Hello, this is Erwin Jones, welcome to the podcast. Now we've all been horrified by what's

been taking place in Palestine. The Israeli occupation has deprived the right of Palestinian

people to national self-determination and we've seen an onslaught against the people of

Gaza. We've seen the assault on occupied Jerusalem, including ethnic cleansing. We're talking

about apartheid as human rights watch a very mainstream human rights organisation described.

Now one of the defences of Israel's occupation by its apologists is it centers an LGBTQ rights,

you know, look at Israel. It's a citadel of LGBTQ rights in the least, you know, this shows,

you know, this is an argument used and weaponised to justify the oppression of Palestinian people.

So I'm really honoured to speak today to Bashar Murad who is a queer Palestinian singer and he

just destroys this whole argument. It's a really, really important argument to listen to

his counter-argument. He's so eloquent and he talks about the occupation and his own work in

a wider context. I learned a lot and I think you will as well. If you want to support the podcast

and the channel, do please support us on patreon.com for a slash on josephal help us decide we speak

to what documentaries we do and so on or use a support function in the description. Please

subscribe to the podcast. Give us a fast-dare rating if you're feeling generous.

And with that said, please listen to Bashar.

I am very honoured today to have joining me, Bashar Murad, who is a, who's many things, a musician,

a social activist. He's based in East Jerusalem. His, he has, we're going to talk about, he has

a single coming out, which we'll talk about as well. I'm also going to talk about, of course,

what's been happening as regards Palestine and Israel over the last few weeks. But I'm really

honoured to have, to have you with us today, Bashar. So welcome. Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Firstly, just to explain, just so for people who haven't heard of you before,

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