WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.560 Good afternoon, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. 2 00:00:04.460 --> 00:00:07.820 My name is Bassam Dari. I'm an academic at the University of Adelaide 3 00:00:07.820 --> 00:00:11.720 and a member of the Australian Friends of Palestine, AFOPA. 4 00:00:12.420 --> 00:00:14.240 I will be your emcee today. 5 00:00:15.120 --> 00:00:19.180 Welcome to the 2018 Edward Said Memorial Lecture. 6 00:00:19.560 --> 00:00:21.820 This is the 14th in this series. 7 00:00:23.560 --> 00:00:26.860 We are privileged to have with us today Auntie Yvonne Agis, 8 00:00:26.860 --> 00:00:33.040 who is an esteemed leader of the Ghana and Oranga people here in South Australia. 9 00:00:34.500 --> 00:00:39.460 Auntie Yvonne was named National Narduk Aboriginal Elder for the year 2000 10 00:00:39.460 --> 00:00:44.200 in recognition for her commitment to the preservation of the Aboriginal heritage. 11 00:00:45.640 --> 00:00:47.740 She had an extensive career in the public sector 12 00:00:47.740 --> 00:00:52.840 and continues to donate her time and expertise generously to many organizations, 13 00:00:53.120 --> 00:00:56.480 including as chair of the City of Adelaide's 14 00:00:56.480 --> 00:00:56.840 Reconstructionist and Reconstructionist Association. 15 00:00:56.860 --> 00:01:02.600 I would like to ask Auntie Yvonne to come to the stage or to the microphone 16 00:01:02.600 --> 00:01:04.480 and to welcome us to country. 17 00:01:04.680 --> 00:01:05.360 Auntie Yvonne. 18 00:01:10.060 --> 00:01:11.420 Thank you, Osan. 19 00:01:12.100 --> 00:01:16.340 We acknowledge that we are on the traditional lands of the Ghana nation 20 00:01:16.340 --> 00:01:21.740 and that their culture, heritage and spiritual beliefs are practiced still today. 21 00:01:22.540 --> 00:01:25.840 I would also like to welcome other nations present here today 22 00:01:25.840 --> 00:01:29.460 and on behalf of the Ghana elders past and present, 23 00:01:30.140 --> 00:01:31.020 bid you all welcome. 24 00:01:31.680 --> 00:01:32.400 Thank you. 25 00:01:36.980 --> 00:01:40.060 And one other thing I'd like to sort of acknowledge, 26 00:01:41.720 --> 00:01:47.740 that we have, I guess, a sad thing in our heart for the Palestinian people 27 00:01:48.440 --> 00:01:50.400 because we know what they're going through, 28 00:01:50.500 --> 00:01:54.640 as we did when we were first invaded by the English people. 29 00:01:54.640 --> 00:01:59.080 And still are fighting for our cause and our human rights today, 30 00:01:59.740 --> 00:02:01.740 as the Palestinians are. 31 00:02:01.920 --> 00:02:05.400 And to know that our thoughts and our prayers are with them. 32 00:02:05.480 --> 00:02:06.120 Thank you. 33 00:02:09.180 --> 00:02:09.700 Thank you. 34 00:02:11.260 --> 00:02:14.680 Thank you, Auntie Yvonne, for your welcome and for the words of wisdom. 35 00:02:15.060 --> 00:02:18.100 Of course, this week is NIDOC week or festival. 36 00:02:18.220 --> 00:02:22.200 It's happening with a theme, Because of Her, We Can. 37 00:02:22.540 --> 00:02:24.620 And we could see elders like Auntie Yvonne. 38 00:02:24.640 --> 00:02:26.520 Making a lot of difference in their community. 39 00:02:27.420 --> 00:02:30.540 The Edward Said Memorial Lecture was established in 2005 40 00:02:31.080 --> 00:02:33.460 as a public lecture at the University of Adelaide. 41 00:02:33.940 --> 00:02:39.040 It is managed by myself and Dr. Minerva Nasruddin, who is an adjunct lecturer 42 00:02:39.040 --> 00:02:41.280 at the Department of Politics and International Relations 43 00:02:41.280 --> 00:02:42.520 at the University of Adelaide. 