David Grossman: Isolating Israel is not the answer

David Grossman: Isolating Israel is not the answer

‘To isolate Israel or to punish Israel will be the most irresponsible and unacceptable step to boycott Israel, for example. I think it's a huge mistake, because what we need is a dialogue.’

Tim Franks speaks to Israeli author David Grossman about the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza as concerns grow over the increasingly fragile ceasefire. Grossman is one of Israel’s most prominent writers, and since publishing his first novel over forty years ago, his works have been translated into 36 languages. He’s won numerous literary awards over the years, including the Man Booker International Prize in 2017. Many of his works deal with the issues associated with Israel and Palestine.

The 71-year-old is also well-known as a peace activist, and has been a vocal, long-standing critic of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - expressing concern over the direction the country is being led in.

In an interview with the Italian newspaper La Repubblica in August, Grossman described Israel’s actions in Gaza as ‘genocide’, lamenting that he had been forced to reach that conclusion by the ongoing military campaign that began following the events of October 7.

Thank you to the Newshour team for their help in making this programme. The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC. You can listen on the BBC World Service, Mondays and Wednesdays at 0700 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out twice a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.

Presenter: Tim Franks Producers: Ben Cooper and Jack Hunter Editor: Justine Lang

Get in touch with us on email TheInterview@bbc.co.uk and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.

(Image: David Grossman. Credit Franco Origlia/Getty Images)

Episoder(1827)

Moncef Marzouki - President of Tunisia

Moncef Marzouki - President of Tunisia

Hardtalk is in Tunisia a year after the revolution which gave birth to the Arab Spring. Stephen Sackur meets Moncef Marzouki - a man who has undergone an extraordinary transformation from political prisoner and dissident exile to president of the Republic. He now heads a coalition government of Islamists and secularists. The country has become the test bed for the new politics of the Arab world. Can Tunisia make a success of its revolution?(Image: Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki. Credit: AFP/Getty Images)

9 Mar 201223min

Jacqueline Wilson - Children's author

Jacqueline Wilson - Children's author

Over the past ten years Jacqueline Wilson has been the most borrowed author from British libraries. She's sold 30 million of her books just in the UK - and written nearly a hundred of them over the years - girls love them. They almost always focus on a young girl in a difficult family usually being brought up single-handedly by her mother, sometimes with an abusive stepfather. And often featuring drink or drugs. So why does she draw on such bleak territory?Jacqueline Wilson talks to Sarah Montague

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Nana Akufo-Addo - Ghanaian presidential candidate

Nana Akufo-Addo - Ghanaian presidential candidate

Ghana has been hailed as a shining example to all of Africa - a model of democracy, decent governance and responsible economic management in a continent struggling to fulfil its potential. But if Ghana looks like a success story to outsiders, how does it look to Ghanaians themselves?Nana Akufo-Addo is the leader of the main opposition party and candidate for president. Stephen Sackur asks him if Ghana can use its resource wealth and inward investment to benefit the many, not just a few.

5 Mar 201223min

Egemen Bagis - Turkey's Chief EU Negotiator

Egemen Bagis - Turkey's Chief EU Negotiator

Turkey is a rising power in a strategically vital region, but does it have the ability to shape events beyond its borders? Officials in Ankara would like to see Turkey inside the EU and providing leadership in the Middle East, but both goals remain elusive.Stephen Sackur talks to Egemen Bagis, Turkey's minister for Europe. His country is flexing some diplomatic muscle, but is it having the desired effect.

2 Mar 201223min

David Miliband - UK Foreign Secretary 2007-2010

David Miliband - UK Foreign Secretary 2007-2010

Politics can be a cruel business. No one knows that better than Britain's former foreign secretary David Miliband. He was hot favourite to lead the UK's Labour party after its dismal 2010 election defeat, but he lost out to his younger brother Ed. His steady rise to the political summit was halted, but he remains a Labour MP, and he still makes carefully timed interventions in foreign policy and national politics. Without the trappings of power, how does David Miliband maximise his influence?

29 Feb 201223min

Georges Chikoti - Angolan Foreign Minister

Georges Chikoti - Angolan Foreign Minister

The 10th anniversary of the end of Angola's devastating post-independence civil war is being marked in 2012. What a difference a decade makes. Angola is now one of Africa's powerhouse economies, enjoying growth that puts the West to shame, and exploiting China's insatiable demand for commodities, especially oil.Stephen Sackur speaks to Angola's foreign minister, Georges Chikoti. For Angola and Africa, this is an era of opportunity; will it be seized or squandered?

27 Feb 201223min

Yoweri Museveni - President of Uganda

Yoweri Museveni - President of Uganda

Stephen Sackur speaks to the president of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, currently on a visit to London. He took power in Kampala at the head of a rebel army in 1986 and has delivered stability and economic progress in a country previously laid low by brutal dictatorship. But in recent years, he has faced questions about his commitment to democracy and human rights. When he took power, he said Uganda's - and Africa's - problem was leaders overstaying their time in power. Has he fallen into the same old trap?(Image: President of Uganda Yoweri K Museveni. Credit: Associated Press)

24 Feb 201223min

Eugenia Tymoshenko - Daughter of Yulia Tymoshenko

Eugenia Tymoshenko - Daughter of Yulia Tymoshenko

This summer Ukraine is co-hosting the European football championships, but don't be deceived by the sporting camaraderie - Ukraine's political relationship with the EU is in crisis. The most pressing dispute concerns Yulia Tymoshenko, the former Ukrainian prime minister imprisoned for seven years after a trial dismissed as a political charade by many in the West. Stephen Sackur speaks to Yulia Tymoshenko's daughter, Eugenia. What does the Tymoshenko story say about Ukraine?

22 Feb 201223min

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