The Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies and the Institute for Palestine Studies held their Second the Annual Palestine on 10-12 February 2024.
Approximately 70 peer-reviewed academic papers have been presented, selected from among 520 applications, in specialized sessions in four parallel tracks, in addition to a number of symposia. Given that the meeting was held at a critical juncture in the history of the Palestinian question, the symposia topics have been dedicated to addressing the various dimensions of the ongoing Israeli war on the Gaza Strip and the challenges facing the Palestinian national project.
Ayat Hamdan, ACRPS Researcher and Editorial Manager of the Ostour journal for historical studies, opened the Second Annual Palestine Forum. The opening session also included remarks from Tarek Mitri, Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Institute for Palestine Studies, and an opening lecture by Azmi Bishara, General Director of the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies.
Mitri emphasized the continuation of joint efforts between the Arab Center and the Institute for Palestine Studies in examining the Palestinian question from different aspects since the 1948 Nakba, and through the successive and recurring tragedies. He underscored the ongoing efforts of both institutions to become a reference not only for the past but also the current situations. He concluded that it is necessary to launch new programs and tools to address the current situation in Palestine, which is the primary goal of this forum, taking place amid the tragic suffering of the Palestinians in Gaza and their resilience on their land. Therefore, the Forum serves as an opportunity to facilitate dialogue on the Palestinian question and acts as a catalyst for further action.
Bishara then started his lecture by discussing the evolution of Palestinian Studies and the threat that faces academic freedom in this field due to Israeli lobbies. He highlighted the pre-packaged accusation of anti-Semitism weaponized against critics of Israel, the settler-colonial and expansionist nature of the Israeli state, the Arab position on the Palestinian issue, and the development of the relationship between Israel and Western countries. Bishara also addressed the consequences of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, the crisis of the Palestinian national project, and the strategy that the Palestinians may have to follow to achieve sovereignty and independence. Finally, Bishara discussed the ongoing debate since 7 October 2023 regarding Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, and the issues related to civilian deaths, and the responsibility of the resistance.
Following the opening session, the first forum session began, covering four main themes in parallel panels. The themes were: Palestine and Arab solidarity movements, Palestine in the international context, the Palestinian right of return, and reclaiming the stolen archive.
Three papers provided different perspectives on Arab solidarity movements for Palestine. In his paper, “Palestine Solidarity Movements: The Moroccan Case Study”, Omar Iharchane argued that there is a distinction, and in many instances an outright contradiction, between an official Morocco and an unofficial Morocco which continues to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian cause, but whose interaction is tempered by multiple factors, foremost among which is the overuse of ideology and politics, the multiplicity of solidarity frameworks, and the difficulties of coordinating among them given all these needless complications. Ahmed Sarri, in a paper titled “The Palestinian Cause in Algeria between the Popular Position and Official Algerian Discourse: A Historical Approach”, focused on the popular position and official Algerian discourse on the Palestinian issue. In the same context, Mostefa Bousboua examined the reasons for the ultras’ support for the Palestinian cause through their verbal and visual discourses, demonstrating that this support is due to the intersections between the Algerian and Palestinian cases.
Three papers considered Palestine in the international context. Ilan Pappe’s paper, “Power, Money, and Morality: the Pro-Zionist Lobby on Both Sides of the Atlantic”, argued that Zionism was an evangelical Christian project before it became a Jewish one. According to Pappe, when the two Zionist lobbies, the evangelical Christian one and the Jewish one, fused into a single lobby on both sides of the Atlantic, it became powerful enough to influence British policy towards the Ottoman Empire in general and towards historical Palestine in particular. Mandy Turner discussed the struggle between the “social movement from above” that supports Zionism and Israel (made up of UK political elites and reactionary civil society groups) and the “social movement from below” (made up of members of the public and civil society groups) that is transforming how the Israel-Palestine “conflict” is understood in the UK. Jan Busse’s paper “Palestinian Diplomacy and the Making of the Global Order: The Impact of Contested States’ Diplomatic Practices on International Politics” assessed both the historic emergence and current developments of Palestinian international and regional diplomacy, and related them to overarching questions of global order.
