{"id":11582,"date":"2013-07-25T11:43:02","date_gmt":"2013-07-25T16:43:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/?p=11582"},"modified":"2013-07-25T11:47:59","modified_gmt":"2013-07-25T16:47:59","slug":"butler-parting-ways-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/2013\/07\/25\/butler-parting-ways-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"butler parting ways interview"},"content":{"rendered":"

A good interview by Ray Filar in July 2013.<\/a><\/p>\n

Judith Butler on the Israel\/Palestine conflict and her recent book Parting Ways: Jewishness and the Critique of Zionism<\/p>\n

RF: So is Parting Ways a call for transformation?<\/em><\/p>\n

Establish a firm constitutional basis for equality<\/span> for all citizens, regardless of what their religion might be, or their ethnicity or race.<\/p>\n

End the occupation<\/span>, which is illegal and an extension of a colonial project. I consider both the West Bank and Gaza to be colonised, even though Gaza is not occupied in the same way that the West Bank is. The Israeli government and military control all goods that pass in or out of that area, and they have restricted employment and building material that would allow Palestinians to rebuild homes and structures that were destroyed by bombardment.<\/p>\n

\"Butler_Judith_July2013small\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The third call is probably the most controversial, but I do think that a lot of thought has to be given to how the right of return<\/span> might be conceptualised, and how that right might be honoured, whether it’s via resettlement or compensation. Some plans involve a return to areas where people have lived, not necessarily to the exact homes they lived in.<\/p>\n

But people who have been made stateless by military occupation are entitled to repatriation, and then the question is to which state, or to what polity or area? Those who have had their goods taken away are entitled to compensation of some kind. These are basic international laws.<\/p>\n

RF: In your final chapter you cite a Mahmoud\u00a0Darwish poem that says \u201ca possible life is one that wills the impossible.\u201d You describe this as a paradox \u2013 could you explain it?\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

JB: Well, there are people who believe in realpolitik and who say: \u201cThere’s never going to be one state, there’s never going to be equality, there’s never going to be peace…don’t fool yourself. If you want to be political, get concrete and see what adjustments you can make in the current regime\u201d.<\/p>\n

Then I just think, ok, what would it mean if we lived in a world in which no one held out for the possibility of substantial political equality, or for a full cessation of colonial practices – if no one held out for those things because they were impossible? People do scoff when you say right of return. I was at a meeting with Palestinians and Israelis where people said: \u201cThat will never <\/i>happen.\u201d So I said, \u201cwell it will not be taken off the table.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact in politics, sometimes the thing that will never happen actually starts to happen. And there have to be people who hold out for that, and who accept that they are idealists and that they are operating on principle as opposed to realpolitik. If there were no such ideals then our entire political sensibility would be corrupted by this process.<\/p>\n

And maybe one of the jobs of theory or philosophy is to elevate principles that seem impossible<\/strong>, or that have the status of the impossible, to stand by them and will them, even when it looks highly unlikely that they’ll ever be realised. But that’s ok, it’s a service.<\/p>\n

What would happen if we lived in a world where there were no people who did that? It would be an impoverished world.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A good interview by Ray Filar in July 2013. Judith Butler on the Israel\/Palestine conflict and her recent book Parting Ways: Jewishness and the Critique of Zionism RF: So is Parting Ways a call for transformation? Establish a firm constitutional basis for equality for all citizens, regardless of what their religion might be, or their … Continue reading “butler parting ways interview”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[137],"class_list":["post-11582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-butler","tag-interview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11582"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11587,"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11582\/revisions\/11587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.terada.ca\/discourse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}