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As an international aid flotilla approaches the shores of Gaza, sailing directly towards an Israeli naval blockade, strikers in Italy have forced the government there to send warships to escort them (much against the official policy of the far right Meloni government). This shows us the power of solidarity and strike action. Go Deeper: Visit our website at www.explaininghistory.org for articles and detailed explorations of the topics discussed.▸ Join the Conversation: Our community of history en
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To understand the catastrophe unfolding in Palestine is to engage in an act of historical memory against a relentless campaign of erasure. Proponents of Israel’s actions insist that history began on October 7th, 2023. They present a world without context, a vacuum in which violence erupts from nowhere and is met with a response that has no precedent. This, as any student of history knows, is a foundational lie. The current genocide in Gaza is not a beginning, but an intensification. It is the brutal culmination of a “historical continuum” of dispossession, apartheidApartheid Full Description: An Afrikaans word meaning “apartness.”…
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In this episode, I draw on My Palestine by Mohammad Tarbush to examine two often-overlooked episodes in the history of Zionism and its global reception.First, we revisit the 1975 United Nations General Assembly vote that declared Zionism a form of racism—an extraordinary moment that sent shockwaves through international diplomacy, reshaped alliances in the Cold War, and left a lasting legacy in debates about race, colonialism, and nationhood.Second, we turn to the influential role of the British