Webdiary - Founded and Inspired by Margo Kingston

AMY GOODMAN: Today, we spend the hour with acclaimed author and activist Arundhati Roy. Her first novel, The God of Small Things, was awarded the Booker Prize in 1997. It’s sold over six million copies, has been translated in over 20 languages around the world. Since then, Roy has devoted herself to political writing and activism.

"On few other issues is the battle over history so intense as on the Israel-Palestine conflict. On few other issues has history been so turned from an academic discipline to a weapon of war. ... One tactic is to muse about how much nicer the world would be if the illegitimate state of Israel had never existed. Let’s go with this premise for a bit: Israel should never have existed. How would we shove the historical toothpaste back in the tube?" Will Howard

"Do international tribunals of the sort Milosevic faced before his death promote or postpone serious self-reflection and reconciliation in damaged societies? Do they strengthen or undermine the political stability needed to rebuild wrecked communities and shattered economies?" Jiří Dienstbier, Special Rapporteur of the UNHRC in the Balkans.