44 00:02:43.200 --> 00:02:48.360 The Australian Friends of Palestine Association, FOPA, have proposed the lecture in 2005 45 00:02:49.140 --> 00:02:52.080 and then I'll lecture collaboratively with the University of Adelaide. 46 00:02:52.760 --> 00:02:54.000 As you know, this year, 47 00:02:54.060 --> 00:02:54.620 the lecture is hosted by the National Association of Islamic Studies. 48 00:02:54.640 --> 00:02:58.860 We are hosted by the Adelaide Festival of Ideas and we feel privileged and honored 49 00:02:58.860 --> 00:03:02.120 to have the lecture as one of the major events of the festival. 50 00:03:02.740 --> 00:03:07.100 We particularly appreciate the festival's management for this opportunity 51 00:03:07.980 --> 00:03:14.060 and particularly I'd like to thank Greg Mackie, OAM, and Sandy Verchor, 52 00:03:14.160 --> 00:03:19.460 who's the deputy mayor of the city of Adelaide, for their leadership and support 53 00:03:19.460 --> 00:03:24.600 and also thank the rest of the FOI team for their support of this lecture. 54 00:03:24.640 --> 00:03:28.780 The Australian Friends of Palestine's rock-solid support 55 00:03:28.780 --> 00:03:30.980 for this lecture series is unparalleled. 56 00:03:31.400 --> 00:03:35.460 And I would like now to ask Dr. Sam Shaheen, the chairperson 57 00:03:35.460 --> 00:03:40.600 of the Australian Friends of Palestine, to say a few words on behalf of the FOPA 58 00:03:40.600 --> 00:03:42.340 and also to welcome you to the lecture. 59 00:03:43.120 --> 00:03:43.680 Sam. 60 00:03:45.160 --> 00:03:48.420 Sam Shaheen, Chief Executive Officer, Australian Friends of Palestine 61 00:03:48.420 --> 00:03:49.480 Thank you, Bassam. 62 00:03:50.760 --> 00:03:54.420 I make the case to you that as responsible 63 00:03:54.640 --> 00:04:01.160 Australians we have the privilege, the right, and the moral obligation 64 00:04:01.800 --> 00:04:04.740 to be concerned about the plight of the Palestinian people, 65 00:04:06.200 --> 00:04:10.100 just as we should be concerned about the plight 66 00:04:10.100 --> 00:04:12.920 of any peoples dispossessed or oppressed. 67 00:04:14.180 --> 00:04:18.240 Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and we sincerely thank you 68 00:04:18.840 --> 00:04:21.620 for sharing an evening with us here today. 69 00:04:21.760 --> 00:04:23.200 I am a proud Australian. 70 00:04:23.200 --> 00:04:29.820 I was born to Palestinian parents who in turn trace their Palestinian roots 71 00:04:30.360 --> 00:04:31.600 to generations before them. 72 00:04:32.880 --> 00:04:35.900 There is no denying the existence of the Palestinian people. 73 00:04:36.980 --> 00:04:41.380 Their history is real and they have the right, like you and me, 74 00:04:42.400 --> 00:04:48.460 to aspire to a future in their own independent country with access 75 00:04:48.460 --> 00:04:52.700 to basic human rights, like you and me, to health, 76 00:04:53.400 --> 00:04:59.620 to education, to freedom of movement and travel, and the right to vote. 77 00:04:59.880 --> 00:05:06.460 My father, the late Fred Shaheen, was born and raised in a town called Safad 78 00:05:07.160 --> 00:05:08.000 in the north of Palestine. 79 00:05:08.960 --> 00:05:12.340 My mother was born in Haifa, also in the north of Palestine. 80 00:05:13.420 --> 00:05:19.180 In 1948, their respective families fled and on foot for weeks, 81 00:05:20.040 --> 00:05:22.820 eventually settling in a makeshift refugee camp 82 00:05:22.820 --> 00:05:24.160 in south Lebanon. 83 00:05:25.520 --> 00:05:28.520 They were amongst the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians 84 00:05:29.400 --> 00:05:31.100 that were displaced in 1948. 