"The world has been lied to" w/ Chris Gunness
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- Опубліковано 21 вер 2024
- The brothers interview Chris Gunness, former chief spokesperson for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), about the work of the agency, the moral responsibility of those funding it, and how lies spread by Zionists organizations about its workers provided a pretext for Western countries to cut their support.
Date of recording: Feb 26, 2024
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Invaluable programing!. Thanks so much for putting together great speakers, and excellent comments from the three Makdisi brothers.
Another great discussion by the wonderful Makdisi brothers. We love what you are doing. Your uncle would be (is) proud! Be safe and well. Greetings from Athens, Greece
In terms of Gunness’ suggestion to create a Palestinian lobbying group, I think you’re kind of missing the point. It shouldn’t be necessary, given the justness of the Palestinian cause, but American politics is what it is, and until the current generation of Zionists dies out, officials need to hear much more from informed pro-Palestinian voices. You don’t need to use AIPAC tactics to be an effective voice, precisely because the truth is on your side. Just imagine what the result might have been if right after the UNRWA lies came out, there was a group of pro-Palestinian voices who met with Congresspeople and gave them the kind of details about the long history of Israeli sabotage of UNRWA, like Gunness did tonight.
To respond to your sentence about the current generation of zionists dying out: Unfortunately the politics held by zionists is that the older they are the more “liberal” they are. How they think they could possibly be both Left and Zionist … it just points to absolute delusion. But the younger they are the more right wing they are. The most insane right wing fascist parties are the most popular among the youth. I know it goes against how we think of these things, but over there, in occupied Palestine, its all backward.
Makdisi brothers , you did a good job pushing back. I think your guest was not consistent with his logic, despite his good intentions. Keep interrogating and being critical - we need more of this. All the best from Sydney, where we are on colonised Dharug country. Shameful that Australian government has been pro Zionist and defunded UNRWA too.
Amazing interview.
Great see all this informed and reflective, insightful truth telling and on-the-ground rising from my old haunts on Makdissi Street in Ras Beirut! And to remember dear Renée and catch mention of Jim Muir, a good friend from the neighborhood there and in Nicosia - and by Chris Guinness, whose up-front and honest reporting on the BBC from UNRWA was always essential to navigating the “community development” terrain during my time in Lebanon, Palestine, and Jordan. And to put faces to the Makdissi contributions to Counterpunch, my go-to source from Northern California for amazing writing on the global (and domestic US) political and social-cultural lay of the land. Ya 3Ateekum Al Afiya ✊🏼
thank you for another insightful discussion
such a stellar podcast, x Naji
I miss your dad’s voice so dearly 😢. But I really enjoyed your book 😊
It will be very important to have a talk about UNRWA, especially that today it is still a necessity for Palestinian refugees who depend in many aspects of their life on services it provides
Thank you. Very informative talk and much needed. Please keep this coming. I got answers to several questions, and hope that discussions like yours will help inform more people. We are already too late wrt to the ongoing genocide, but i hope these talks change public opinion - one person at a time - for the sake of the Palestinians who continue to suffer in Gaza and the West Bank under current conditions and, sadly, in the memory of each of the tens of thousands killed by this decades-long Israeli war funded by Western governments. It’s heartbreaking. Thank you again for your work.🙏🏾
PS Regarding the “Palestinian AIPAC” discussion: i think it’s a non-starter. The fact that Arab nations are not willing or able to even fill in the funding gap for UNRWA right now, that says a lot. Besides, where can Palestinians get the sort of money or the political will that the Israelis get de facto from the US political lobby and from unconditional military aid?
Just want to throw in the assessment of the National Intelligence Council (NIC) of “low confidence” with the bs accusations about UNRWA employees
1:27:00 Do you think that Israel realize how this shift in world opinion and American opinion, especially, has occurred?
The way I see the APAC comment is that truth needs to be organised, neutralised, staffed and immediate, in the same way lies are. (Not sure that’s even psychologically possible, given how much harder it is to debunk a lie than tell one.)
There was a conference of Arab states to specifically discuss combatting Israel’s disinformation campaigns recently, last week I think.