Three papers discussed the Palestinian right of return. Presenting his paper, titled “The Right of Return for Palestinian Refugees and Attempts to Circumvent It”, Abdelhamid Siyam discussed the UN Right of Return Resolution 194 (1948) for Palestinian refugees, focusing on international, Arab, and Palestinian attempts to modify, circumvent, or annul the resolution. In a paper titled “Denying Palestinian Refugees’ Right of Return as a Crime against Humanity before the International Criminal Court”, Nasser Thabet discussed the hypothesis surrounding the potential prosecution of the Israeli leadership for their ongoing denial of Palestinian refugees’ right of return, considering it a crime against humanity within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC). Nawras Almanassra examined the case of the Palestinian village of Wadi Fukin, located to the southwest of the city of Bethlehem, whose people were forced to leave it in 1953 by the Israeli occupation under the pretext of its being a “border village”.
Three papers were presented on the theme of reclaiming the stolen archive. Azza El Hassan’s paper “Hands on Visual Remains: A New Methodology to Explore Media Objects That Have Survived Colonial Plundering” argued that the systematic looting and destruction of Palestinian films and photos by the Israeli state affects not only the plundered objects, but also the images that survive the violence, altering how Palestinian society and culture relate to their own photos and films. Nazmi Jubeh presented the areas in which the archives of the Department of Antiquities under the British Mandate in Palestine can be used in writing and studying Palestine’s modern and contemporary history, including tracking the names of sites before they were distorted and falsified. Rula Shahwan discussed her paper “Stolen Palestinian Archives as a Theme of Israeli Documentary Production,” shedding light on the role of archives as a source of knowledge production, including documentary films produced using raw archival materials and montage techniques.
The second session of the Forum was centered on four other themes: the Nakba and archival insights, Israeli settlements, politics of erasure and resistance in Jerusalem, and the Israeli apartheid system and colonial hegemony.
Three papers were presented in the first track of the second session titled “The Nakba: Archival Insights”. Bilal Shalash highlighted a particular aspect of Palestinian self-criticism during the 1947-1949 war through the voices of fighters in the central region, their view of their position in the war, and the limits of the Arab role therein. In his paper, Mahmoud Muhareb addressed Israel’s recruitment of the largest possible number of both Jewish settlers in Palestine and Jews from around the world into the Israeli army during the 1948 war. Hashem Abushama used the story of the depopulated village of al-Tantura to demonstrate how Zionist brigades enlisted Palestinian prisoners of war from al-Tantura for war labour, subjecting them to coercive conditions.
On the theme of Israeli settlements, Mtanes Shihadeh and Inas Khateeb presented their paper “A State Alongside a State: Israeli Economic and Social Policies towards the West Bank Settlements since 2009,” arguing that Israel employs various socio-economic policies that fulfil the needs of the settler colonial project. Malakeh Abdellatif focused on religious settlement in Jerusalem as a phenomenon that has grown out of the centrality of the current of religious Zionism in recent times by studying the EL'AD association that performs educational and tourist roles to achieve this. The third paper was presented by Feras Qawasmeh, who found that the structural change in the Ministry of Defence where Bezalel Smotrich became a deputy minister supervising the Civil Administration was merely a tool with which to implement his deeply held belief in the necessity of radically expanding settlements in the West Bank.
In the track “Jerusalem: Politics of Erasure and Resistance”, Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian drew on everyday aspects of Palestinian life to introduce and analyze the concept of ihala, a practice against Palestinians that exposes the racialized political work of violence and settler-colonial dispossessive brutality. In the same context, Kate Rouhana traced Palestinian Jerusalemites’ opportunities, or lack thereof, to engage freely in local and national elections in order to choose self-representation. Espinosa Najjar’s paper titled “Civil Society and the Judaization of East Jerusalem” investigated the particular settler organization located in the Wadi Helweh neighbourhood in the village of Silwan and demonstrated how the gaze is being shifted from annexation-occupation to a sole Zionist Jewish heritage in Wadi Helweh instead.
Three papers explored the Israeli apartheid system and colonial hegemony. Nizar Ayoub examined the apartheid regime that targets the Palestinians in Israel, known as the 1948 territories, the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, and the Palestinian refugees who are deprived of their fundamental, inalienable right to return to their homes. Sari Arraf examined the cases of Colonial Algeria, South Africa, and Palestine, combining comparative and historical legal analysis to trace the recalibration of racial apartness in the legal order of these settler colonies to give a contextualized account of apartheid in the modern era. Finally, Areej Sabbagh-Khoury unveiled the nature of interactions between Jewish settlers and the indigenous Palestinian population, and how Palestinians’ agency shapes the political landscape in Israel.