85 00:05:32.720 --> 00:05:36.240 The Australian Friends of Palestine Association, AFOPA for short, 86 00:05:36.340 --> 00:05:40.500 is a voluntary, not-for-profit organization which has 87 00:05:40.500 --> 00:05:47.360 as its primary objective the promotion of peace for Palestinians based 88 00:05:47.360 --> 00:05:48.520 on international law. 89 00:05:48.900 --> 00:05:52.220 AFOPA supports the aspirations of the Palestinian people 90 00:05:52.820 --> 00:05:56.680 to live in peace, to enjoy basic human rights, 91 00:05:57.500 --> 00:06:01.180 to have freedom of speech and movement in a safe environment, 92 00:06:02.100 --> 00:06:04.240 and to have economic opportunity. 93 00:06:05.140 --> 00:06:09.480 AFOPA promotes justice, freedom, and equality for everyone. 94 00:06:10.980 --> 00:06:16.300 It was established in 2004 and now finds its home right here 95 00:06:16.300 --> 00:06:19.140 in downtown Adelaide at the Palestine Center for Peace, 96 00:06:19.200 --> 00:06:20.240 here on Frome Street. 97 00:06:20.920 --> 00:06:22.800 Today marks the 14th anniversary of the establishment of the AFOPA. 98 00:06:22.800 --> 00:06:24.680 It is the 16th event in the illustrious history 99 00:06:25.340 --> 00:06:27.160 of the Edward Said Memorial Lecture. 100 00:06:27.260 --> 00:06:32.300 Our special guest today, Noora Arrokat, adds her name 101 00:06:32.960 --> 00:06:34.900 to the long list of distinguished speakers 102 00:06:35.660 --> 00:06:37.980 that have graced our fair city for this event. 103 00:06:38.900 --> 00:06:44.420 Notable mentions, of course, in 2015, the inaugural Prime Minister 104 00:06:44.420 --> 00:06:48.640 of Palestine, Dr. Salam Fayyad, and of course in 2011, 105 00:06:49.520 --> 00:06:51.900 none other than Professor Noam Chomsky, 106 00:06:51.900 --> 00:06:56.180 who delivered the Edward Said Memorial Lecture in this very hall. 107 00:06:57.140 --> 00:06:59.280 Edward Said, who we are honoring today, 108 00:07:00.180 --> 00:07:03.520 was a Palestinian-American writer and university professor 109 00:07:04.500 --> 00:07:06.300 of English and comparative literature 110 00:07:07.040 --> 00:07:10.220 at Columbia University, a public intellectual 111 00:07:11.140 --> 00:07:13.680 who was a founding figure of the critical field 112 00:07:13.680 --> 00:07:15.400 of post-colonialism. 113 00:07:16.320 --> 00:07:18.480 He was born a Palestinian Arab in Jerusalem. 114 00:07:19.740 --> 00:07:20.660 Said was an advocate 115 00:07:20.660 --> 00:07:21.880 for the just political and social life of the Arab world. 116 00:07:21.900 --> 00:07:23.360 He was a political and human rights 117 00:07:23.360 --> 00:07:26.140 of the Palestinian people and has been described 118 00:07:27.020 --> 00:07:30.500 as the Palestinian people's most powerful voice. 119 00:07:31.720 --> 00:07:35.420 As an influential cultural critic, academic, and writer, 120 00:07:36.040 --> 00:07:41.340 Edward Said was known for what turned out to be a highly influential book 121 00:07:41.340 --> 00:07:48.580 titled Orientalism, here defined as the Western study of Eastern cultures. 122 00:07:49.840 --> 00:07:51.700 He effectively redefined the term 123 00:07:51.900 --> 00:07:54.400 by meaning the constellation of false assumptions 124 00:07:55.140 --> 00:07:58.560 underlying Western attitudes towards the Middle East. 125 00:07:59.260 --> 00:08:03.740 Edward Said passed away in 2003, sadly at a time 126 00:08:03.740 --> 00:08:06.820 when we were almost successful in hosting him here 127 00:08:06.820 --> 00:08:08.440 for a visit to South Australia. 128 00:08:09.080 --> 00:08:12.300 The lecture honorary his name and legacy 129 00:08:12.300 --> 00:08:14.880 commenced here in Adelaide two years later in 2005. 130 00:08:16.240 --> 00:08:17.260 So why Palestine? 