Episode 237: How Selective, Patronizing 'Deradicalization' Discourse Pathologizes Anti-Colonial Struggle
Palestinians must “curb incitement, renounce violence and clarify their end goals,” demanded New York Times columnist Roger Cohen in 2010. “Many educated, secular Palestinians who usually renounce violence supported Hamas,” lamented the Times four years later, in 2014. “We must destroy Hamas, demilitarize Gaza and de-radicalize the whole of Palestinian society,” wrote Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the Wall Street Journal in 2023.
Over the last couple of years, and especially since the publication of the Trump White House’s so-called “peace plan” for Gaza, we’ve seen countless decrees that Gaza, and Palestine more broadly, “de-radicalize.” It’s time for Hamas and other militant groups to disarm and abandon their use of violence, we’re told, while the rest of the Palestinian population, through a process of “re-education,” learns to stop worrying and love Israel.
On the surface, this call for “de-radicalization” might sound like a peaceful, honorable solution to global conflict. But when one digs deeper, one finds that it’s quite the opposite. What does it mean, and what is required, for Hamas to become “demilitarized?” Why are demands to “renounce violence” almost entirely aimed at Palestinians, and Arabs and Muslims in general? Why does the U.S. and Israel — who committed what the UN, the International Association of Genocide Scholars, Lemkin Institute, Amnesty International, B'Tselem, HRW, and MSF all say committed and is committing a genocide in Gaza, destroying Lebanon and launching an unprovoked attack in Iran — not have to “de-radicalize”?
On this episode, we examine the patronizing, smug, head-patting settler-colonial trope of “de-radicalization” and analyze its inherent condescension and racism toward its victims; its outsize focus on disciplining Muslims and Arabs; and its goals to eradicate culture, neutralize resistance and liberation movements, and dispossess, subjugate, and exterminate entire populations.
Our guest is Zeteo's Prem Thakker.
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Guest
Prem Thakker (@prem_thakker) is a political correspondent and columnist at Zeteo. He has previously covered politics and breaking news for The Intercept, The New Republic, The American Prospect and CNN.
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Show Notes
‘Erase Amalek’: Poll reveals mass Israeli support for expulsion, genocide of Palestinians
May 26, 2025 | TRT World
Trump’s Board of Peace: billionaires, cronies and genocidaires
Ali Abunimah | January 21, 2026 | The Electronic Intifada
It is Israel that must be deradicalized, not Palestine
Nick Gottlieb | October 15, 2025 | Canadian Dimension
It is the West, not Gaza, that needs to be deradicalised
Jonathan Cook | October 8, 2025 | Middle East Eye
What Reconstructing Gaza Really Means
Samer Sinijlawi | November 13, 2025 | The Atlantic
Editorial Board | September 30, 2025 | The New York Times
On the Ground in Israel and Gaza
Jodi Rudoren | August 29, 2014 | The New York Times
Roger Cohen | March 29, 2010 | The New York Times
Poll shows Israeli belief that Palestinians should be eradicated is no longer a fringe opinion
Jonathan Ofir | May 29, 2025 | Mondoweiss
‘It starts at the top’: Extremist views are all that many young Israelis have ever known
Kara Fox | March 28, 2025 | CNN
A century of trauma at U.S. boarding schools for Native American children
Erin Blakemore | October 25, 2024 | National Geographic
Abolish this Colonial Relic Called the Boarding School
Reginald M.J. Oduor | October 7, 2024 | The Elephant
Federal Investigation Finds At Least 973 Children Died in Federal Indian Boarding Schools
July 31, 2024 | Equal Justice Initiative
‘Re-education’: The Imperial Pre-History and Afterlives of a Pedagogical Conceit
Susan L. Carruthers | January 2, 2024 | The International History Review
November 28, 2022 | The James Monroe Museum
Reckoning with Re-education: Christianity’s Role in Native American Boarding Schools
Mark M. Lambert | July 6, 2022 | The University of Chicago Divinity School
Boarding Schools and the Cultural Genocide of the Lakota People
Annie Coombs, Zoë Malliaros and Dana Dupris | July 15, 2020 | The Architectural League of New York
‘Renouncing Violence’ Is a Demand Made Almost Exclusively of Muslims
Adam Johnson | March 29, 2019 | FAIR
Israeli Incitement: Fueling Intolerance & Hate Crimes
August 6, 2014 | The Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU)
Palestinians and the Proper Way to Grieve Dead Children
Peter Hart | November 21, 2012 | FAIR
Nima Shirazi | April 6, 2009 | Wide Asleep in America
The myth of incitement in Palestinian textbooks
Palestinian Ministry of Education | June 13, 2005 | The Electronic Intifada
Palestinian textbooks : Where is all that 'incitement'?
Roger Avenstrup | December 18, 2004 | The New York Times
A textbook case of Israeli propaganda
Ali Abunimah | July 8, 2002 | The Electronic Intifada
Democracy, History, and the Contest Over the Palestinian Curriculum
Nathan J. Brown | November 2001 | Adam Institute
How colonialism shaped modern education systems across India, Pakistan and Singapore
Sahib Madad | November 25, 2025 | Ukfiet
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Transcript
For a full transcript of this episode, go here. You can also find transcripts of past episodes, live shows, Beg-a-Thons, Interviews and News Briefs here.
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Credits
Senior Producer: Florence Barrau-Adams
Producer: Julianne Tveten
Production Assistant: Trendel Lightburn
Newsletter: Marco Cartolano
Music: Grandaddy
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