Video available to view on the Spotify app or YouTube

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'The Imperial Sessions Part 2' Conversations on Fascism & Media 

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Video Episode 5

Vid version updates on Youtube + Spotify some weeks after initial audio-only release.

Ancient Hatreds (Or New Antisemitism, and the Left’s ‘Muslim Problem’ with Dr. Jonathan Galton)

In Part 2 of The Imperial Sessions series I'm joined by Dr. Jonathan Galton to talk about his upcoming book 'Does Islamo-Leftism exist? British-Left-Muslim connections beyond the caricatures'. Jonathan shared with me a chapter titled 'Is the Left antisemitic?' and that spurred us to record a conversation unpacking his research and reflecting on what it all means in this current moment. 

We talk

• Histories of Antisemitism, Anti-Zionism and 'New Antisemitism'
• Palestine as a 'Left wing' cause
• 'Islamo-leftism'
• The UK Left's 'Muslim problem'
• The UK Left and Antisemitism
• Conflation as an active practice
• Self contextualising
• An Arab in the West
• Positionality and abandoning 'outsider research'
• 'Unholy alliance' narratives
• Dehumanisation
• Zohran Mamdani, Brad Lander and Stephen Colbert
• Islamophobia and the Left
• Centring the research subject
• The centring of Israel in discussions about Jewish identity
• Rise of Judaeo-Christian unity
• Ol' Rhodesia
• We are the quota
• The re-branding of Palestinian resistance
• The 'coalition of the willing'
• Joe Biden *sigh*
• 'Middle-classification'
• 'Political Blackness'
• 'Islamist cranks'
• You should listen to The Trojan Horse Affair.
• "We're all we got".

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If you'd like to donate to a credible organisation seeking to help the people of Gaza here are a few I'd recommend:

Support QT Palestinians and the First QTM helpline: https://www.flipcause.com/secure/cause_pdetails/MTk5ODA1

The Sameer Project : https://linktr.ee/thesameerproject

Al-Jawad Camp's donation links can be found on their Instagram bio: https://www.instagram.com/jawadcamp1

The Rammun Foundation: https://rammunfoundation.org/

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CHAPTERS

0:00 Intro

9:42 Introductory chat

20:51 Introduction to Jonathan’s current research on "Islamo-Leftism"

narratives

35:20 Overview of Jonathan’s book chapter dissecting tropes of "Left/Muslim antisemitism"

39:09 History of British Jews and the Labour Party's shifting relationship to Israel ("Jewish entry into whiteness", impact of holocaust, "Judaeo-Bolshevik",'

"Judaeo-Christian"

49:00 Shifting modes of antisemitism in the 18th century ("emancipation of Jewry") and 20th century (the "new antisemitism")

56:00 Anti-capitalism, antisemitism and anti-Arab sentiment in the

1970s and beyond

1:02:33 Alaska sits Jonathan’s my lap

1:02:30 Antisemitism in Islamic contexts (historical and contemporary) and the myth of "ancient hatred"

1:07:28 The Labour Party "antisemitism" crisis; blurring of anti-Zionism and antisemitism (real and imagined)

1:20:50 Palestine marches and accusations of antisemitism and Islamo-Leftism

1:31:20 Ga