Syria, Palestine and Discourse w/ Mohammed Sulaiman (E32)

This is a conversation with Mohammed Sulaiman, a Palestinian writer and researcher who grew up in Gaza and currently works at the University of South Australia.The core of our conversation was Mohammed’s two essays for Hummus For Thought:Wretched of the Earth: Thoughts on Syria, Palestine and Discourse (2016)Israel and ‘The Right to Maim’ (2017)Topics discussed: growing up in Gaza and surviving the Israeli wars  and blockade; his and his partner’s difficult journey to Australia,  himself via Israel and herself via Egypt; the Western Left’s failures on  Syria and Bosnia as well as its relationship to Palestine; the  dehumanisation of Palestinians and Syrians; Israel’s politics of  domination; Israel’s ‘right to maim’ as inherent to colonial logic  through Jasbir Puar’s work; and Palestinians being asked to show  gratitude by self-appointed ‘saviors’.