131 00:08:18.520 --> 00:08:21.700 Palestine has been described as one of the most critical, 132 00:08:21.700 --> 00:08:28.640 conflicts of the last 100 years and one of the most critical to world peace. The Palestinian 133 00:08:28.640 --> 00:08:35.640 issue is not a religious issue. It is not a religious struggle. Religion has little to do 134 00:08:35.640 --> 00:08:42.000 with it. Religion is often abused by those that use it as an excuse for their particular means. 135 00:08:43.400 --> 00:08:50.260 Palestine is a human rights issue. It is a struggle against the dispossession of a people. 136 00:08:50.260 --> 00:08:56.840 The Palestinian people that have now lived under Israeli occupation for over 70 years. 137 00:08:57.120 --> 00:09:05.480 The Palestinian population currently is estimated at 11 million, half of which are classified as 138 00:09:05.480 --> 00:09:12.340 refugees by the United Nations. Their health system, their education system and their economy 139 00:09:12.340 --> 00:09:18.160 is almost entirely dependent on foreign aid. They cannot trade with the outside world. 140 00:09:18.280 --> 00:09:19.660 All inward. 141 00:09:20.260 --> 00:09:26.300 An outward goods movement must go through and are taxed by Israel. They have no freedom of movement. 142 00:09:27.260 --> 00:09:34.080 They have no airports. They have no ports. All but a fragmented civil society that is desperate 143 00:09:34.080 --> 00:09:40.720 for help. Paradoxically though, the Palestinians boast one of the highest rates of tertiary 144 00:09:40.720 --> 00:09:46.620 academic achievements in the Middle East. They are a people ready, willing and able 145 00:09:47.200 --> 00:09:49.860 to join the world of the 21st century. 146 00:09:50.700 --> 00:09:57.160 They are a people that remain hopeful of a just resolution to their conflict. 147 00:09:58.140 --> 00:10:04.680 Palestine's right to self-determination is not in international law subject to any performance 148 00:10:04.680 --> 00:10:10.680 criteria stipulated by Israel. No other oppressed people have had their right 149 00:10:10.680 --> 00:10:19.760 to self-determination made conditional on the preferences of their occupier. Nobody in the world 150 00:10:19.760 --> 00:10:20.240 can tackle the principle of self-determination based on the principle of self-control based on 151 00:10:20.240 --> 00:10:26.800 nobody in history has ever gotten their freedom by appealing sense of the people who are oppressing 152 00:10:26.800 --> 00:10:33.360 them. The Palestinians continue to appeal to the hearts and souls of all of us global citizens 153 00:10:33.360 --> 00:10:41.980 to seize the moment in history and make a stance that enough is enough. The Palestinians deserve 154 00:10:41.980 --> 00:10:49.360 our active engagement in making right the wrongs of the last 70 years. Before I hand back to 155 00:10:49.360 --> 00:10:54.620 Professor Dalley to welcome our speaker, I must give special mention to the wonderful efforts of 156 00:10:54.620 --> 00:11:01.580 Mr Greg Mackie, who I saw is with us tonight. Thank you, Greg, for attending tonight. Greg is the chair 157 00:11:01.580 --> 00:11:07.540 of the Adelaide Festival of Ideas. This state is much richer for the contributions of those 158 00:11:07.540 --> 00:11:15.220 that dedicate themselves to forums and festivals that enrich us all and challenge us to challenge 159 00:11:15.220 --> 00:11:18.220 the populist and often misconceived narratives. 160 00:11:19.360 --> 00:11:24.740 I hope you have an enriching evening and an enriching festival. Thank you. 161 00:11:28.860 --> 00:11:34.560 Thank you, Sam, for those wise words and I'd also like to thank other members of AFOPA who helped, 162 00:11:35.280 --> 00:11:41.920 Mark, Jeannie, Lisa and all the volunteers today. Ladies and gentlemen, we come to the main part of 163 00:11:41.920 --> 00:11:48.340 the event. It gives me great pleasure to introduce Nora Ricard as the 2018 Edward Said Memorial Lecture. 