Occupied Thoughts: Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics – Marc Lamont Hill and Mitchell Plitnick with Peter Beinart
In this episode of “Occupied Thoughts,” host Peter Beinart interviews Marc Lamont Hill and Mitchell Plitnick, co-authors of Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics. This wide-ranging discussion covers progressive politics on Palestine & Israel as they are today and as they might become if progressives engage more deeply and consistently with Palestine & Israel. Marc, Mitchell, and Peter talk about policy, history, and the different roles that racial, ethnic, and religious identities and communities play in progressive politics. This conversation is both timely and robust. The book, Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics, (New Press) will be available in February 2021.
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“In this major work of daring criticism and analysis, scholar and political commentator Marc Lamont Hill and Israel-Palestine expert Mitchell Plitnick spotlight how holding fast to one-sided and unwaveringly pro-Israel policies reflects the truth-bending grip of authoritarianism on both Israel and the United States. Except for Palestine deftly argues that progressives and liberals who oppose regressive policies on immigration, racial justice, gender equality, LGBTQ rights, and other issues must extend these core principles to the oppression of Palestinians. In doing so, the authors take seriously the political concerns and well-being of both Israelis and Palestinians, demonstrating the extent to which U.S. policy has made peace harder to attain. They also unravel the conflation of advocacy for Palestinian rights with anti-Semitism and hatred of Israel.
Hill and Plitnick provide a timely and essential intervention by examining multiple dimensions of the Israeli-Palestinian conversation, including Israel’s growing disdain for democracy, the effects of occupation on Palestine, the siege of Gaza, diminishing American funding for Palestinian relief, and the campaign to stigmatize any critique of Israeli occupation. Except for Palestine is a searing polemic and a cri de coeur for elected officials, activists, and everyday citizens alike to align their beliefs and politics with their values.”
Marc Lamont Hill is an award-winning journalist and the Steve Charles Professor of Media, Cities, and Solutions at Temple University. He is the author of multiple books, including the New York Times bestselling Nobody, and co-author (with Mitchell Plitnick) of Except for Palestine (The New Press). He lives in Philadelphia. He tweets at @marclamonthill.
Political analyst Mitchell Plitnick, a frequent writer on the Middle East and U.S. foreign policy, is the former vice president at the Foundation for Middle East Peace, director of the U.S. Office of B’Tselem, and co-director of Jewish Voice for Peace. The co-author (with Marc Lamont Hill) of Except for Palestine (The New Press), he lives in Maryland. He tweets at @MJPlitnick.
Peter Beinart is a Non-Resident Fellow at the Foundation for Middle East Peace. He is also a Professor of Journalism and Political Science at the City University of New York, a Contributing opinion writer at the New York Times, an Editor-at-Large at Jewish Currents, and a CNN Political Commentator. He tweets at @PeterBeinart.