Episode Overview

Podcast: Ask Haviv Anything
Host: Haviv Rettig Gur
Episode: 87: How can you support a better Palestinian future?
Date: February 5, 2026

In this thoughtful and challenging solo episode, Haviv Rettig Gur tackles a nuanced listener question: "What is the best way to support Palestinians, if you want them to have a better future?" Rather than canvassing common political talking points, Haviv focuses on the importance of understanding Israeli psychology, the lack of Israeli engagement in pro-Palestinian activism, and lessons from successful nonviolent movements in history. He analyzes why current strategies mostly fail and outlines what genuine progress might look like—for both Palestinians and Israelis.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Missed Ingredient in Pro-Palestinian Activism

• Understanding the Israeli Mind:
  • Haviv notes that nearly all pro-Palestinian activism "lacks any theory of mind" for Israelis—activists often ignore Israeli views, history, fears, and politics ([01:00]).
  • “What is missing is any understanding, any theory of mind, any attempt to engage in strategic ways the Israelis.” ([01:30])
• Importance of Empathy with the Other Side:
  • He argues just as pro-Palestinian voices insist people must understand Palestinian suffering, the same demand should apply: “Don’t Israelis have a psychology? Don’t Israelis have a history? Don’t Israelis have a thousand data points that confirm for them that they’re right in where they stand on these issues?” ([03:00])
• False Notion of Moral Purity:
  • He critiques activist orthodoxy that insists: “The only proper relationship with the Israelis is totally ignoring and erasing them.” ([03:55])
  • “You, you don’t learn Israeli history. There is only erasure and ostracizing and removing from the discourse any possible Israeli voices. And then we are morally pure and actually centering, I think, is the term they like to use.” ([04:33])

The Reality of Israeli Perception

• Why Israelis Don’t Respond to Pressure:
  • Israelis perceive a real, existential threat that activism abroad misses: “There is a constant drumbeat that tells the Israelis the exact opposite thing. Lower your guard, withdraw from territory. We will take it over and murder your children from that place. That is Hamas’s message to Israelis.” ([10:40])
  • Statements made by Hamas—promising continued violence—are widely known in Israel but overlooked elsewhere: “Hamas officials have literally over the last two years told Israelis again and again and again… Israelis saw it where nobody else saw it because nobody else cared.” ([11:22])
• Counterproductive Messaging:
  • Haviv points out that simultaneous messages—boycotting Israelis for not withdrawing, but also threatening their safety if they do—are mutually cancelling:
    “Don’t tell Israelis they’re going to die if they withdraw. While trying to tell them that they will be boycotted if they don’t withdraw. Those are opposite messages.” ([14:20])

A Strategic, Not Just Moral, Approach—The Martin Luther King Analogy

• Dr. King’s “Coercive Nonviolence”:
  • Haviv draws parallels to the US Civil Rights Movement, describing King's ability to combine uncompromising nonviolence with strategies that raised the cost of injustice:
    “He was a strategist. He was a cold blooded, ruthless, intelligent, sharp strategist… He understood that injustice usually isn’t big and violent and brutal. Most injustice is a low flame that burns for a long time…” ([19:00])
  • King’s genius was to “raise the cost” of injustice—forcing America to face it, but also to offer “a path out of the injustice that they are inflicting that doesn’t undermine them, doesn’t hurt them, doesn’t reverse the injustice, doesn’t make them afraid.” ([20:40])
• Highlighting Dr. King’s Speech:
  • Haviv references the “I Have a Dream” speech, especially the “promissory note” metaphor:
    “I refuse to believe that I received a promissory note from the founders of America, A promise, a check. And I have brought it to the bank of Liberty, and the check returned to me marked insufficient funds…” ([22:05])
  • “The point of the speech was when he starts talking about the check, the promissory note… I’m not asking for the demolition of America. …What I’m asking from you is for you to be you. For you to be the you you claim you are.” ([24:23])

