Podcasts · The Thinking Muslim

Manufacturing a Monster: Britain, America and Israeli Violence with Professor Avi Shlaim

8 Apr 2025 · 1 h 27 min

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The genocide in Gaza has opened up a new world of intellectual exploration for so many of us who have been for too long ignorant of the details. Many of us have had to deconstruct our worldviews and start again, looking at the world through a more critical lens. The impunity with which Israel pursues its ends is genuinely bewildering. How is it that most Western politicians remain uncritical allies of a regime that is eradicating a people from its land through multiple means, including the systematic use of violence?

I met with the eminent Jewish historian Avi Shlaim at the Oxford Middle East Centre. Professor Shlaim has recently authored an uncompromising book on the intent of the Israeli state and her Western backers. Titled Genocide in Gaza, Israel’s long war on the Palestinians - it is probably one of the most lucid historical books I have read on the topic in a while. Today, we want to dip into that history to truly understand the genocidal intent that is sewn into the intellectual fabric of Zionism. In particular, I want to understand the key roles of Britain and America in feeding this settler colonial project and their shared goals.

We all know how difficult it has been for food and essential supplies to reach the beleaguered people of Gaza. This, Insha'Allah, is changing. We have partnered with a charity, Baitulmaal, because now, more than ever, there is a need not only in Gaza but also in Turkish controlled Northern Syria and in all the places we routinely talk about in this program where our ummah is subject to abject poverty. We have chosen this charity because Baitulmaal is a non-profit with people on the ground who organize well-thought-out projects and serve the most needy.

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