On Saturday, 10 February 2024, the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies and the Institute for Palestine Studies hosted a symposium titled “The Israeli War on Gaza: Unpacking Arab and International Responses,” as part of the Second Annual Palestine Forum. The symposium was moderated by Khaled Farraj and featured presentations from Mohammed Abu Rumman, Osama Abu Irshaid, and Ibrahim Fraihat. Abu Irshaid focused on the US response to the Israeli war on Gaza, discussing the challenges faced by President Joe Biden’s administration to preserve the unity and harmony within his divided electoral base as a result of the efforts made by supporters of Palestinian rights in the US to inflict a heavy political cost for his unwavering support for Israel. Fraihat argued that understanding European countries’ positions toward the Gaza war necessitates first looking at their stance on the Ukraine war. The Israeli war on Gaza showcased the member states’ divergent positions and the lack of political unity, as well as exposed the hypocrisy of the European civilizational project represented by democratic principles such as human rights and freedoms. Abu Rumman analysed the Arab strategic position on the Israeli war on Gaza from multiple perspectives, including the official Arab response at the international and regional levels, the significant role of non-state actors, the structural crisis that most Arab countries have been facing since the Arab Spring, and the expected repercussions of the war on the Arab official system.
On the second day of the Forum, 24 papers were presented, and two symposiums were held. The first session of the forum’s second day covered four main themes: imagining a Palestinian future, Palestinian youth and demography, Palestinian economy, and Palestinian leaders and institutions in the early twentieth century.
Three papers discussed imagining a Palestinian future. In her paper “Reimagining Economic Sustainability and Liberation in Palestine: Obstacles and Opportunities”, Leila Farsakh argued that imagining a Palestinian future requires the creation of an economy that is equitable, just, and ecologically sensitive. To reinvigorate the liberatory potential of Palestinian nationalism that has withered since Oslo, Muhannad Ayyash presented a case for decolonial sovereignties to replace the nation-state as a guiding structure for imagining an alternative decolonial future in Palestine. Presenting her paper “Honouring Pasts, Escaping Presents, and Dwelling in Futures: The Palestine Land Society Village Reconstruction Competition”, Nour Joudah argued that in the Palestine Land Society’s reconstruction competition, Palestinian architecture students tell a story of dwelling in the future.
Three papers looked at Palestinian youth and demography. Mai Abu Mogh’s paper, “Silenced Narratives: Examining Repression of Palestinian Students in UK Universities”, explored the impact of Israel's settler-colonial project on Palestinian communities, emphasizing the overlooked experiences of Palestinian students in UK universities. Mohammed Duraidi discussed various aspects of the social and economic circumstances of Palestinian youth, such as unemployment and poverty, education and health, especially mental health, migration abroad, and their connection to current political conditions. Rassem Khamaisi analysed the dialectic of demography, geography, and democracy that the Zionist movement and the State of Israel continue to apply to produce a colonial geography based on distinctive religious concepts and a religious narrative.
On Palestinian economy, Raja Khalidi underscored the stark reality of the failure to achieve Palestinians’ national goals of establishing a state and asserting sovereignty, building a productive national economy, and instituting a just social system as meticulously planned and legislated for. Presenting their paper, “Palestinian Labour in the Israeli Economy: Trends, Motives, and Impacts”, Maher El Kurd, Islam Rabee, and Sabri Ya'aqbeh discussed the conditions of Palestinian labour in Israel and the settlements located in the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967. Yaser Shalabi, Anmar Rafeedie, and Iman Saadeh argued that pervasive inequality in Palestine is intricately tied to the settler colonial context, which operates across a multitude of systematic and non-systematic spheres, undermining all Palestinian developmental frameworks and systematically dismantling equality structures.
Three papers discussed Palestinian leaders and institutions in the early twentieth century. Adel Manna explored the role of three Palestinian leaders from different generations: Hajj Amin al-Husseini, Yasser Arafat, and Mahmoud Abbas. In his paper, “The Development of Social Roles and Intellectual Tendencies of Jerusalemite Notables during the 19th and Early 20th centuries”, Mohannad Abusarah explored the social and intellectual history of Palestinian intellectuals during the 19th and early 20th centuries, with a specific focus on the Husayni and Khalidi families of Jerusalem. Khaled Zwawi presented his paper on the transformations in the religious institutions in Palestine from the end of the Ottoman era to 1936.
