Saturday, 19 March 2022, saw the first day of the symposium “Settler Colonialism, Indigeneity and the Palestinian Struggle against Zionism,” organized by the Omran Journal for Social Sciences published by the ACRPS and the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies in collaboration with the DI School of Social Sciences and Humanities. The proceedings of the symposium are being held in attendance at the Doha Institute and livestreamed across social media platforms.

Welcoming the audience, Amal Ghazal, Professor of History and Dean of the School of Social Sciences and Humanities at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, indicated that this symposium is a continuation of the series “Issues of Our Time,” an annual forum launched by the School in October 2019 to provide a platform for academic dialogue on pressing issues for public opinion and the academic community. Each year the series invites a distinguished personality with extensive expertise in the field to open the event and range of specialised researchers to contribute their research on the chosen topic.

Mouldi Lahmar, editor-in-chief of Omran, followed with his own welcome note, noting that the symposium was partially a result of the autumn 2021 and winter 2022 issues of Omran, which were dedicated to settler colonialism and the Palestinian struggle against Zionism. He added that this symposium seeks to answer a set of questions related to the theoretical framework of settler colonialism and the problems it poses as a framework to understand the state of Israel and the Zionist project, cross-referencing Settler colonialism in Palestine with other colonial experiences to clarify new theoretical horizons. The symposium addresses a group of themes, including historical sociology and the formation of the settler colonial state, comparative colonial studies and the relationship of nationalism to colonialism, the settler-colonial imaginary and its relationship to racism, violence and xenophobia, and issues of legitimacy and sovereignty and how this relates to the colonial origins of international law.

In his lecture, Mamdani touched on four issues. First, he examined the United States as a foundational moment in the history of settler colonialism, contrasting the colonial conquest of the Native Americans with the racist system of domination over Africans, in order to distinguish colonial conquest and racial hierarchy as two different types of subjugation, each with a distinct root consequence. Second, he reflected on the difference between an immigrant and a settler. Through the South African experience, he addressed two other issues: first, how can political identity be perceived? Is it historical and changing or organic and permanent? Historicizing identity means seeing it as born of a particular form of state, and therefore subject to change. But looking at identity as organic, that is, an eternal expression of an innate and trans-historical cultural subject, means looking at it as a constant. Mamdani then tackled what the simplest matter of South Africa's transition away from the legacy of apartheid: the necessity of separating nation and state, if we are to search for an alternative to the nation-state.

Finally, to address what can be extrapolated from the South African experience, Mamdani noted that BDS can contribute to Israel's international isolation, but more needs to be done for the non-Zionist alternative to flourish in Israel domestically. As was the case in South Africa, there is a need for a knowledge revolution that opens the way to a political revolution. The defining Palestinian moment will come when the same dynamic that led to the unity of the oppressed leads to the isolation of the oppressors; when it is not only the oppressed who seek political change, but also the many who currently support the Zionist regime. Reaching this stage requires a new kind of political awareness within Israel, based on the recognition that the prosperity of Jews and Jewish life does not require a Zionist state. The South African lesson that must be conveyed to the Israelis is that the Jews do not need a Jewish state to have a safe place in Palestine/Israel. The lesson that the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement must learn from Israel is that it needs to build on the gains made by the Balad party, not to consider themselves as an alternative to it. Doing so would be to provide a political framework for anti-Zionist and even non-Zionist Israeli Jews.

The symposium, which is divided into three public lectures and four sessions, will run until Monday, 21 March 2022, in line with the agenda attached.