Ta-Nehisi Coates, one of the most celebrated American political writers of our time, devotes much of his new book, The Message, to a withering and deeply personal critique of Israel’s oppression of Palestinians. On this bonus episode of On the Nose—a recording of an online event for Jewish Currents members, co-sponsored by the Beinart Notebook and the Foundation for Middle East Peace—editor-at-large Peter Beinart speaks with Coates about his time in Israel and the West Bank, the silencing of Palestinians in American media, and what it means when nationalism’s victims become its adherents.

Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).

Texts Mentioned and Further Reading:

The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates

“Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence,” Martin Luther King, Jr.

Our American Israel by Amy Kaplan

The Riot Report, directed by Michelle Ferrari

“The Case for Reparations,” Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Atlantic

“One Year of War in the Middle East,” Pod Save the World

The Yellow Wind by David Grossman

“Obama on his criticism of Israeli settlements: ‘I’m basically a liberal Jew,’” Avery Anopol, The Hill

“US media talks a lot about Palestinians—just without Palestinians,” Maha Nassar, +972 Magazine

Ta-Nehisi Coates interview on CBS

Black Panther graphic novels by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Makdisi Street podcast

“Ta-Nehisi Coates: I Was Told Palestine Was Complicated. Visiting Revealed a Simple, Brutal Truth,” Democracy Now!

On this episode of On the Nose—recorded live at Jewish Currents’s daylong event on September 15th—editor-in-chief Arielle Angel speaks with a panel of authors, scholars, and activists about the movement for Palestinian freedom in the wake of Israel’s genocide. Noura Erakat, Fadi Quran, Dana El Kurd, Amjad Iraqi, and Ahmed Moor discuss the challenge of Palestinian unity under Israel’s program of fragmentation, the resurgence of the two-state solution and decline of the coexistence paradigm, American Jews’ role in organizing their communities against Zionism, and the task of imagining a liberated future.

Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).

Texts Mentioned and Further Reading:

Polarized and Demobilized: Legacies of Authoritarianism in Palestine by Dana El Kurd

Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine by Noura Erakat

After Zionism: One State for Israel and Palestine, edited by Anthony Loewenstein and Ahmed Moor

Hamas Contained: The Rise and Pacification of Palestinian Resistance by Tareq Baconi

Polling by Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research

“Zionism Killed the Jewish-Muslim World,” Ariella Aïsha Azoulay, Jacobin

Protocol I Additional to the Geneva Conventions

1968 Palestinian National Charter

“How Durham, North Carolina, became the first US city to ban police exchanges with Israel,” Zaina Alsous and Sammy Hanf, Scalawag

For this live taping of the literary podcast Between the Covers—recorded at Jewish Currents’s daylong event on September 15th and presented in partnership with On the Nose—host David Naimon convened a conversation with renowned writers Dionne Brand and Adania Shibli about contesting colonial narratives. Rooted in their long-standing literary practice and in the demands of this moment of genocide, they discuss the vexed meanings of home, how to recover the everydayness of life erased by empire, and what it means to imagine togetherness beyond the nation-state.

This episode was produced by David Naimon, with music by Alicia Jo Rabins. Thanks also to Jesse Brenneman for additional editing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).

Texts Mentioned and Additional Resources:

Minor Detail by Adania Shibli

A Map to the Door of No Return: Notes to Belonging by Dionne Brand

Civil Service by Claire Schwartz

The Blue Clerk by Dionne Brand

Adania Shibli in conversation with Hisham Matar at the 2024 Hay Festival

Adania Shibli in conversation with Madeleine Thien and Layli Long Soldier at the Barnard Center for Research on Women

“Writing Against Tyranny and Toward Liberation,” Dionne Brand

“Dionne Brand: Nomenclature — New and Collected Poems,” Between the Covers

“Adania Shibli: Minor Detail,” Between the Covers

“prologue for now - Gaza,” Dionne Brand, Jewish Currents

“Duty,” Daniel Mendelsohn, New York Review of Books

“A Lesson in Arabic Grammar by Toni Morrison,” Adania Shibli, Jewish Currents

Inventory by Dionne Brand

Recognizing the Stranger: On Palestine and Narrative by Isabella Hammad

“Isabella Hammad: Recognizing the Stranger: On Palestine and Narrative,” Between the...