The second session of the Palestine Forum focused on four other themes: the Israeli carceral system, legal systems, Palestinian diaspora, and Palestinian resistance. Three papers presented studied the Israeli carceral system. Basil Farraj presented his paper “Israeli Violence and Racial Carceral Policies: Towards a Varying Analysis”, offering a guiding conceptual and theoretical framework to approach the analysis of Israeli prisons and their relation to changing modes of violence and power. Karim Qurt examined the dialectical relationship between the development of the monitoring and control system in Zionist prisons and the escapes and attempted escapes made by Palestinian prisoners. Mohammed Elshobake discussed the legality and implications of Israel’s policy of withholding the bodies of Palestinian martyrs from an international legal perspective.
Three papers were presented on the theme of “Palestinians and Legal Systems”. May Barakat and Yaser Amouri’s paper “Redefining ‘Palestinian’ Based on the Laws of the State of Palestine is Prejudicial to the Representative Character of the Palestine Liberation Organization” addressed the issues posed by the legislation issued by the State of Palestine concerning the redefinition of “Palestinian.” Sonia Boulos presented her paper, “Can There Be Citizenship Without the Right to Self-determination? The Case of Palestinian Citizens of Israel”, arguing that stripping Palestinian citizens of the right to self-determination confines them to a permanent residency status that can never be upgraded. Rashad Twam and Asem Khalil addressed the dual functionality of constitutional judiciary in authoritarian regimes and the Palestinian experience.
Three papers were presented on the Palestinian diaspora and notions of belonging and citizenship. Drawing on her research on subjectivity and settler citizenship with Palestinian youth in Canada, Lucy El-Sherif provided key methodological insights regarding fieldwork and analysis into how such processes are embodied, enacted, and performed. Kholoud Al-Ajarma explored Palestinian refugees’ struggles to build new lives for themselves, to narrate their own history, to negotiate their relationship with the ‘old diaspora’, and to make sense of their own diaspora experience in Chile. Marie Kortam provided a comprehensive overview of the Palestinian diaspora in Europe and the host society in three case studies: Germany, France, and Denmark.
On Palestinian resistance, Omar Ashour described the coined concept of “hybrid defence-in-depth” to examine military adaptations and innovations in Gaza and their strategic implications. Ayat Hamdan traced the development of resistance strategies in the West Bank from 2021-2023, which saw an escalation in armed resistance activity. Majd Darwish’s paper, “The International Legality of Palestinian Armed Resistance” provided evidence of the international legality of Palestinian armed resistance against Israeli occupation and its colonial apparatus.
Following the sessions, the Forum hosted two symposiums. The first symposium. “The War on Gaza in Western and Arab Media” featured presentations by Yara Hawari, Ben White, Yousef Munayyer, and Wael Abdelal. The second symposium titled “The Israeli War on Gaza: Reconstruction Challenges” featured Ghassan El Kahlout, Ghassan Abu Sitta, Sajeda Shawa, and Ali Al-Za'tari.
On 11 February 2024, the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies and the Institute for Palestine Studies hosted the symposium “The War on Gaza in Western and Arab Media”, as part of the Second Annual Palestine Forum. Moderated by Muzna Shihabi, Development and Communications expert at the Arab Center, Paris, the panel featured presentations from Yara Hawari, Co-Director of Al-Shabaka, The Palestinian Policy Network; Ben White, Founding Executive Director of The Britain Palestine Media Centre; Yousef Munayyer, Head of the Palestine/Israel Program and Senior Fellow at the Arab Center Washington DC, and Wael Abdelal, Assistant Professor of Media and Mass Communication at Qatar University.
Hawari began by discussing Western media’s complicity in the genocide in Gaza, stating that the mainstream media coverage of the ongoing genocide in Gaza has highlighted not only deep biases in favour of the Israeli regime but also the ease with which Palestinians are dehumanized. This dehumanization is a core element of colonization and of genocides around the world. The Western media adopts a dehumanizing rhetoric that is deeply rooted in white supremacy and colonial dominance. These tactics of dehumanization, according to Hawari, include adopting the language from the discourse of the war on terrorism and the “unchilding” Palestinian children. Lastly, Hawari highlighted that there is a modus operandi among Western journalists and media platforms vis-a-vis Palestine where standard ethical codes of journalism are disregarded.
