Novara FM: Palestine 2048 w/ Basma Ghalayini

Novara Media

Philosophy, News, Politics, Society & Culture

4.8 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 15 December 2023

⏱️ 54 minutes

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Summary

Science fiction isn’t a mode usually associated with Palestinian literature, perhaps because dreams of the future seem like a luxury when you can barely hold onto your past, or even present.

In 2019, translator and editor Basma Ghalayini asked 12 Palestinian authors to imagine their world in 2048 – a century after the Nakba that violently dispossessed them of their land and rights – for a collection of sci-fi short stories. Some of the dystopias imagined by these authors proved gravely prescient this year.

Ghalayini, who grew up in the Gaza Strip and now lives in Manchester, joined Eleanor for a conversation about literature, symbolism, land and memory in the days after the collapse of the ceasefire. She talked about survivors’ guilt, why disability crops up so frequently in the stories, her experiences at a peace camp in the ’90s and her vision for a peaceful future. Palestine +100 is available from Comma Press.

A huge thank you to everyone who has chosen to back our journalism this year. You’ve made everything we do possible. https://novara.media/support

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Naomi Klein and I am at Navarro Media right now having just done in a wonderful in-depth interview and this is why I love Navarro Media and I listen regularly and watch to find out what the hell is going on in the UK.
0:15.2	It is so critical to have independent media that we can trust that goes deep on the issues
0:20.8	and also lets people stay up on the day-to-day twists and turns.
0:24.4	It's going to be especially important for your next election.
0:27.2	So I'm incredibly grateful that Navarro media exists and it exists because people support it. So make sure to support
0:34.8	Navarre media. We need left institutions and that means that we have to support
0:39.6	them when they're doing such great work as Navarre media is.
0:43.0	Thanks. going on the road. The F.F.F.F.A. Hello Navar
1:07.0	My name is Eleanor Penny.
1:12.0	It's 75 years after the first Nackba, where the establishment of Israel
1:16.7	under a mandate from British colonial powers, saw thousands of Palestinians murdered and
1:21.5	hundreds of thousands more driven from their homes.
1:24.6	After the Hamas incursion on the 7th of October, Israel has been conducting a
1:29.6	genocidal escalation of violence in a bombing campaign that has flattened much of Gaza
1:35.0	and claimed countless thousands of civilian lives. Israeli politicians have
1:40.4	been calling for a second Nackba. In the context of this unfolding catastrophe,
1:47.0	what does it mean to imagine the future of Palestine,
1:51.0	to talk about survival, let alone justice.
1:55.2	To begin to try and answer those questions, I sat down with Basma Kalayini, the editor of
2:00.4	the book Palestine Plus 100, a collection of science fiction short stories set in
2:05.6	2048, 100 years after the NACBA.
2:10.5	Bussma is a writer, translator, interpreter and editor at Comer Press.
	...

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