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Podcast Episode

Palestinians Shouldn’t Have to Be Perfect Victims (w/ Mohammed el-Kurd)

Current Affairs··1 September 2026·32 min

About this episode

🌹 Use the code "15OFF" for a discount on Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership Mohammed el-Kurd is a Palestinian writer from Jerusalem, The Nation’s Palestine correspondent, and editor-at-large at Mondoweiss. He joins Current Affairs to discuss his book, Perfect Victims and the Politics of Appeal, which examines how even sympathetic discourse about Palestine can reproduce racist assumptions, sanitize Palestinian resistance, and demand that Palestinians prove their innocence before being granted solidarity. 🇵🇸 Get the Book: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2499-perfect-victims 🇵🇸 Article in The Nation: https://www.thenation.com/article/world/mohammed-el-kurd-book-excerpt/ 0:00-3:04 deconstructing liberal solidarity with Palestine 3:04-6:30 the assumptions behind “women and children” 6:30-10:56 why Palestinian anger and resistance are legitimate 10:56-13:29 how the language of occupation shapes the debate 13:29-17:23 Ro Khanna and the double standard on resistance 17:23-19:49 the politics of the “perfect victim” 19:49-22:18 Refaat Alareer and the refusal to sanitize Palestinians 22:18-24:27 what Palestine’s allies still get wrong 24:27-27:22 Israel’s political prison system 27:22-31:46 Hamas members are entitled to human rights 🦩Subscribe to Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/membership