Podcast Summary: New Books Network
Episode: Zahi Zalloua, Fanon, Žižek and the Violence of Resistance (Bloomsbury, 2025)
Date: September 17, 2025
Host: Morteza Hajizadeh
Guest: Zahi Zalloua (Professor of Philosophy and Literature, Whitman College)
Overview of the Episode
This episode features a deep dive into Zahi Zalloua's new book, Fanon, Žižek and the Violence of Resistance, exploring the conceptual and practical intersections of resistance, violence, and theory through the lenses of Frantz Fanon and Slavoj Žižek. The conversation contextualizes these debates in current world events—from Palestine to global protest movements—unpacking how violence is understood and experienced both in theory and in practice, particularly within anti-colonial and anti-racist struggles. The episode challenges liberal discourses on violence and recognition, centering the necessity of reckoning and solidarity in emancipatory politics.
Key Discussion Points & Insights
1. Zahi Zalloua’s Research Focus and Purpose for the Book
- Multidisciplinary Background: Zalloua's expertise spans continental philosophy, psychoanalysis, critical Black studies, Palestinian studies, and post-human studies.
- Book’s Origin: The book is a continuation from his previous work, aiming to better articulate "what resistance actually looks like," specifically in the framework of Fanon and Žižek’s ideas about violence.
[02:17]“I wanted to focus more specifically on Fanon and Žižek and how they imagined violence and how resistance is experienced by the colonized.” — Zahi Zalloua
2. Rethinking Violence and Resistance
- Violence as Integral to Resistance: Any genuine resistance is always, in some sense, "violent"—whether physically or by "denaturalizing racist logics," which is experienced as violence by oppressors.
[04:20]“Any genuine resistance will be violent, will be experienced as violence.” — Zahi Zalloua
- Counter-violence vs. Originary Violence: What is often labeled as “violence” is counter-violence in response to the everyday, naturalized violence of the status quo.
[05:51]“When we see an act of violence, we obfuscate the original violence... For many liberals, the latest Gaza war began October 7, 2023. There’s no conception that October 6 was a violent day…” — Zahi Zalloua
3. The Limits of Liberalism and the Myth of Nonviolence
- Liberal Obfuscation: Liberals often separate violence and resistance, displacing attention from systemic/invisible violence.
[06:58] - Examples Drawn: Referencing the Gandhi/Mandela comparison, Zalloua articulates how system-changing nonviolence is more “violent” (in its transformative force) than apparent physical violence like Hitler’s, because it dismantles systemic oppression.
[04:28]
4. Transformative Versus Destructive Violence
- Transformative Change Requires Destruction: Fanon and Žižek argue that new worlds can only emerge by dismantling existing unjust systems—an inherently violent (but not fetishized) process.
[10:06–11:47]“Transformative resistance must entail some kind of dismantling of the Master’s house.” — Zahi Zalloua
“Violence is intrinsic to the construction of a new world.” — Zahi Zalloua
5. Critique of Liberal Anti-Racism and the Depoliticization of Resistance
- Superficial Gestures: White liberals police language or promote “black faces in high places,” but avoid structural critiques of capitalism and racism.
[14:11–17:48]“The people I find more problematic are not the fascists from the right... It’s the liberals who masquerade as progressives... interested in the status quo.” — Zahi Zalloua
- Failure in Crisis: After George Floyd’s murder and calls to “defund the police,” liberals retreated, refusing real structural change.
[16:09]
6. Identity Politics and the Splitting of the Left
- Divisive Tool: Identity politics, in liberal hands, is used to split the left and distract from material issues, rather than enable genuine cross-racial/class solidarity.
[23:13]“The way the white liberal elite uses identity politics is to split the left.” — Zahi Zalloua
- Stretching Marxism: Fanon insists on expanding Marxism to account for colonial and racial realities, not reduce everything to class.
[23:39]
7. Global Capitalism, Surplus Humanity, and “Becoming Black/Palestinian”
- Capitalism’s Mutation: Global north can no longer shield itself; the “becoming black of the world” (Achille Mbembe) and “becoming Palestinian” signal how globalized, racialized violence is expanding.
[24:43–26:17]“Gaza is in many ways a dress rehearsal for all the evils to come.” — Zahi Zalloua
8. Imagination, Fantasy, and the Work of Theory
- Necessity of Imagination: Transformative change relies on new collective fantasies (à la Lacan) that “introduce something new into the world,” unbound from nostalgia and reification of former identities.
[31:35–33:04]“We have to create new fantasies to produce... universalist desires.” — Zahi Zalloua
9. Reckoning, Antagonism, and True Change
- What “Reckoning” Means: True reckoning demands breaking from privileged identities, and a symbolic “violence” or “suicide” of those positions.
[33:23–35:10]“To emancipate yourself from your identity requires a form of violence, self-violence willed violence to break with your whiteness, your privileged Jewishness that Zionism elevates...” — Zahi Zalloua
- Antagonism vs. Conflict: Liberals treat Palestine as a “conflict” rather than an antagonism; addressing antagonism would collapse the system itself.