In the same context, drawing on examples from Western media, Munayyer discussed media bias and how it has evolved over the duration of the war on Gaza, examining framing, topics, and patterns of coverage. Munayyer argued that a key US contribution to the Israeli war, perhaps more important than money and bombs, was filtering information in order to widen the political space to carry out this onslaught. This has created the most significant bifurcation of views between the West and the East in recent history and has been detrimental to US interests in the process.
White addressed the widespread criticism by Palestinians and others of the coverage by English-language Western media outlets of Israel’s unprecedented offensive against the Gaza Strip since 7 October. He focused on what the media got wrong and why, as well as demonstrating what good coverage looks like. He emphasized that some of the problems highlighted in recent months are familiar and long-standing, as well as more unique, context-specific challenges, but there are also opportunities to be taken.
Lastly, Abdelal presented the discrepancies in the coverage of the Gaza war in Arab media. While Arab media supports the Palestinian cause to the extent that they compete for coverage and quality, a consensus has been absent in the current Israeli aggression in Gaza. The Arab media coverage has taken two directions. The first has focused heavily on the war and its repercussions. The second has taken a non-neutral stance, employing sceptical and sometimes hostile rhetoric in an attempt to condemn the Palestinians. Abdelal also highlighted the absence of objective political and field analysis, and the lack of information in Arab media coverage. He concluded by discussing the phenomenon of foreign Arabic-language channels.
On Sunday, 11 February 2024, the second day of the Annual Palestine Forum, organized by the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies and the Institute for Palestine Studies, ended with the symposium, “The Israeli War on Gaza: Reconstruction Challenges”, moderated by Mohammed Abu-Nimer, the Abdul Aziz Said Chair in International Peace and Conflict Resolution at American University, Washington, DC. The panel included presentations from Ghassan El Kahlout, Ghassan Abu Sitta, and Ali Al-Za’tari.
El-Kahlout, Director of the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies and Associate Professor in Conflict Management and Humanitarian Action at the Doha Institute, began by noting the extreme sense of uncertainty that distinguishes the post-war landscape in Gaza from other conflicts and that the reconstruction will be a unique challenge. El-Kahlout detailed the extent of destruction in residential buildings and infrastructure, in addition to the impact of the war on healthcare and hospitals. He noted the political and administrative challenges, local, regional, and international difficulties, the restriction of access to resources, the material costs of reconstruction, the human losses, and the volume of displacement. El-Kahlout concluded that with regard to financing, donor conferences often have symbolic value, and that there is no other way to truly start the reconstruction process without removing Israel from the equation and bypassing the historical obstacles to reducing Israel’s role in the reconstruction of Gaza. El-Kahlout also stressed that it is necessary to support rapid capacity building for local grassroots organizations and municipalities and similar institutions, achieve an appropriate level of accountability and transparency in the process, and develop the ability to adapt to rapid changes in conditions on the ground.
British Palestinian physician and professor of surgery, Ghassan Abu Sitta, presented on the systematic deconstruction of the health sector in Gaza, in a deliberate attempt to make the territory uninhabitable long term, and explaining how this was a distinguishing factor in Israel’s current war on Gaza. Consequently, the challenges of rebuilding the health sector in Gaza have become more urgent, further exacerbated by the presence of more than 70,000 wounded in need of surgery or facing chronic, life-threatening illnesses that require immediate treatment. Abu Sitta emphasized that patients in Gaza cannot wait for the health system to be rebuilt, and consequently has developed a framework to meet the urgent needs of the population immediately after the ceasefire, with a phased approach to rehabilitating the health system in a way that meets the most urgent needs at the appropriate time.
The final speaker, Al-Za’tari, stressed that the conditions in Gaza today are not like any other conflict. Every branch of Zionism seeks total destruction which means that continuous humanitarian relief will be required for many years to come. In parallel with a ceasefire, Gaza is in need of rapid recovery campaigns for infrastructure and reconstruction, which will demand political and operational coordination and cooperation between donors, beneficiaries, intermediaries, and the occupier. While the UN describes the situation in Gaza as a chronic, accumulated crisis, Al-Zaatari finds that the current UN mechanism depends on a multi-sectoral assessment followed by an action plan, financing through donor conferences, and implementation in two stages – life-saving relief and early recovery. Meanwhile, reconstruction is not presumed in these conferences and plans. While there is no doubt that UN bodies are delivering whatever aid they can through restricted channels in the face of obstructive procedures and security risks, this remote assessment is not as accurate as the direct and detailed local assessment that is needed to form a foundation to develop a convincing funding and implementation plan.