164 00:11:49.360 --> 00:11:55.140 Next we will take a look at a very recent documentary based on a very recent documentary 165 00:11:55.140 --> 00:12:02.440 based on a very recent documentary based on a very recent documentary based on a very recent 166 00:12:02.440 --> 00:12:09.600 documentary based on a very recent documentary based on a very recent documentary based on a very 167 00:12:09.600 --> 00:12:18.000 recent documentary based on a very recent documentary based on a very recent documentary based on a very 168 00:12:18.000 --> 00:12:20.880 congressional subcommittee in the House of Representatives, 169 00:12:22.060 --> 00:12:26.380 and a legal advocate for the Badil Resource Center 170 00:12:26.380 --> 00:12:30.140 for Palestinian Refugee and Residency Rights. 171 00:12:31.580 --> 00:12:34.680 She was also the national grassroot organizer 172 00:12:34.680 --> 00:12:38.180 and legal advocate at the U.S. campaign to end the Israeli occupation. 173 00:12:39.400 --> 00:12:42.520 She's a co-founding board member of the D.C. 174 00:12:42.560 --> 00:12:46.420 Palestine Film and Arts Festival, and she's a board member 175 00:12:46.420 --> 00:12:48.760 of the Institute of Policy Studies. 176 00:12:50.000 --> 00:12:52.280 Noura is a co-editor of a book titled 177 00:12:52.280 --> 00:12:57.700 Aborted State, the UN Initiative, and New Palestine Junctures, 178 00:12:58.600 --> 00:13:01.580 an ontology related to 2011-2012 179 00:13:01.580 --> 00:13:04.480 Palestine bids for statehoods at the UN. 180 00:13:05.780 --> 00:13:10.180 More recently, Noura released a pedagogical project 181 00:13:10.180 --> 00:13:13.280 on Gaza Strip and Palestine, 182 00:13:13.520 --> 00:13:15.740 which includes a short multimedia documentary 183 00:13:15.740 --> 00:13:16.340 titled, 184 00:13:16.420 --> 00:13:18.040 Gaza in Context, 185 00:13:18.160 --> 00:13:21.760 a documentary that rehabilitates Israel's wars in Gaza 186 00:13:21.760 --> 00:13:23.760 within settler colonial framework. 187 00:13:24.980 --> 00:13:27.160 She's also the producer of a short video titled 188 00:13:27.160 --> 00:13:28.920 Black Palestinian Solidarity. 189 00:13:30.020 --> 00:13:35.480 Noura's media appearances are enormous to include all, 190 00:13:35.580 --> 00:13:42.760 but include CNN, BBC, PBS, NPR, Democracy Now!, Al Jazeera, and so on. 191 00:13:43.440 --> 00:13:45.840 She has published in The Nation, in New York Times, 192 00:13:45.960 --> 00:13:46.400 Washington Post, and in the New York Times. 193 00:13:46.400 --> 00:13:46.500 She has published in The New York Times, 194 00:13:46.500 --> 00:13:48.100 Washington Post, Los Angeles Review of Books, 195 00:13:48.280 --> 00:13:53.160 Huffington Post, and a foreign policy journals as well. 196 00:13:53.960 --> 00:13:57.740 Noura is an author of a new book titled Justice for Some, 197 00:13:58.640 --> 00:14:01.420 Law as Politics in the Question of Palestine, 198 00:14:01.660 --> 00:14:06.000 which is going to appear from the Stanford University Press in 2019. 199 00:14:07.380 --> 00:14:11.340 Noura's talk is startled anti-blackness, settler colonialism, 200 00:14:11.700 --> 00:14:13.300 and the question of Palestine. 201 00:14:13.580 --> 00:14:15.160 Ladies and gentlemen, Noura Rakat. 202 00:14:19.580 --> 00:14:22.120 Thank you, thank you, thank you for such a warm welcome. 203 00:14:22.320 --> 00:14:27.400 I want to say a few words so that you can get over my jarring American accent. 