[36:47–38:06]
10. Dangers of Romanticizing Pre-Colonial Identities
- Limitations: Nostalgic return to precolonial identities is a “cruel ruse,” unhelpful for addressing global problems like capitalism—which is no longer just Western.
[38:41–41:33]“You have to go through capitalism. There’s no escaping capitalism. Capitalism is never just a Western obsession. It is a crushing reality.” — Zahi Zalloua
11. Psychoanalysis, Alienation, and Resistance
- Need to “World” Psychoanalysis: Psychoanalytic theory, stretched in Fanonian style, is needed to understand both the libidinal and political economy of oppression.
[45:01–47:24]“For him, psychoanalysis is essential for any emancipatory project.” — Zahi Zalloua
- Alienation and Change: True emancipation involves recognizing both political exploitation and existential (Lacanian) alienation.
12. From Recognition to Transformation
- Critique of Humanitarianism: Liberal humanitarian discourse only seeks to “humanize” Palestinians, not liberate them. True transformation needs anti-colonial struggle, not just recognition of suffering.
[48:32–54:20]“What a liberal humanist imperative to humanize the Palestinians doesn’t ultimately work. It may save the Palestinian’s life... but there’s no liberation in the liberal humanist humanitarian framework.” — Zahi Zalloua
13. Zionism, Antisemitism, and Trauma
- Weaponizing Trauma: Israeli state (and some Zionist rhetoric) weaponizes Holocaust trauma to silence critique, but universal politics requires moving beyond monopolizing victimhood.
[57:55–60:45]“Any anti-racist politics cannot ignore antisemitism. ... Nobody can monopolize victimhood. You can't claim to be the ultimate victim and never accept that you could be the victimizers.” — Zahi Zalloua
14. Solidarity as the Path Forward
- Cross-Racial, Universal Solidarity: Real hope lies in solidarities—Black/Palestinian, Jewish/Palestinian, queer, feminist, and beyond—that threaten the system's core logic and foster universal emancipation.
[62:17–66:33]“It is through cross racial solidarity, so Black–Palestinian solidarity, Jewish–Palestinian solidarity, that we can fundamentally unsettle the existing libidinal logic.” — Zahi Zalloua
- Palestine as a Universal Justice Issue: The struggle for Palestine is seen as interlinked with broader liberatory movements—feminist, queer, Black—that challenge global injustice.
Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments
-
On violence and resistance:
“Any genuine resistance will be violent, will be experienced as violence.” — Zahi Zalloua [04:20] -
On the liberal model:
“At best, what liberals aspire for is giving more money to departments so they can have police reform, reduce the number of bad apples... this will do nothing.” — Zahi Zalloua [16:08] -
On the need for reckoning:
“To emancipate yourself from your identity requires a form of violence, self-violence willed violence to break with your whiteness, your privileged Jewishness...” — Zahi Zalloua [34:21] -
On the limits of romanticizing the past:
“...the pre colonial identity is a ruse, it's a cruel ruse, because it is based on some kind of reality that you want to affirm yourself, but its solutions tend to be reductive and minimal.” — Zahi Zalloua [41:03] -
On solidarity:
“Solidarity is the response to the multiple traumas happening in the world. This is what the system fears. It fears a united front, right? It fears a universal politics.” — Zahi Zalloua [62:52] -
On weaponizing trauma:
“Any gesture that transforms you into timeless victim is a recipe for disaster.” — Zahi Zalloua [59:21] -
On Palestine’s centrality:
“Palestine becomes a feminist issue, becomes a queer issue, becomes a black issue... It becomes an issue for justice, and that's the appeal.” — Zahi Zalloua [65:29]
Key Timestamps
- 02:17 – Zalloua introduces his academic background and the motivation for the book.
- 04:20 – The inseparability of violence from genuine resistance.
- 10:06–11:47 – Destructive versus transformative violence; necessity of dismantling oppressive systems.
- 14:11–17:48 – Critique of liberal anti-racism and superficial reforms.
- 23:13–24:43 – Identity politics as a tool to split the left; stretching Marxism for colonial contexts.
- 24:43–26:17 – “Becoming black/Palestinian”; capitalism as a global, racialized force.
- 31:35–33:04 – Role of imagination and fantasy in liberation.
- 33:23–35:10 – The meaning and necessity of reckoning.
- 38:41–41:33 – Critique of pre-colonial romanticism; universality of capitalism.
- 45:01–47:24 – Worlding psychoanalysis and linking libidinal and political economies.
- 48:32–54:20 – From politics of recognition to genuine transformation.
- 57:55–60:45 – Trauma, Zionism, and universal justice.
- 62:17–66:33 – The power and necessity of solidarity across lines.
Conclusion
Through the episode, Zalloua and Hajizadeh mount a sustained critique of liberalism’s limits, the deep structures of violence, the weaponizing of trauma, and the urgent need for universal, cross-sectoral solidarity. The call is to move beyond humanitarian gestures and recognition politics, embracing reckoning, antagonism, and revolutionary imagination as necessary routes to true liberation—for Palestine and for the world.