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'Iraq didn't have a Jewish problem.' Avi Shlaim is one of the most celebrated historians on Israel-Palestine. The Oxford Emeritus Professor was born into an Arab Jewish family in Baghdad, Iraq. At five years old, his family moved to Israel, where he felt he was treated as a second-class Israeli due to his Arab background. In this Real Talk interview, Avi sits down with Mohamed Hashem to speak about his life story, growing up as an Arab Jew inside Israel, his journey from Zionist to 'fierce' anti-Zionism, and why he now believes the two-state solution was never even born.

"It's my burden. I was born into it." Eyal Weizman is a leading architect, author, and the founder of Forensic Architecture, whose evidence has fed directly into South Africa's genocide case against Israel at the ICJ. His new book, Ungrounding, traces the destruction of Gaza back to the Nakba of 1948 and argues that what's happening there today isn't a rupture, but a continuation of decades of dispossession. In this Real Talk interview, Eyal sits down with Mohamed Hashem about the founding of Forensic Architecture, the argument at the heart of his new book, and how he holds all of it against his own Israeli identity.

'Nothing for me is worth selling my soul.’ Hala Rharrit spent 18 years as a US diplomat, most recently serving as the State Department's Arabic language spokesperson. In the wake of the Gaza genocide, she was tasked with defending America’s Gaza policy to the Arab world. She refused and soon quit. In this Real Talk interview, Hala sits down with Mohamed Hashem about what she saw from inside the Biden administration, and what she makes of former Biden officials now claiming they should have done more.

'You cannot run in a Democratic primary as a pro-Israel candidate and not get destroyed.’ AIPAC poured nearly $15 million to unseat Jamaal Bowman in 2024, making it the most expensive House primary in US history at the time. The former Congressman joins Mohamed Hashem on Real Talk to break down what the progressive wave, including Abdul El-Sayed's primary win in Michigan. means for the Democratic Party, and what's next for AIPAC's millions in US elections.

'That pro-Netanyahu, pro-Likud crowd have been gunning for me for 25 years’ Trita Parsi, political analyst and executive vice president of the Quincy Institute, joins Mohamed Hashem on Real Talk to respond to the campaign against him, including calls for his deportation from the US, and explains why it backfired.

"I am now getting death threats from registered Telegraph readers." Misan Harriman is a widely celebrated photographer and activist. He’s also the first Black male photographer to shoot the cover of British Vogue, and the director of an Oscar-nominated short film. His work has spanned at least three continents, documenting protest movements from the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020 to the pro-Palestine marches in London. In this conversation on Real Talk, Mohamed Hashem joins Harriman at Hope 93, a gallery in London, to discuss his work, his activism, and what happened when he turned his lens to Palestine. Harriman also opens up about the right-wing outlets that have been accused of a coordinated smear campaign against him, and where it left him.

Fadi Kattan is a renowned Palestinian chef from Bethlehem and the co-founder of Akub, one of London's most celebrated Palestinian restaurants. In this conversation on Real Talk, Fadi invites Mohamed Hashem into his restaurant to talk about Palestinian food,Israel's appropriation of Palestinian cuisine, and why food is one of the most powerful tools of cultural survival. All while Mohamed attempts to cook musakhan for the first time, under Fadi's supervision.

"You got me to talk about things I don't talk about normally." Daniel Levy is a former Israeli negotiator who served under two prime ministers Yitzhak Rabin and Ehud Barak. Today, the British-born analyst and president of the US Middle East Project is one of the most prominent voices heavily critical of Israel's actions against Palestinians. But in this conversation on Real Talk, Daniel Levy speaks to Mohamed Hashem about his own journey. From an Orthodox Zionist upbringing in North London, to sitting at the negotiating table with Palestinians, to where he stands today.