Imagining an Effective Palestinian Strategy

• A “Coercive, Nonviolent” Movement:
  • Haviv imagines a Palestinian campaign modeled on King—coercive but nonviolent, “that says there is justice on the Israeli side… And if I lower that cost and then I offer them a path back… by framing my demand as a demand that validates their story rather than a demand that erases their story…” ([26:10])
  • Contrasts with current tactics: “Let’s leave morality aside here for a moment. Let’s just talk strategy… that doesn’t work, that tells Israelis they’re absolutely right to stick to their guns.” ([31:40])
• Not Just Nonviolence, But Mass Consensus:
  • For it to work, nonviolence must be a broad cultural movement, not sporadic or performative:
    “What King managed to do and what Gandhi managed to do was to organize their people around them to follow in that path. It was a broad movement of nonviolence.” ([32:55])
  • “A genuine, broad based, nonviolent Palestinian movement that comes to the Israelis and says military rule over other people for decades and decades is totally unsustainable and immoral… and we will force you to enforce it in ways you yourself can’t tolerate. And the reason we’re going to make it intolerable for you is that we’re going to make it unnecessary for you.” ([34:10])
• Delivering Agency and a Shared Language:
  • “What is Zionism? …We Palestinians, we don’t want something special, something that you Israelis don’t understand. We literally want our version of what you got, of what you have, of your argument about history. We want Palestinian Zionism. This will work. This will work.” ([36:00])
• The Spoiler: Violent Factions and Hamas:
  • “The thing that neutralizes it… is Hamas. And I wish the pro Palestinian campaign understood this…You can’t convince Israelis that this is a zero sum conflict with everything on the line and then demand of them to endanger themselves. One of those things has to give.” ([37:40])

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “What Israelis think, Israeli politics, Israeli psychology, will have greater influence over the Palestinian future than literally every other arena on this earth.” ([07:40])
• “If the ordinary Israeli hears from the world, pull out of the west bank or I will boycott you. And from Hamas, pull out of the west bank and I will murder your children. Hamas wins that debate in my head.” ([13:40])
• “Bring this understanding to Palestinians that this is useful for Palestinians to go to Israelis and say, we do not want you dead. We do not want you removed. You deserve to be here. You’re a real people. You deserve to breathe the air of this earth.” ([16:50])
• “Dr. King wasn’t just a deep moral thinker… He was a strategist. He…understood that injustice usually isn’t big and violent and brutal. That’s not what most injustice is. Most injustice is a low flame that burns for a long time that everybody just gets used to, and it’s never worth fixing because the fix will involve short term pain and the long term pain is minimal.” ([19:15])
• “I refuse to believe that there isn’t enough freedom in America for the black man as well. That’s what the speech is.” ([22:40])
• “Imagine a Palestinian coercive, nonviolent campaign…that says there is justice on the Israeli side. There’s a reason the Israelis behave as they behave. There is a cost that they perceive to changing. And it’s not a stupid cost, it’s a real cost.” ([27:02])
• “You can’t convince Israelis that this is a zero sum conflict with everything on the line and then demand of them to endanger themselves. One of those things has to give.” ([38:10])
• “If Palestinian society can get there, the Israelis will be eating out of the Palestinian hand. Palestinians will have agency. Palestinians will decide their future. But they have to be able to play in the arena of Israeli psychology and perception.” ([39:10])
• “This is the Palestinian building of a better Palestinian future. And everyone who says to the Israelis they’re illegitimate, shouldn’t exist and can be destroyed is destroying that Palestinian future.” ([40:06])

Major Takeaways

• Advocates for a Palestinian future must take Israeli fears and perceptions seriously and strategize accordingly—not just for empathy, but for effectiveness.
• Only a broad, truly nonviolent, movement rooted in recognition of Israeli legitimacy can fundamentally change the landscape. Sporadic protest or violence merely entrenches current realities.
• The lessons of Dr. King and Gandhi suggest raising the cost—and moral discomfort—of injustice while simultaneously affirming the identity and path of the adversary can break stubborn dynamics.
• As long as Palestinian politics remains divided, with powerful factions wedded to violence, real strategic change is unlikely.
• Ultimately: “Everyone who says to the Israelis they’re illegitimate, shouldn’t exist and can be destroyed is destroying that Palestinian future.” ([40:06])

For listeners looking to understand not only what isn’t working, but what could—this episode is an unflinching, strategic, and deeply human account, applying hard-won lessons from history to one of today’s most complex struggles.