The interview centers on the book Visualizing Palestine: A Chronicle of Colonialism and the Struggle for Liberation and the broader work of the Visualizing Palestine collective. You open by situating the book in a moment of media consolidation, censorship, and classroom bans, framing it as both an archive and a living tool for narrative struggle. Editor Jessica Anderson explains that VP has spent over a decade creating data-driven visuals, maps, and explainers on topics like settler colonialism, apartheid, water and ecological justice, political prisoners, disability justice, and freedom of expression. The book curates these hundreds of visuals into 12 themed chapters, each introduced by an essay, and had to be re-opened in late 2023 to account for Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza.
Designer Nas Abd Elal talks about the challenge of turning overwhelming numbers into visual stories that humanize Palestinians instead of numbing audiences. They describe organizing the work around core concepts such as apartheid, colonialism, ecological justice, and prisoners, and trying to balance rigorous data with powerful personal narratives. Key examples include the widely used visual “Six Wars Old, 16 Years of Childhood in Gaza,” which reframes life in Gaza beyond death tolls, and graphics that expose the tiered ID card system and jet fuel shipments from a single Texas company that enable Israel’s air war. These visuals help people see the concrete mechanics of genocide and corporate complicity, giving organizers points of pressure for campaigns and boycotts.
Throughout the conversation, you all return to the idea that this is fundamentally a narrative battle. Jessica and Nas describe increasing repression, algorithmic suppression, and legislative attacks on ethnic studies and specific terms like “apartheid” and “settler colonialism,” even as public opinion shifts toward recognizing a genocide and questioning U.S. support for Israel. They emphasize that VP’s primary audience is the “persuadable” and those not yet active, rather than hardened Zionist supporters. The project also strives to show Palestinians as whole people, highlighting resistance, food sovereignty, culture, and collective wisdom, not just victimization. The interview closes with an invitation for organizers to see the book and VP’s visuals as living tools for education, movement-building, and pushing toward a tipping point for justice in Palestine.
Here it is broken down in roughly ten minute chunks:
0 to 10 minutes
You open by framing Visualizing Palestine: A Chronicle of Colonialism and the Struggle for Liberation as a crucial tool in a time of media consolidation, classroom censorship, and algorithmic control. Jessica Anderson explains that Visualizing Palestine has spent more than a decade creating infographics, maps, and visual explainers to support activists, educators, and advocates in telling the story of Palestine. The work covers history, concepts like settler colonialism, apartheid, ongoing Nakba, and issues such as water, ecological justice, children, disability, and freedom of expression. The book curates hundreds of visuals into 12 themed chapters, each anchored by an essay, to capture the arc of this data storytelling. She notes the team paused final production in October 2023 to respond to the escalation in Gaza and ensure the genocide was directly addressed.
10 to 20 minutes
Jessica talks about what did not fully fit into the book. Most static visuals made it in, but interactive projects and research portals could only be referenced, not fully unpacked, due to the limitations of print. She also mentions the challenge of permissions for photos that show people using VP visuals on the ground. Another tension is freezing data in time while the situation and numbers keep changing, especially during the genocide in Gaza. You connect this to your own book work with Jeff Chang, talking about shifting publishing dates when history moves fast. You ask what had to be left out and whether they had a test audience for the graphics. You also point out how their visuals go far beyond meme culture, successfully breaking down complex ideas like apartheid into clear tools organizers can use.
20 to 30 minutes
Nas comes in and describes the core design challenge. VP tries to pull people away from shallow headlines and social media sound bites and root them in the long history Rashid Khalidi calls the One Hundred Years War on Palestine. Nas explains the difficulty of visualizing massive death tolls and displacement in ways that do not numb people but instead humanize the data. The conversation focuses on balancing rigorous statistics with personal stories, and on organizing content by concepts such as apartheid, colonialism, ecological justice, and prisoners so that visuals shape how people think about solutions. You connect this to current repression of language itself, noting efforts to ban terms like apartheid and settler colonialism, and you argue that their work has clearly influenced the backlash around educational bans and algorithmic suppression.
30 to 40 minutes
The focus shifts to narrative warfare and censorship. Nas explains that the genocide in Gaza has been a watershed precisely because carnage has been livestreamed to people’s phones. VP tries to turn that despair into informed action by showing the historical roots and concrete supply chains and corporate complicity behind the violence. Jessica compares social media’s role today to television during the Vietnam War and notes that the message has broken through for many people, especially younger generations. She cites evidence that a majority of people in the United States see what is happening as genocide and question military aid to Israel. Both guests frame current censorship, book bans, and algorithmic suppression as backlash against this narrative shift, while insisting that the movement for Palestinian justice is stronger, more organized, and more connected than before.
40 minutes to end
In the final stretch, you ask how VP avoids portraying Palestinians only as victims and instead highlights their wholeness and brilliance. Nas describes visuals that center everyday experiences, like pregnancy and lack of health care under bombardment, to create emotional connection and understanding. They also mention projects on food sovereignty that highlight tradition, agriculture, and cultural resilience, while still naming Israeli attacks on self sufficiency. VP sees its visuals not simply as content to feed algorithms but as tools placed directly in the hands of organizers, educators, and movements who already recognize Palestinian humanity. You close by asking whether they target Zionist audiences or focus on persuadable people. Jessica says their energy goes to those who can be moved or mobilized, not to hard core supporters of Zionism, and that history shows committed and strategic minorities can create major change. The show ends with both guests inviting listeners to use VP’s visuals as living tools in the broader struggle for liberation.