'Hundreds of people are coming to my events, many of them Jewish, and they tell me I gave them their ancestors back' Molly Crabapple is an Emmy Award-winning artist, author and journalist. Her new book, Here Where We Live Is Our Country, tells the largely forgotten story of the Jewish Labour Bund, a secular, socialist, anti-Zionist mass movement founded in 1897 that at its peak was the largest Jewish political organisation in Eastern Europe. The Bund believed that Jewish people had the right to stay in their homes, and refused to accept that the answer to antisemitism was a Jewish ethnostate in Palestine. In this conversation on Real Talk, Molly sits down with Mohamed Hashem to talk about her Jewish identity, her 2015 reporting trip to Gaza, seven years of archival research, and what the Bund's story means during this time.

‘I regret losing my job. Not what I said’ Mark Bonnick worked at Arsenal for 22 years. Then on Christmas Eve 2024, the former kitman was fired over posts he made on X criticising Israel over the genocide in Gaza. Arsenal accused him of bringing the club into disrepute. The case was quickly framed by media outlets as one of antisemitism. But reports later revealed that the Football Association told Arsenal his posts had not breached any of the governing body's rules. Mark is now suing Arsenal for unfair dismissal. In this conversation on Real Talk, he sits down with Mohamed Hashem outside the Emirates Stadium, as Arsenal prepare for the Champions League Final, to tell his story for the first time.

"The left loves to lose. They can't get enough of it." Ana Kasparian has been an influential and prominent voice in US independent media for nearly two decades. The co-host and executive producer of The Young Turks speaks with Mohamed Hashem on Real Talk to make the case for a left-right coalition on Israel, and why she believes the establishment of both parties has failed the American people. Kasparian calls out AOC for being outflanked by Marjorie Taylor Greene on Gaza, and explains why she's willing to work with anyone, regardless of politics, to "stop a genocide." She also opens up on the personal cost of speaking out: lost jobs, death threats, and Israeli soldiers sending her weapons imagery.

"Mom, I'm at our house." Yousra Elbagir is Sky News UK's Africa correspondent. She has been highly praised for her reporting on a war that's been largely absent from mainstream news coverage: Sudan. As the fighting enters its fourth year, Sudan has become the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Millions have been displaced as cities are destroyed by a brutal power struggle and foreign interference. But for Yousra, this isn't just work, or a news story. Sudan is also her home. In this conversation on Real Talk, she speaks with Mohamed Hashem about her reporting from inside the country, the siege of cities like el-Fasher, the UAE's role in giving the Rapid Support Forces global cover, and Europe’s inaction on the war. Yousra also reflects on returning to her family home of 25 years in Khartoum, ransacked by the RSF, and what it means to report a war that is also your own.

"My commanders liked the fact I was a Nazi. They saw it as making me a better warrior." Matt Kennard is a British investigative journalist who co-founded Declassified UK, and is also the author of Irregular Army. It’s a book that uncovers how the US military, desperate to fill its ranks during the War on Terror, began looking the other way on things that would once have disqualified soldiers from serving, such as neo-Nazi tattoos, gang affiliations, and mental illness. In this conversation on Real Talk, Kennard speaks with Mohamed Hashem about the openly neo-Nazi veterans he met and interviewed, the moral waiver programme that opened the door to convicted felons, and the Rumsfeld Doctrine that was the catalyst.

Peter Oborne spent decades at the heart of the British establishment. The award-winning journalist and author of ‘Complicit’ sits down with Mohamed Hashem on Real Talk to break down how the Iraq war set the template for Gaza, and why there is a direct path between the two. Oborne also calls out Keir Starmer for not condemning Israeli war crimes, and what it means that Margaret Thatcher was more willing to stand up to Israel than the UK's current prime minister. He also opens up on why he walked away from mainstream British media, and never looked back.

"I don't feel safe with my own people." Ariana Jasmine is one of the biggest Iranian-American political content creators, whose videos on Iran's history, the US-Israeli war on the country, and US politics have been widely shared online. In this conversation on Real Talk, she speaks with Mohamed Hashem to discuss the Iranian diaspora's split over western intervention, the Pahlavi monarchist movement and its "cult-like" following, and why she believes opposing the US-Israeli war on Iran made her a target within her own community. Ariana also reflects on the personal cost of speaking out, the threats, the harassment, and why she refuses to stay silent in spite of it all.