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Empire: World History

What Is Life Like For Palestinians Under Occupation?

Empire: World History

Goalhanger

History

4.55.4K Ratings

🗓️ 9 April 2026

⏱️ 34 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

William is joined by Raja Shehadeh, the leading Palestinian writer, lawyer and human rights activist, to discuss his experience of living under Israeli occupation in the West Bank. Raja describes how his daily life in Ramallah is shaped by segregation, travel restrictions and settler violence. He explains how segregated roads and settlements have physically reshaped the Palestinian landscape. And he discusses why he is hopeful that Palestinians and Israelis can co-exist peacefully in the future. Raja Shehadeh’s Forgotten: Searching for Palestine's Hidden Places and Lost Memorials is available to buy now.  For more Goalhanger Podcasts, head to www.goalhanger.com. Email: empire@goalhanger.com Instagram: @empirepoduk Blue Sky: @empirepoduk X: @empirepoduk Assistant Producer: Imogen Marriott Editor: Imogen Marriott Social Producer: Charlie Johnson Producer: Anouska Lewis Executive Producer: Dom Johnson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

If you want access to bonus episodes reading lists for every series of Empire, a chat community.

0:06.8

Discounts for all the books mentioned in the week's podcast, add free listening and a weekly newsletter,

0:12.5

sign up to Empire Club at www.empirpoduk.com.

0:37.3

Hello and welcome to a very special bonus edition of Empire with my old friend Roger Shahada.

0:39.7

Roger, welcome to Empire. Thank you. I'm very glad to be here. You're speaking, I believe, from Ramallah under a reign of Iranian missiles and

0:46.8

debris heading overhead. Yeah, four already this morning. Landing in Ramallah or just passing

0:52.2

overhead? No, landing close to Ramallah, but we can hear the bombs and the reverberations.

0:57.2

And this on top of the most violent period of settler activity that I've certainly read about in my lifetime.

1:05.2

That's true, that's true.

1:06.5

Almost daily settler attacks that are very violent in the Amala villages.

1:12.0

But you are in the middle of the town, so at the moment, shielded in a sense from the worst

1:16.3

of the, it's more the outlying villages and so on than farmsteads that are getting the

1:22.0

worst violence at the moment?

1:23.5

I keep thinking so far.

1:24.9

So far we are shielded, yes.

1:26.5

Roger, perhaps before we go any further, I should first of all say it's just me today,

1:31.1

as Anita has another project today. So I'm afraid you're stuck with me, Roger, and listeners.

1:36.8

And we should perhaps explain for those who don't know who Rajah Shahade is.

1:42.8

Raja is, well, certainly one of my favorite Palestinian authors, a man who's written

1:48.6

an extraordinary rare book.

1:49.8

I've found three just sitting in my shelf next to my desk.

1:54.2

There are more scattered around the house.

...

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