The last day of the 2024 Annual Palestine Forum, included 21 presentations and two symposiums. The first session of the forum’s third day covered three main themes: “Global Reverberations of Palestine: Intellectual Thoughts and Solidarity”, “Refugees and Present Absentees: Memory and Space”, and “Palestinian Society: Belonging and Agency”.
Three papers looked at global intellectual thoughts and solidarity for Palestine. Drawing on experiences of teaching critical race studies within Palestine, Shaira Vadasaria examined what these dissonances say about the limits of liberal anti-racism as an antidote to the colonial question of Palestine. Yanis Iqbal’s paper titled “Palestine in the Global Intellectual Conjuncture: Marxism and Post-Colonialism” situated Palestine within the intellectual coordinates of Marxism and post-colonialism. Rovshan Mammadli explored the transformation of Azerbaijan’s solidarity narrative with Palestine in the aftermath of its independence from the USSR.
Three papers focused on memory and space. Rami Rmeileh’s paper, “Oral Histories: Weaving Glossaries of Struggle” addressed the discourse of struggle revealed in an oral history archive, highlighting the experiences of six Palestinian women from Ain al-Hilweh camp during the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon. Through reading children’s stories of violence, homelessness, and uprootedness, Azadeh Sobout highlighted their experiences of resistance, loss, nostalgia, hope, and longing. Employing an oral history methodology, Heba Yazbak explored various narratives of displacement in the cities of Jaffa, Haifa, Acre, Safad, Baysan, Tiberias, and Lydd.
Three papers discussed concepts of belonging and agency in relation to Palestinian society. Presenting her paper, “Practices of Belonging: Finding a Sense of Palestinian Belonging through Volunteering”, Haneen Magadlah described volunteering as a practice undertaken by Palestinians to deepen their connection to their identity and Palestinian community. Mustafa Sheta and Ayman Yousef addressed the structural crisis faced by Palestinian civil society, the importance of which lies in the pivotal role civil society plays in advancing democratic principles, upholding human rights, and realizing social justice. Bilal Salameh traced the political, social, and economic role of the Palestinian social actor amid structural changes in the Palestinian scene and the resulting fragmentation of Palestinian society.
The second session of the Palestine Forum was centred on four other themes: “Colonial Control Systems in Gaza and the West Bank”, “Health and the Environment in the Settler Colonial Context”, “Palestine and the Struggle of Memory: Textual Models”, and “Economic Development Challenges Amidst under Occupation”.
Three papers studied colonial control systems in Gaza and the West Bank. Safaa Jaber presented her paper on the legal status of Gaza as an occupied territory under international law. Ghada Samman examined the Israeli colonial pattern in the post-Oslo phase, in which colonial hegemony developed rapidly towards greater control and surveillance over Palestinians. Natalie Salameh offered a critical reading of the concept of comprador as it has been employed in Palestinian political economy literature.
Three papers were presented on health and the environment in the settler colonial context. Osama Tanous used a settler colonial lens to track the formation and expansion of healthcare services in Palestine–Israel. In her paper, “The Biopolitics of Waiting: Patients and Beit Hanoun ‘Erez’ Checkpoint”, Ishraq Othman examined the temporalities and spatialities of patients waiting at the Israeli-controlled Beit Hanoun/Erez checkpoint in Gaza, Palestine to receive treatment in the hospitals of the West Bank, Jerusalem or the Palestinian occupied territories of 1948. Nouraldin Araj discussed Israeli waste disposal sites in the West Bank within the broader framework of structural violence against the Palestinian population and landscape.
