"Resistance Always Has a Utility in Time" - Abdaljawad Omar

In this episode we welcome Abdaljawad Omar back to the podcast. This is another slightly edited livestream that we’ve converted to an audio podcast. You can check out the video on our YouTube channel, we’ll put that link in the show notes. And Also just to note that we’ve continued to put lots of content out there, including an interview with Boots Riley from The Coup also the director and creator of the film Sorry To Bother You and the hit series I’m A Virgo. We talked to him about labor organizing, the strike wave, solidarity with Palestine and getting principled anticapitalist art through the gauntlet that is Hollywood.  I really wanted to get an audio version of this episode with Abdaljawad out this week. Many will know that Refaat Alareer was assassinated this week by the Israeli military. And while we don’t talk about Refaat in this conversation directly, I needed to go back and listen again to Abdaljawad’s commentary on resistance and on mourning and melancholy in the Palestinian context. I hope that this conversation will be therapeutic for others in a way that enables you to continue to put one foot in front of the other and continue to struggle and resist in whatever capacity you can. And in doing so I hope that we can honor Refaat memory and all of the thousands of other martyrs as we continue to seek to find courageous ways support the struggle for Palestinian liberation, which is an important front in the struggle for the liberation of all people.  Just a note this conversation was recorded back on November 30th amid the prisoner exchanges, so if that portion of the conversation where we discuss that feels a bit dated that is the reason why, but it still feels like an important and pertinent discussion nonetheless. We will include the pieces we discussed in the show notes. Lastly I will say that we are launching our Sylvia Wynter study group in the beginning of January you can find out more about that on patreon, and becoming a patron is the best way to support the show, but also to keep up with all of our episodes whether they are released first on YouTube or via this podcast feed.  Links: "Can the Palestinian Mourn?" - Abdaljawad Omar's piece (the primary subject of discussion) Judith Butler "The Compass of Mourning" (the piece Abdaljawad responds to) Fundraiser for Sekou Odinga (mentioned in episode) 'Army and Arabs': truth, play, and illusions in the West Bank (another piece written by Abdaljawad that we briefly touch upon)