Empire’s Laboratory: Palestine has always been a global phenomenon

Nadim Bawalsa is a historian of modern Palestine and the author of Transnational Palestine: Migration and the Right of Return before 1948 (Stanford University Press, 2022), winner of the 2023 Nikki Keddie Book Award and the 2023 Palestine Book Award. He is the associate editor of the Journal of Palestine Studies.

Shownotes:

Nadim's book: https://www.sup.org/books/middle-east-studies/transnational-palestine

Weavers of Revolution: The Yarur Workers and Chile's Road to Socialism by Peter Winn: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/weavers-of-revolution-9780195045581

Between Arab and White: Race and Ethnicity in the Early Syrian American Diaspora by Sarah Gualtieri ucpress.edu/book/9780520255340/between-arab-and-white

Extra readings from Nadim:

Nadim Bawalsa with the Arab Center Washington DC: https://arabcenterdc.org/resource/transnational-palestine/

On the limits of Palestinian-Chilean solidarity with Palestine today: https://fromtheperiphery.com/2025/09/29/206-the-limits-of-palestinian-ness-w-pablo-abufom/

A special issue in JPS on Palestinian migration before 1948: https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rpal20/46/2?nav=tocList