204 00:14:28.540 --> 00:14:32.420 Forgive me for it and our imperialistic wars abroad 205 00:14:33.020 --> 00:14:35.820 as we settle in to hear the rest of this talk. 206 00:14:35.940 --> 00:14:40.300 Thank you so much, Auntie Yvonne, for welcoming all of us and welcoming me. 207 00:14:40.480 --> 00:14:45.000 It would be quite, I think, dismal to be giving a lecture 208 00:14:45.000 --> 00:14:46.380 about settler colonialism. 209 00:14:46.400 --> 00:14:47.360 I'm not going to be able to talk about settler colonialism in Palestine 210 00:14:47.360 --> 00:14:51.420 and not acknowledge an ongoing settler colonial project here on this island. 211 00:14:51.660 --> 00:14:53.880 So thank you very much for having me. 212 00:14:55.720 --> 00:14:56.660 Is that enough? 213 00:14:56.920 --> 00:14:58.480 Are you all used to my accent now? 214 00:14:59.260 --> 00:14:59.960 Thank you. 215 00:15:00.040 --> 00:15:03.980 And thank you also so much to the organizers, to the Adelaide Festival of Ideas, 216 00:15:04.000 --> 00:15:09.180 to the Australian Friends of Palestine, and specifically to Professor Bassam Dhali 217 00:15:09.180 --> 00:15:12.960 for these amazing efforts and for having me here. 218 00:15:13.660 --> 00:15:17.500 Everything, everything that we do, we tend to valorize individuals, 219 00:15:18.200 --> 00:15:22.280 and yet our history is a history of collective engagement and collaboration. 220 00:15:22.580 --> 00:15:25.220 And so this is also a testament to our collaboration. 221 00:15:26.200 --> 00:15:29.520 I've had the honor and the pleasure of being in the audience 222 00:15:29.520 --> 00:15:33.480 of the late Professor Edward Said more than once. 223 00:15:34.460 --> 00:15:38.960 And though I was never a student in his classroom, like thousands of others, 224 00:15:39.260 --> 00:15:42.640 he taught me through the incisive boldness of his work. 225 00:15:42.960 --> 00:15:49.840 In one of the most memorable encounters, I watched Professor Said take the microphone 226 00:15:49.840 --> 00:15:56.260 at an Al-Awda rally for the right of return of Palestinian refugees in New York in 2001. 227 00:15:57.900 --> 00:16:02.680 There he stood at the steps of Union Square, and I leaned in, 228 00:16:02.820 --> 00:16:06.360 intent to hold on to every single word. 229 00:16:07.320 --> 00:16:12.340 And in a brief few minutes, he told all of us rally goers, 230 00:16:12.960 --> 00:16:18.760 to talk about Palestine and Palestinians at every chance we got. 231 00:16:19.180 --> 00:16:23.320 On the corner crosswalk, in the line at the grocery store, 232 00:16:24.160 --> 00:16:27.140 among parents watching their children play in the park. 233 00:16:27.920 --> 00:16:30.580 And I stood there thoroughly confused. 234 00:16:31.320 --> 00:16:32.520 Like, that's it? 235 00:16:33.220 --> 00:16:35.600 You're the most brilliant mind we have? 236 00:16:35.880 --> 00:16:38.740 And you're telling us to talk about Palestine everywhere? 237 00:16:40.040 --> 00:16:42.940 And it would be a few years later, after 60, 238 00:16:42.960 --> 00:16:45.200 I was successfully reading his seminal text, 239 00:16:45.320 --> 00:16:46.340 The Question in Palestine, 240 00:16:46.740 --> 00:16:50.040 that I understood the radical nature of his call. 241 00:16:51.720 --> 00:16:55.200 Palestinians, like nearly all other native peoples, 242 00:16:55.480 --> 00:16:58.800 have been juridically erased to facilitate the sovereignty 243 00:16:58.800 --> 00:17:00.880 of a settler population in their place. 244 00:17:01.620 --> 00:17:07.200 Palestinians appear as numbers and masses and mobs, 245 00:17:07.360 --> 00:17:10.680 but are denied Western civilization's recognition 246 00:17:11.240 --> 00:17:12.640 as a juridical nation, 247 00:17:12.960 --> 00:17:15.600 or even as sentient human beings, 248 00:17:15.880 --> 00:17:18.620 to enable our convenient disappearance. 