HN_ZOOM_INTERVIEW_WITH_PANKAJ_MISHRA_GALLERY_VIEW_10-28-24

ETVBHARAT

1/10/2025

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00:00have been discredited.

00:02We really are looking, as I keep saying,

00:05at an unprecedented sort of collapse

00:09of some of the most important democratic institutions today,

00:12whether it's political parties or it's

00:18the fourth estate, which is simply

00:20failing to function in the way that it should.

00:24And I think Gaza really has come as a huge shock

00:28to many, many people who have witnessed

00:33the conduct of the Western press in the last year.

00:40Right.

00:42And the same press, if I would say this,

00:48they're using the numbers.

00:49And it's almost as if the people in Gaza

00:52have been reduced to basic numbers, the death

00:57toll, the fatality count, and the number of injured.

01:01That's it.

01:01So do you think that reduces the severity of what

01:06is going on, when all you see, or most of the times, what

01:11you see is it's about how many people have died today, 20, 30

01:15today, 50 tomorrow.

01:17That's how it is being reported.

01:19How would you, like if you were to do this?

01:21I think I would like to resist the conclusion.

01:24But unfortunately, it's just too clear.

01:31Large parts of the Western press,

01:34and that includes some of its more prestigious legacy

01:39periodicals, simply do not see the Palestinians as human.

01:45And I think that really accounts for this gross discrepancy

01:53that you notice, that a single hostage found dead or executed

02:00by Hamas gets a front page mention.

02:04And the dozens of Palestinians killed every day

02:09are simply a statistic.

02:11Right.

02:13And this has been going on for more than a year now.

02:17So it's very clear that Palestinian lives really

02:24do not matter.

02:25They don't matter to even some of the more liberal journalists

02:33working in New York and London and Paris.

02:37It's not just far-right agitators or demagogues

02:43who are indifferent to Palestinian lives.

02:47It's also some of the more liberal and so-called centrist

02:51intellectuals and journalists.

02:56Right.

02:57Here, I would also want to know your opinion or thoughts

03:01about when you talk about Palestine as a color issue.

03:04I mean, I have read a few books on Palestine.

03:09I had never seen it as a color issue.

03:11And to be very honest, I thought it was more about expansionism

03:16about one group against another.

03:19But you point out that George Orwell, who

03:21is one of my favorite authors, also pointed it out.

03:25And so did Gandhi, I think.

03:28So could you explain or talk about this particular aspect?

03:33Well, I think it was a color issue.

03:35It was identified as a color issue at a time

03:39when most of the world was dominated

03:45militarily and politically by white European and American

03:51powers.

03:52And so the liberation of Palestine

03:57was seen essentially in terms of anti-colonialism

04:01or anti-white supremacism.

04:05And that issue became less important in the 1960s

04:11and 1950s.

04:12So many post-colonial nations emerged.

04:15White supremacy seemed to receive a setback.

04:20Even Israel started to establish relations

04:22with many African countries, good relations, many of them.

04:26But I think it's become clearer since the late 60s

04:30when Israel became a colonial power

04:32that Israel, in many ways, is closer

04:37to the white supremacist regimes than it

04:40is to any Asian or African nation.

04:44And so the color line that was very apparent

04:47during the anti-colonial struggles has reemerged.

04:51And today, we can see this very clearly,

04:55is that the biggest supporters of Israel

04:57today are white supremacists.

HN_ZOOM_INTERVIEW_WITH_PANKAJ_MISHRA_GALLERY_VIEW_10-28-24

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