Catastrophe in Context: a Teach-In on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and Beyond

As Israeli airstrikes convulse the Gaza strip, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict seems to be entering a new, more intensive phase of catastrophe. What drove it to this point? And where, ultimately, is it heading?

Join us Friday, November 3rd, as BISR faculty gather to conduct an all-day teach-in dedicated to exploring the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in its many dimensions. We’ll anchor our discussion in the deep history of the territory—from the founding of Israel to the occupations of Gaza and the West Bank to contemporary events—before turning to theories and histories of colonization, decolonization, and political violence, and finally, the geopolitical context in which present events are unfolding. We will ask: How have local populations been organized and separated territorially and politically? What kinds of self-government have Palestinians been afforded, and how have those regimes both contested and cooperated with the Israel state? How does the conflict fit within the wider history of colonization and decolonization? What are the modes of Palestinian politics and struggle? How can we understand recent political turmoil within Israel? How has the Israeli state become a model for authoritarianism globally, including among anti-Semites? What role does Palestine play in the context of global left-wing politics? And what is the role of the United States? How can we understand its abiding relationship with Israel?

Streaming live to the BISR public Facebook page, the teach-in will feature faculty K. Soraya Batmanghelichi, Anthony Alessandrini, Max Ajl, Ajay Singh Chaudhary, R.H. Lossin, Nafis Hasan, Audrey Nicolaides, Alírio Karina, and Barnaby Raine. We will be teaching from specific texts, which viewers can access and read in advance by RSVPing below. The event is free to attend, and can be viewed regardless of whether one has a Facebook account (and we encourage attendees to submit questions and comments in the comment section). The program schedule (in Eastern Time) is as follows :

11am-1pm | The History of Palestine | Anthony Alessandrini, Ajay Singh Chauhdary, Audrey Nicolaides, Barnaby Raine

Reading: Rashid Khalidi, The Hundred Years War on Palestine, A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance (Metropolitan); Tom Segev, One Palestine, Complete: Jews and Arabs Under the British Mandate (Metropolitan); Tom Segev, 1949: The First Israelis (Owl); Samih K. Farsoun and Christina E. Zacharia, Palestine and the Palestinians(Westview Press); Benny Morris, “Revisiting the Palestinian exodus of 1948,” The War for Palestine (Cambridge); Theodor Hertzl, “The Jewish Question,” The Zionist Idea: a Historical Analysis and Reader (JUP); among other texts

1pm-3pm | Theories and Histories of Colonization, Decolonization, and Violence | Anthony Alessandrini, Ajay Singh Chauhdary, Alírio Karina, R.H. Lossin

Reading: Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth (Grove); Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks (Grove); C.L.R. James, A History of Pan-African Revolt (P.M. Press); L.S.B. Leakey, Defeating Mau Mau (Routledge); among other texts

3pm-5pm | The Geopolitics of the Middle East | K. Soraya Batmanghelichi, Ajay Singh Chauhdary, Nafis Hasan, Audrey Nicolaides

Readings: Rashid Khalidi, Resurrecting Empire: Western Footprints and America’s Perilous Path in the Middle East (Beacon); Eyal Weizman, Forensic Architecture: Violence at the Threshold of Detectability (Zone Books); Suzanne Schneider, “Light Among Nations,” Jewish Currents; Kamal M. Ali, “Tagore Street, Tel Aviv: Against Normalizing Bangladeshi-Israeli Relations,” Jamhoor; among other texts

5pm-sundown (in observance of Shabbes/Evening Prayers) | Concluding Questions and Final Thoughts

Event Schedule

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