249 00:17:20.360 --> 00:17:21.660 We do not matter, 250 00:17:22.360 --> 00:17:24.920 except when we emerge as threats. 251 00:17:26.360 --> 00:17:29.260 We can harm, but we cannot be harmed. 252 00:17:30.560 --> 00:17:34.260 Our presence justifies defensive force against us, 253 00:17:34.380 --> 00:17:38.660 but can never invoke self-defense on behalf of ourselves, 254 00:17:39.120 --> 00:17:41.500 our children, or our lands. 255 00:17:42.960 --> 00:17:46.380 Professor Said explains when he wrote his seminal text in 1979, 256 00:17:47.460 --> 00:17:50.800 he wrote it for the purpose of disrupting a hegemonic narrative 257 00:17:51.460 --> 00:17:54.480 where Palestinians barely appear as ghosts. 258 00:17:55.760 --> 00:17:57.760 In the master narrative of Palestine, 259 00:17:58.860 --> 00:18:01.720 Jewish Zionists liberate the land from Britain 260 00:18:02.260 --> 00:18:05.880 and miraculously establish a state to achieve self-determination 261 00:18:05.880 --> 00:18:11.280 and invite their Jewish brethren to return and redeem themselves 262 00:18:11.280 --> 00:18:13.320 and their long-lost homeland. 263 00:18:14.080 --> 00:18:19.760 Such a story can only thrive in the violent erasure 264 00:18:19.760 --> 00:18:22.340 and silencing of Palestinians. 265 00:18:23.060 --> 00:18:27.960 Professor Said implores us to allow the subaltern to speak, 266 00:18:28.260 --> 00:18:31.300 and when it speaks, he then asks, 267 00:18:31.620 --> 00:18:37.420 by what moral or political standard are we expected to lay aside 268 00:18:37.420 --> 00:18:40.700 our claims to our homeland, to our national existence, 269 00:18:41.280 --> 00:18:43.440 our land, our human rights? 270 00:18:43.920 --> 00:18:48.940 In what world is there no argument when an entire people is told 271 00:18:48.940 --> 00:18:54.020 that it is juridically absent, even as armies are led against it, 272 00:18:54.100 --> 00:18:57.780 campaigns conducted even against its name, 273 00:18:57.980 --> 00:19:02.460 history changed so as to prove its non-existence? 274 00:19:02.860 --> 00:19:05.680 In the time afforded to me this evening, 275 00:19:06.040 --> 00:19:09.940 I would like to pay tribute to Professor Said's legacy. 276 00:19:11.280 --> 00:19:15.060 As a trailblazing scholar, an activist, a public intellectual, 277 00:19:15.160 --> 00:19:18.560 committed to emancipatory knowledge production and pedagogy, 278 00:19:19.280 --> 00:19:22.540 as I consider the contemporary scope of the question of Palestine, 279 00:19:22.860 --> 00:19:29.120 at this current juncture, when this Palestinian state has been obviated 280 00:19:29.120 --> 00:19:33.860 and Israel oversees an apartheid regime as a matter of fact and law, 281 00:19:34.300 --> 00:19:39.960 I want to consider then, what is the history of these present conditions? 282 00:19:41.280 --> 00:19:45.020 What are generative analytical frameworks beyond nationalism 283 00:19:45.020 --> 00:19:47.120 that can help us work through them? 284 00:19:47.360 --> 00:19:52.480 And what are potential futures that Palestinians have the opportunity to forge? 285 00:19:53.000 --> 00:19:58.600 In 2017, the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Africa, 286 00:19:59.960 --> 00:20:04.220 also known as UNESCOA, published a report concluding, 287 00:20:04.240 --> 00:20:04.560 quote, 288 00:20:05.280 --> 00:20:10.440 Israel has established an apartheid regime that dominates the Palestinian people as a whole, 289 00:20:10.600 --> 00:20:11.260 including the Palestinian people. 290 00:20:11.280 --> 00:20:14.040 Including those Palestinian citizens of Israel, 291 00:20:14.280 --> 00:20:18.040 and not just stateless Palestinians in the occupied territories. 