David Marchese

What you just described connects for me to something you wrote in your book, What Does Israel Fear from Palestine?

In that book, you wrote about a conversation you had with an Israeli friend, and you wrote, and I'll just read it to you.

Every time I mentioned an atrocity committed against Palestinian civilians by the Israeli army in Gaza, he brought up a criminal act committed by Hamas on October 7th.

Then with a sad voice, he assured me that the Israelis are suffering from trauma and are grieving.

And it's completely understandable to me that people have a strong desire and maybe even a need to have their suffering recognized.

But is there a way to address that need on both sides without invoking a kind of unproductive, endless competition of suffering?

Yeah.

Can you tell me a little bit more about what you see as that double consciousness?

You've referred to Israel's actions as being self-destructive for Israel.

And I think for many who see Israel's actions as actually about self-preservation, it might be hard for them to understand how someone...

could interpret those actions as self-destructive.

So can you explain what you see as Israel's self-destructive tendencies?

I want to sort of zoom out for a second and bring up an idea that is kind of about larger narratives.

So when we talk about a year like 1948, that's a year that is subject to highly competitive narratives.

You know, to an Israeli, 1948, of course, is the year of independence.

To a Palestinian, 1948 is the year of the Nakba.

Is there a new narrative that might be able to accommodate both sides of the conflict?

I just want to stay on the idea of, you know, narratives for a minute.

The writer Edward Said, the way he put it famously was that Palestinians lack the permission to narrate.

Is that still the case?