shaped South Asia also helped form the deep ruts that the Middle East finds itself stuck in today. The tragedy in Israel echoes voices from other times, contexts, and perspectives—voices we should listen to. Though the material below is available online, bringing it together here invites us to draw new connections and foster new ways of seeing a situation that is either too big a spectacle or too normalized as an indelible part of the Middle East.
The Attack
“In this report, we take a look back at the hours leading up to the biggest massacre in the history of the Jewish state. FRANCE 24’s Johan Bodin reports”.
Othello in Zion
“Like all fundamentalisms…
those who cling so monstrously to their own identity…compensate a deep rooted deficiency
by transforming identity into a fetish”
An Encounter; A Dialogue
“‘Many people would throw a tantrum at this point’: An Israeli and a Palestinian discuss 7 October, Gaza – and the future”
James Baldwin on Israel
A fascinating look at the perspective of one of America’s most important 20th Century thinkers and the state of Israel. Well worth a listen (a transcript can be read here too)
Israel after October 7th
“A year has passed since October 7, 2023, and it is time to explore if we have a better understanding of this monumental event and everything that followed it”
Biden’s increasing pressure for a Saudi-Israeli deal
An important article from October 6, 2023 that provides a macro perspective of manoeuvrings of power in a world before October 7.
How Israel has made trauma a weapon of war
“A slick, high-priced television production. Speeches from top officials. A live audience of thousands. A unified show of collective sorrow and military resolve…That is how the Israeli government hoped to mark the passing of one year since…[October 7].”
A Muslim and A Jew Go There – Ep 11
“Sayeeda Warsi and David Badiel ask whether Modi and Netanyahu are kindred spirits, and look at Pakistan and Israel’s surprisingly similar history.”
Democracy Now
“The Path Forward is a new documentary that weaves together the voices of Palestinians and Israelis in their efforts for peace and reconciliation. The short film features the stories of Israeli and Palestinian peace activists who have worked together before and after October 7 and Israel’s relentless war on Gaza.”
Alliances of Understanding 