The Ongoing Nakba: Palestinian refugee politics from 1948 to now with Dr Anne Irfan
What does it mean to describe the Nakba as ongoing?
In this episode, historian and author Dr Anne Irfan joins Britain Palestine Project podcast host Diana Safieh to trace the history of Palestinian displacement from the Nakba of 1948 to the present day.
Anne begins with the events of 1947–49, when at least 750,000 Palestinians became refugees, and explains why the Nakba should be understood not only through the original expulsions, but through the subsequent denial of return and repeated displacement of Palestinian communities.
She explores the central role Palestinian refugee camps have played in political organisation, resistance and sumud (steadfastness), from the Palestinian revolutionary movement of the late 1960s and 1970s to the First Intifada and later movements centred on the right of return.
The conversation also examines the particular place of Gaza within this history. More than 200,000 Palestinian refugees arrived in Gaza following the Nakba, transforming its population and landscape and creating a refugee population whose descendants have experienced repeated displacement. Anne connects this history to the destruction and displacement witnessed in Gaza today.
Dr Anne Irfan (https://www.anneirfan.com/) is a historian and lecturer at University College London, researching the history and politics of Palestinian displacement. She is the author of Refuge and Resistance: Palestinians and the International Refugee System (Columbia University Press, 2023) and A Short History of the Gaza Strip (Simon & Schuster, 2025).
Her academic work has appeared in the Journal of Palestine Studies, Journal of Genocide Research, Journal of Refugee Studies and Jerusalem Quarterly. She has also contributed to media outlets including Al Jazeera, The Nation, +972 and Jewish Currents.
11 Sept 2026
Situation Report Episode 4 - A Turning Point in Britain’s Policy on Palestine?
Britain Palestine Project trustees Andrew Whitley and Sir Vincent Fean discuss what they see as a significant shift in British policy towards Israel and Palestine following Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband’s announcement of new measures relating to Israel’s illegal settlements and Gaza.
Sir Vincent describes the change as significant not only in substance, but in tone and determination – arguing that, for the first time in his 39-year diplomatic career, he has heard a British Foreign Secretary link condemnation of Israeli settlement activity with concrete action.
Andrew and Vincent examine what this could mean in practice, including the threat posed by the E1 settlement project; Israel’s response and the closure of the British Consulate in Jerusalem; growing settler influence within Israeli politics and state institutions; and the increasingly contested status of Jerusalem and its holy sites.
They also turn to the situation in Gaza, where severe restrictions continue despite the ceasefire, and discuss the obstacles to implementing the next stages of the Trump plan, including the question of disarmament and the future administration of Gaza.
Finally, they look ahead to possible Palestinian elections and the urgent need for democratic renewal, asking what role Britain should play in ensuring that Palestinians in Gaza, East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank are able to participate – and that the international community respects the outcome.
There may have been a significant change in British policy, they conclude, but changing policy is only the beginning. The real test is whether sustained international pressure can bring about meaningful change on the ground.
11 Sept 2026
Who Controls What We See? with Issam Hijazi, founder of UpScrolled
Who controls what appears in our social media feeds, and who decides which voices are amplified, suppressed or removed altogether?Diana Safieh speaks to Issam Hijazi, the Palestinian-Jordanian-Australian founder of UpScrolled, an independent social media platform created in response to concerns about censorship, shadow banning and the power of Big Tech.Issam describes his own experience of posting about Palestine and finding that content received dramatically less visibility than his other posts. He explains how those experiences helped inspire UpScrolled, which has grown from around 150,000 users at the beginning of 2026 to more than five million, largely through organic growth and word of mouth.The conversation explores the increasingly important question of who controls the information we see online. Issam discusses algorithms and shadow banning; data collection and privacy; content moderation and hate speech; fake accounts and bot farms; political influence; and the challenges of building an ethical social media company while competing with some of the world's biggest technology businesses.He also explains UpScrolled's approach to transparency: allowing users greater control over what they see, collecting only the data it needs, not selling user data to third parties, and attempting to moderate content consistently rather than favouring particular political positions or groups.The discussion asks some difficult questions. Can social media ever be politically neutral? Where should platforms draw the line between free expression and harmful content? Can we escape algorithmically created echo chambers? And can an ethical alternative to Big Tech succeed without eventually compromising the principles on which it was founded?
Who has been a guest on Balfour Project: Peace, Justice and Equal Rights in Palestine/Israel
Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.
Dr Alonso Gurmendi
Menachem Klein
Miranda Pinch
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YouTube views
2,305,858
Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025
Apple Podcasts (US)
4.5 / 5
8 ratings
Spotify
2.7 / 5
36 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 64 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
58
Social presence
0
YouTube
93
Engagement
84
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