Birzeit University researchers participate in first Annual Palestine Forum
The Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies and the Institute for Palestine Studies will commence the first edition of the Annual Palestine Forum on Saturday, January 28, 2023, and will take place until January 30 in Doha, Qatar. This academic conference invites Palestinian and non-Palestinian researchers to present their papers on Palestine.
Sixty-two peer-reviewed scientific papers will be presented on topics related to Palestinian history, the Palestinian struggle, the apartheid regime, settler colonialism, the status of Palestine in Arab and international relations. Many Birzeit University academics, researchers and students will participate in the event.
On the first day of the conference, Ahmad As’ad, alumnus of Birzeit University’s Israeli studies master’s program, will present the paper “Uprisings of Attrition – ‘Your Projects Won’t Pass’: Understanding the Palestinian Uprisings and Resistance Patterns, 2013-2022” during a session on Palestinian patterns of resistance. In addition, Dr. Lourdes Habash, director of the Ibrahim Abu-Lughod Institute of International Studies, will participate in a workshop that investigates the Palestinian division and reconciliation prospects.
On the second day, Ashraf Bader, alumnus of Birzeit University’s social sciences PhD program, will present the paper “A Critical Reading of the Neoliberalism of the Palestinian Authority under Zionist Settler Colonialism” in a session that explores the development discourse in Palestine and colonial violence. In the fourth session, Dr. Majdi Al-Malki, professor at Birzeit University’s Department of Social and Behavioral Science, will chair a symposium on Palestinian demography. Moreover, Rola Sirhan, PhD student in Birzeit University’s social sciences program, will present the paper “Memory of Defeat and Palestinian Social and Political Imaginaries: Dominance without Hegemony.”
The conference coincides with the Ostour Journal’s symposium on historical writing in Palestine. In the opening session, Birzeit University President Dr. Beshara Doumani will present his paper “The Battle for Palestine's Historiography.” Dr. Munir Fakher Eldin, dean at the Faculty of Arts at Birzeit, will participate in a session on archive and counter-archive and will present his paper “The History of Land Records and the Struggle for Palestine: Land Title Deed, Society, and State (1858-1948). PhD student in Birzeit University’ social sciences program, Bilal Shalash, will present his paper “Our Plundered Archives: Prospects and Limitations.”
In the third day of the Annual Palestine Forum, Shalash will present a second paper “Mā kansh fīh!: Oral Narratives as a Missing Source for the Military Historiography of the Palestine War, 1947-1949.” In a symposium on the impact of settler colonialism on the environment and agriculture in Palestine, Rawan Samamreh, alumna in the Israeli studies master’s program, will present her paper “Nature Reserves and National Parks: An Approach to Settlement Expansion and Control of Space.” Yasmin Qadaan, PhD student in Birzeit University’s social sciences program, will present her paper “Environment Meanings from the Language of Local Knowledge for the Movement of Palestinian Peasants.” Furthermore, Dr. Hosni Mlitat, comparative literature professor at the Arab American University, will present his paper “Representing the Palestinian Cause in Contemporary Spanish Orientalist Discourse.”
Ostour Journal will simultaneously hold a second symposium, where Dr. Salim Tamari, director of the Institute of Palestine Studies, will present his paper “The Maqam of Simeon the Just: Popular Religiosity and the Zionization of an Arab-Jewish Mawsim in Jerusalem,” in a session on critical approaches to Palestinian historiography. Dr. Doumani will participate in a third session on research areas in writing Palestinian history and will present his paper “Look to the Stones: Towards a Modern History of the Palestinians.” In a session on the magic of Jerusalem, Dr. Nazmi Al-Jubeh, professor at Birzeit University’s Department of History and Archaeology, will present a paper under the title “Western Europe in Jerusalem in the Second Half of the 19th Century and Early 20th Century: Visual Control over the Identity of the City.” Moreover, Dr. Musa Sroor, professor at Birzeit’s history department, will present his paper “West Jerusalem: The Forgotten and the Untold in Palestinian Historical Writing.” At the end of the symposium, Dr. Fakher Eldin will provide a summary of the main points discussed at the symposium and will add final remarks.