Three papers focused on the theme of Palestine and the struggle of memory. Eman Bdaiwi attempted to form a sociological understanding of the “Lions’ Den,” ('arīn al-usūd) group that recently emerged within the Palestinian armed resistance as a pattern with new features. Marah Abdel Jaber argued that the imaginal is evaluated through its relationship with the Palestinian novel as a critical informant on the diverse Palestinian condition, reconceptualizing the possibility of liberation within and beyond the boundaries of occupied land via expanded knowledge on the heterogenous Palestinian reality. In his paper, “Decolonizing Memory: Israel’s Modes of Forgetting Palestinian History”, Emad Moussa suggested that there are two modes that define Israel’s colonization and, consequently, suppression of Palestinian memory: passive forgetting and active forgetting.
Three papers discussed economic development challenges under occupation. Maher El Kurd presented his paper, “Envisioning the Economics of Alternatives to the Two-State Solution in Palestine”, reviewing three alternatives to the two-state paradigm: an economic union, two parallel states on one land, and one secular democratic state, limiting its scope to the economic aspects of the hypothetical implementation of such models. Walid Habbas highlighted the tactics employed by Palestinian economic actors to offset these challenges within the confines of intensified Israeli spatial control. Mohammed Samhouri called for a full reconsideration of the failed Oslo-based economic model which has been in place in the Occupied Palestinian Territories since 1994, and for a strategic shift in policy based on an entirely different approach to the Palestinian economy.
The Forum also hosted two additional symposiums. The first symposium, “Hamas in the Aftermath of the War on Gaza” and moderated by Lourdes Habash, featured presentations from Mouin Rabbani, Leila Seurat, and Tarek Hammoud. The second symposium, “The Repercussions of the War on Gaza: Insights into the Palestinian National Project” and moderated by Leila Farsakh, hosted presentations from Mustafa Barghouti, Ahmed Ghoneim, Adeeb Ziadeh, and Mueen Al-Taher.
Monday, 12 February 2024, rounded off the second Annual Palestine Forum, organized by the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies and the Institute for Palestine Studies. The last symposium, “The Repercussions of the War on Gaza: Insights into the Palestinian National Project,” was chaired by Laila Farsakh, Professor of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts, and included presentations by Mustafa Barghouti, Ahmed Ghoneim, Adeeb Ziadeh, and Mueen Al-Taher on their ideas about the state of the Palestinian national project.
Speaking first, General Secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative, Barghouti argued that the recent war rendered talking about the national project at this moment a matter of urgency. He alluded to the three elements that constitute this project, the first of which being the goals. He stressed that the goal is not only to end the occupation, but to overthrow the settler-colonial system across occupied Palestine, ensure the return of refugees, and establish a democratic system in which Palestinians can practice self-determination and determine their own fate. The second element is strategy, which is based on the three principles of self-reliance, self-organization, and challenging the Zionist occupation and colonial system. This strategy requires supporting the steadfastness of the Palestinian people to remain on their land, strengthening the demographic presence of resistance, building all forms of resistance, unifying the national ranks, building a unified leadership, integrating the struggle at home and abroad, maximizing the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement, penetrating the ranks of the opponent, and building on the global movement to support the Palestinians. The third element is the mechanisms based on the formation of a unified national front and leadership that can overcome Palestinian divisions, work to protect the Palestinian right to self-representation, unite the Palestinian people and protect the land and nation.
In his presentation, the second speaker, Ahmed Ghoneim, a former member of Fatah’s Revolutionary Council, drew attention to the urgent need to rebuild the Palestinian national project considering the current context. He argued that restoring the dignity of the homeland and the Palestinian people is more urgent and more eloquent than any power struggle. For this reason, the Palestinian national project needs to be rooted in national unity and the affirmation of the right of the Palestinian people to resist. This unity includes all political forces and factions, the Palestinian people, the Palestinian political system, and national strategies. Ghoneim stressed that the responsibility today falls on all components of the Palestinian people to unify the Palestinian national project, which requires strengthening solidarity between all Palestinians.
Adeeb Ziadeh, Assistant Professor in the Department of International Affairs at Qatar University, stressed the necessity of building on the events of 7 October to restore interest in the Palestinian national project. He added that 7 October had defeated attempts to marginalize the Palestinian question regionally, and impeded efforts to normalize relations between Israel and the Arab countries without Palestinian people obtaining their just national rights. Ziadeh further rejected the idea that Palestinian division was based on a power struggle, arguing instead that 7 October showed that the division was based on different opinions of how to liberate Palestinians from the occupation. Ziadeh concluded by insisting that the real question today is how to build on the resistance, steadfastness, and sacrifices of the Palestinian people to further a real political project, by studying the strengths, weaknesses, and priorities of the cause, with an emphasis on the fact that the main actor in this equation is the Palestinian people. He added that the Palestine Liberation Organization must overcome the crisis of exclusivity in Palestinian decision-making and rely on democratic tools and partnerships in this process.
