Much of this represssion is also happening across social media platforms, which are employing various tactics to subdue speech deemed supportive of Palestinians or critical of Israel. The current war in Gaza—which has included the destruction of every university in Gaza—has considerably aggravated the attack on the academic freedom of Palestinians and those who speak out about Israel-Palestine and Palestinian rights. Government officials across the West have condemned anti-war protests, and Palestine-related events at several universities have been cancelled. This is also happening in cultural spaces.
For instance, Adania Shibli, a Palestinian writer, had her award ceremony at the Frankfurt Book Fair cancelled. For this webinar, we decided it would be essential to centre Palestinian voices, so we invited three Palestinians to speak about the topic: Samer Abdelnour, Marwa Fatafta, and Muhannad Ayyash. Our speakers gave us both an overview of what is happening at universities and the social media landscape, with a focus on the UK, Germany, and Canada. Moreover, we thought it relevant to have a Palestinian involved in the whole process, so we invited Samer Abdelnour, one of our speakers, to collaborate with us.
Featured Speaker
Marwa is a Palestinian writer, researcher and policy analyst based in Berlin. She leads Access Now’s work on digital rights in the Middle East and North Africa region as the MENA Policy Manager. She is also an advisory board member of the Palestinian digital rights organization 7amleh. Previously, she worked as the MENA Regional Advisor for Transparency International Secretariat. Marwa was a Fulbright scholar to the US, and holds an MA in International Relations from Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University. She holds a second MA in Development and Governance from University of Duisburg-Essen.
Samer Abdelnour is an academic and activist. He co-founded Al-Shabaka in 2009 and served as a founding board member until 2016.
M. Muhannad Ayyash was born and raised in Silwan, Al-Quds, before immigrating to Canada, where he is now Professor of Sociology at Mount Royal University. He is the author of A Hermeneutics of Violence (UTP, 2019). He has published several articles in journals such as Interventions, the European Journal of International Relations, Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, and the European Journal of Social Theory. He has written opinion pieces for Al-Jazeera, The Baffler, Middle East Eye, Mondoweiss, The Breach, and Middle East Monitor. He is currently writing a book on settler colonial sovereignty in Palestine/Israel.
Online Webinar
