David Marchese

But despite that, there have been calls from Palestinians and advocates of the Palestinian cause to boycott the New York Times and other publications because of its coverage of the conflict in Gaza.

But for you, how and why do you decide to engage with the media?

In, I think, November 2023, you wrote a piece for the New York Review of Books in which you described having two plumbers come to your home in Ramallah.

This was one older plumber and one younger plumber.

And you wrote about seeing the younger man looking at videos of October 7th on his phone and smiling about what Hamas was posting that day, which I think the idea of...

someone feeling pleasure about that day is horrifying to a lot of people.

And so how did you understand expressions of happiness about what happened on October 7th?

Bravery is a word that you used in a way that was interesting to me in your book called Language of War, Language of Peace, written in the aftermath of the 2014 Gaza War.

And you—

referred in that book to the bravery of the Hamas fighters who were standing up to the mighty Israeli army.

How do you reconcile the bravery that you saw, and I think bravery is widely understood to be a positive attribute, with the fact of Hamas's violent religious extremism and total lack of regard for human rights, even in Gaza?

And, you know, it's...

There's an aspect of this conversation that I realize, you know, I'm asking you to speak on behalf of Palestinians broadly.

Do you find that to be a difficult position to be put in?

Do you feel like there are things you can't or shouldn't speak to?

But surely your work is a condemnation of Israeli conduct, right?

Are there things that you say that you find are controversial among Palestinians?

What do you think the end game is for the Netanyahu government in the West Bank and Gaza?

Do you think Hamas is interested in a peace that doesn't leave it in charge of Gaza?

I've seen you refer to yourself as an eternal optimist.