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How much do you understand your national background? What is your relationship with your local environment? And what kind of ideologies move you without realizing?
My guest Omar Dajani, is an American Palestinian law professor, and this is his story about how a college debate opened him up to explore his Middle Eastern origins, and took him on a journey to become part of the Negotiations Support Unit of the Palestine Liberation Organization in the late ninteis.
Omar lives in San Francisco and is a Professor of Law at the University of the Pacific - McGeorge School of Law. He grew up in Texas, and lived for a long time in Palestine where has been part of the Negotiations Support Unit
In this episode we tackle:
The experience of being a dual national, and how nations are intertwined with our imagination.
The complexities of nationalism and the many ways it shapes our world.
We ask: Is nationalism always bad? If not, can it actually propel us forward?
The Palestinian occupation, and the grim reality of how far we’ve come from the end of the nineties. Is there any hope? What does it look like?
White nationalism in America, and how a lonely world is driving people to look for more structure. Are we at risk of a fascism?
The power of the local, and why talking to those who trigger us is critical to humanity.
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Merkel, refugees, and the Neo-nazi backlash
The difference between Ethnic and Civic Nationalism and the Greek experience of democracy and pan-ethnic nation
The Syrian identity, the Muslim impact on our Egyptian constitution and taking the genome into account
Things we mentioned (and further reading!)
An Ode to Heartbreak: A book of poems and meditations, on losing relationships, nations and friendships.
The Palestinian First Intifadah
Imagined Communities: Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism by Benedict Anderson
Born a Crime, by Trevor Noah
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
A Land for All: The Two States, One Homeland initiative
The Lonely Century: How to Restore Human Connection in a World That's Pulling Apart by Noreena Hertz
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