Palestinians inspect extensive damage to buildings after an Israeli airstrike on the Al-Shati Camp in western Gaza City on May 9, 2026, an attack that violated the ceasefire. Photo by Saeed M. M. T. Jaras/Anadolu via Getty Images
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This special edition of The Marc Steiner Show marks the anniversary of the Nakba. Host Marc Steiner speaks with physician and author Dr. Ghada Karmi about the wide-scale destruction in Gaza, the erosion of confidence in political solutions, and the deepening sense of despair among many Palestinians and Israelis.
Guests:
Ghada Karmi was born in Jerusalem and was displaced with her family during the Nakba. She trained in medicine at Bristol University, founded the first British–Palestinian medical charity in 1972, and served as an Associate Fellow at Chatham House (the Royal Institute for International Affairs). Karmi is the author of several books, including the memoir In Search of Fatima and One State: The Only Democratic Future for Palestine-Israel. Her most recent work is the novel Mojana, set in medieval Baghdad.
Credits:
Producer: Rosette Sewali
Studio Production: Cameron Granadino
Audio Post-Production: Stephen Frank
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.
Summary of the conversation:
Marc Steiner opened the program noting the human cost and destruction since October 7, 2023, citing an estimated 73,000 Palestinian deaths, including over 20,000 children, and widespread damage to land and infrastructure. He explained the episode was dedicated to remembering the Nakba, when nearly a million Palestinians were displaced in 1948, and introduced Dr. Ghada Karmi, who was a child when her family was forced from their home.
Dr. Karmi described her personal history—displacement in 1948, medical training, and decades of writing and advocacy—and reflected on the current moment. She said the present circumstances feel worse than her original experience of the Nakba and expressed growing doubt about the prospects for Palestinian return or a peaceful political settlement. Karmi has long supported a single democratic state that would offer equal rights to all inhabitants, and she reiterated the centrality of the Palestinian right of return. However, she said recent developments and public attitudes have made that kind of coexistence harder to imagine.
On the question of coexistence, Karmi framed the conflict in terms of settler colonialism and argued that many Jewish-Israelis are part of a settler population whose descendants have benefited from dispossession. She explained why that history complicates proposals for a single shared state and why it is difficult to ask Palestinians, as the victims of dispossession and recent violence, to accept an arrangement that treats settler-descendants as equal without addressing accountability and return.
Asked about possible pathways out of the conflict, Karmi said she could not see a clear solution under current conditions. She identified as essential the removal of major international support—particularly from Western governments like the United States—for policies that enable ongoing occupation and violence. She listed several scenarios that might alter the situation: a major regional military escalation (for example involving Iran or Hezbollah), a withdrawal of key external patrons, domestic fractures within Israeli society, economic strain, and growing international popular and institutional pressure for Palestinian rights. Any of these, alone or in combination, could change the status quo, she said.
Karmi also warned about the risks and uncertainties of escalation, including the possibility that Israel’s nuclear capability could factor into extreme decision-making if leaders felt existentially threatened. She emphasized the precariousness of the situation for both Palestinians and Israelis and said that the current trajectory risks deep harm to all people in the region.
Throughout the conversation, Karmi stressed the moral centrality of the right of return and argued that any durable peace must reckon with historical injustice and the rights of displaced Palestinians to return to their homeland. The discussion concluded with a mutual call to continue political engagement, advocacy, and efforts to pursue justice and peace.
Closing and credits:
Marc Steiner thanked Dr. Ghada Karmi for joining the program and noted that links to her work would be provided. He thanked the production team—Cameron Granadino, Stephen Frank, Rosette Sewali, Kayla Rivara—and The Real News staff for their support. Listeners were invited to provide feedback or suggest topics by emailing mss@therealnews.com. The show closed with a request that listeners stay engaged and continue following developments.
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