Mueen Al-Taher, Coordinator of the ACRPS “Palestine Memory Project”, stressed that any national project must have the approval of the majority of the Palestinian people. He added that this project must consist of two aspects, the first of which is a general goal or vision, which must be fought for. Second is the means to achieve this goal. He noted that while there is no dispute about the right of the Palestinian people to establish their free state, this will only be achieved by ending the occupation, and that this stage is not so much dependent on proposing solutions as it is on accumulating the achievements of the struggle to change the balance of power. He added that there is also a need to agree on a new formula to confront the US manoeuvres with a program based on first ceasing settlement building, and then setting a timetable for dismantling existing settlements, removing the occupation from the occupied territories, not allowing the reproduction of any agreement similar to the Oslo Accords or submitting to the conditions of the Quartet on the Middle East. It also requires non-participation in any negotiations that are not related to a clear timetable for the end of the occupation, after which the Palestinian people alone decide the form of their state. He pointed out that from here stems the need to formulate a Palestinian national project that preserves the historical narrative of the Palestinian people, unites their energies and efforts, and makes defeating the occupation its main goal. The Palestine Liberation Organization, as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, requires the participation of all Palestinians and must be transformed into an organization that operates on a democratic basis.
Director General of the Arab Center, Azmi Bishara, concluded the Forum by emphasizing the unique academic space provided by the Annual Palestine Forum, dedicated to bringing together academics from numerous disciplines to discuss issues related to Palestine. He noted that the success of the first two years of the Forum is a major incentive to keep it running in cooperation with the Institute for Palestine Studies for many years to come. Bishara thanked all the academics and researchers who participated this year, as well as everyone who attended the Forum, and all the researchers and employees who contributed to the event’s success. Bishara concluded by saying that Palestinian unity today is not a luxury, but an urgent necessity that requires solidarity, especially in light of the current conditions facing the Palestinian people.
On Monday, 12 February 2024, the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies and the Institute for Palestine Studies hosted a symposium on “Hamas in the Aftermath of the War on Gaza” as part of the Annual Palestine Forum. Lourdes Habash, Director of the Ibrahim Abu Lughod Institute for International Studies at Birzeit University chaired a panel that included Mouin Rabbani, Leila Seurat, and Tarek Hammoud.
Rabbani, a researcher, analyst, and commentator specialized in Palestinian affairs, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the contemporary Middle East, discussed the impact of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood and the subsequent war on Gaza on Hamas. Rabbani noted that while it is still too early to make any conclusive evaluation, with the outcome of the conflict yet to be determined, tentative observations can be drawn about Hamas’ organizational cohesion, military capabilities, its role and position within the broader Palestinian political arena, the national movement, its alliances, and its regional and international relations.
Speaking next, Researcher at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies in Paris, Seurat, discussed scenarios for the “day after”, which currently exclude any Hamas’ presence, whether political or military. Seurat argued that there were no tangible suggestions that Hamas could disappear from the Palestinian arena. Seurat added that, on the contrary, the ability of the Qassam Brigades to confront the Israeli army on the ground indicate that military gains could become political gains. Seurat also discussed the challenges facing Hamas in light of the political changes that the movement has undergone over the past decade and its ability to overcome these challenges. She also discussed its efforts and increased interest in joining the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Assistant Professor at Lusail University in Qatar, Hammoud, noted during his presentation that regardless of the military outcome of the war on Gaza, Hamas has emerged as a political and military gamechanger, displaying capabilities that Palestinian actors have ignored for a long time. Hammoud added that this neglect may have triggered the explosion underway today, emphasizing that this war would change the future of Hamas in two ways. First it will change the internal dynamics of the movement, and restructure it as a political and military movement. In this regard, the current decision-making model may become the subject of a major debate. It will also alter Hamas’ national presence, which is the essence of what Hamas has sought since the 2006 elections. Hammoud concluded by saying that the future of Hamas and its political role within an inclusive and comprehensive national framework can no longer be ignored.
Annual Palestine Forum
