Steve Salaita

The Ugly Exigencies of Genocide

Israel’s atrocities in Gaza have changed the way we speak about Zionism and Jewish culture.

I have a strange memory that until now I never felt able to share. I was around eleven or twelve. Something like that. A kid, but not a small one. I was in the kitchen of our small house in Bluefield, Virginia, and my parents were arguing.

It wasn’t a traumatic argument. It was rather silly and I recall feeling that way at the time. They weren’t arguing about money, infidelity, or addiction. They were arguing about Fiddler on the Roof.

Existence and Belonging: Six Reflections on Palestine

A transcript of remarks delivered on April 8, 2026, at Queen Mary University of London.

I want to begin with a confession: I’m having a difficult time figuring out what to say. For months I have been immobilized at the level of language. That is, I have thoughts and ideas and opinions, but actually forming them into legible comments has been a significant challenge. My impulse was to go silent, speaking only in monologue, but eventually I recognized that a better course of action would be to figure out why language sometimes feels ineffective as a communication device.

An Excerpt of “Jerry and Rodrigo Go to War”

The following is an except from the newly-published novel Jerry and Rodrigo Go to War, which you can learn more about here.

Palestine Solidarity in the Age of Reaction

Should people involved with the Palestine solidarity movement in North America, traditionally leftist in orientation, seek alliances with the political right?

The question in the subheading appears straightforward, but it presents semantic problems. The notion of leftwing and rightwing is unstable and both words change spatially and temporally. A “liberal” in the United States isn’t necessarily the same as a “liberal” in the Middle East. For that matter, a “liberal” in the United States isn’t necessarily the same as another “liberal” in the United States, depending on who uses or hears the term.

Palestine and the Politics of Purity

Accusing anti-Zionists of “purity politics” is a lazy rhetorical evasion.

“Purity politics.” We’ve been hearing the term—along with its cognate, “purist”—since at least the 2000 presidential race, when frantic liberals repeatedly applied it to supporters of Green Party candidate Ralph Nader. “Your purity politics are going to cost Al Gore the election,” Democratic Party loyalists liked to say.

The term can also impugn anyone who rejects (or merely criticizes) a politician affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America [DSA]. “You purists are allergic to power,” DSA loyalists like to say.

Palestine and the Making of a New New World

The liberation of Palestine is, above all, a world-building project.

For decades, Palestinians and fellow travelers have warned about the dangers of unchecked Zionist repression. Without meaningful opposition, we pointed out, their shenanigans would result in the complete breakdown of a civil liberties regime that was never up to the task of its own promises.

Care and Carefulness in Today’s United States

A short reflection on what the line “be careful” means in today’s dark political environment.

I recently traveled to the United States from Egypt. It was a strange time to visit the country of my birth. Many people are (rightly) in some kind of distress, whether it’s because of the brutal ICE regime, extreme repression of speech and activism, ascendant neo-Nazism, economic precarity, the ongoing genocide in Palestine, or a general sense of impending catastrophe.

The Meaning of Honesty in Academe

A transcript of the 2025 James Baldwin Memorial Lecture at UMass-Amherst, delivered on April 16.

I’ll begin with a comment that may or may not resonate: the United States is going to hell.

Is this comment an observable fact or is it merely a perception? If observable, then based on what metrics? If perception, then what are the conditions that might lend it credence?

No Resurrection: The Life and Death of the Modern University

A transcript of comments delivered at Villanova University on April 14, 2025.

My first academic job was at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. I was extremely lucky to have landed that job. I was fresh out of graduate school and had mailed off around 150 applications between September and December. It was 2003. These things were still done in hard copy back then.

Arab Americans, Ignore the Haters: Rejecting Kamala Harris was the Right Thing to Do

Arab Americans are facing vicious pushback for refusing to abandon Palestine, but people interested in a better world should follow our lead instead of mourning the neoliberal order.

The depth and scope of racism now directed at Arab Americans is staggering. Many liberals are looking for somebody to blame for Kamala Harris’s dismal showing in the recent election and have found the perfect scapegoat in Arab Americans (along with Muslim Americans more broadly, anti-Zionists of all backgrounds, and, unbelievably, the Palestinians currently suffering a genocide).