
Ilan Pappé breaks down the crumbling Zionist narrative, Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, and why the West’s complicity threatens global freedoms.
In the latest episode of the FloodGate podcast, Palestine Chronicle editors Ramzy Baroud and Romana Rubeo spoke to Professor Ilan Pappe.
The discussion explored the ideological contradictions at the heart of Israel’s settler-colonial project and the implications of recent events for Palestine and beyond.
Pappé argued that Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza is part of a long-standing effort to erase Palestine, stating, “The whole period since 1948 is an attempt by the settler-colonial movement of Zionists led by the state of Israel to eliminate the Palestinians as a people, as a country, as an idea.”
He emphasized that the events of October 7 were viewed by Israeli leaders as an opportunity to further these policies.
Pappé also discussed the increasing reliance on suppression rather than discourse to maintain the Israeli narrative, noting, “The only way to protect the Israeli narrative now is through intimidation, through silencing people, through the weaponization of antisemitism and allegations of supporting terrorism. This shows the weakness of the Israeli narrative.”
Despite this, Pappé suggested that these developments signal a deeper crisis for Zionism itself.
“The gap between the validity of the narrative and the power used to sustain it is something positive for the Palestinians, unfortunately not immediately (…) but in the longer term,” he said, adding:
“I think it is one of the indications that we are at the end of the Nakba al-mustamirra rather than at the beginning of a new chapter of the ongoing Nakba. I think we are at the last chapter of the ongoing Nakba.”
Pappé warned that these tactics extend beyond Palestine, affecting global freedoms and shaping political discourse in the West.
He called for a unified global response to challenge Israeli apartheid and genocidal policies.
(The Palestine Chronicle)