292 00:20:19.280 --> 00:20:23.420 ESCWA's report recommended that the United Nations and national governments 293 00:20:23.420 --> 00:20:28.300 adopt appropriate measures to prevent and punish the crime of apartheid, 294 00:20:28.360 --> 00:20:31.080 including prosecuting Israeli officials, 295 00:20:31.380 --> 00:20:36.060 and endorsing boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israel. 296 00:20:36.840 --> 00:20:39.660 Israel, together with the United States, 297 00:20:39.660 --> 00:20:42.680 forced the UN to shelve the report. 298 00:20:43.580 --> 00:20:45.900 ESCWA's director resigned in protest, 299 00:20:46.240 --> 00:20:49.220 and the report was leaked and widely disseminated. 300 00:20:50.080 --> 00:20:56.800 While the UN report was the first of its kind to authoritatively describe Israel's current arrangement, 301 00:20:57.120 --> 00:21:01.340 as exemplary of a singular apartheid regime, 302 00:21:01.700 --> 00:21:07.160 characterized by spatial separation and the administration of distinct legal systems 303 00:21:07.160 --> 00:21:08.840 for the sake of racial domination, 304 00:21:08.840 --> 00:21:13.920 neither the apartheid analogy nor the racial theory it invoked were new. 305 00:21:14.740 --> 00:21:16.880 As early as 1965, 306 00:21:17.820 --> 00:21:20.080 scholar-activist Fayez Sayyih, 307 00:21:20.280 --> 00:21:23.520 who studied and taught in U.S. universities 308 00:21:23.520 --> 00:21:26.940 and later established the Palestine Research Center in Beirut, 309 00:21:27.180 --> 00:21:30.040 had developed a racial analysis around Zionism. 310 00:21:30.180 --> 00:21:33.960 In his work, called Zionist Colonialism in Palestine, 311 00:21:34.500 --> 00:21:38.480 Sayyih explains that there are three corollary tenets 312 00:21:38.480 --> 00:21:39.420 of Zionist ideology. 313 00:21:40.300 --> 00:21:42.720 Racial self-segregation, 314 00:21:43.680 --> 00:21:45.360 racial supremacy, 315 00:21:46.480 --> 00:21:48.100 and racial exclusiveness. 316 00:21:48.440 --> 00:21:49.560 And he says, 317 00:21:49.680 --> 00:21:53.600 If racial discrimination against the inferior natives 318 00:21:53.600 --> 00:21:56.940 was the motto of race-supremacist European settler regimes 319 00:21:56.940 --> 00:21:58.720 in Asia and Africa, 320 00:21:59.460 --> 00:22:03.420 the motto of race-supremacist Zionist settler regime in Palestine 321 00:22:04.480 --> 00:22:05.600 was racial elimination. 322 00:22:06.800 --> 00:22:08.460 Within a decade's time, 323 00:22:08.480 --> 00:22:11.100 Sayyih would lead a Palestinian effort 324 00:22:11.100 --> 00:22:13.960 to amend a resolution regarding the Decade for Action 325 00:22:13.960 --> 00:22:16.160 to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination, 326 00:22:16.520 --> 00:22:18.820 also known as the Decade Against Racism, 327 00:22:18.960 --> 00:22:20.800 within the UN's third committee. 328 00:22:21.340 --> 00:22:25.140 African states had initiated the Decade Against Racism 329 00:22:25.140 --> 00:22:28.900 to further delegitimize the apartheid regime in South Africa 330 00:22:28.900 --> 00:22:31.820 and Southwest Africa, known as Namibia. 331 00:22:32.300 --> 00:22:35.900 The non-aligned coalition that led this effort 332 00:22:35.900 --> 00:22:38.220 sought to amend the African initiative 333 00:22:38.900 --> 00:22:40.300 so that the word Zionism 334 00:22:40.900 --> 00:22:42.880 be inserted into the text 335 00:22:42.880 --> 00:22:46.660 wherever apartheid, racism, colonialism, 336 00:22:47.060 --> 00:22:50.080 racial discrimination, and alien domination appeared. 337 00:22:50.600 --> 00:22:55.000 Their efforts would culminate in Resolution 3379, 338 00:22:55.900 --> 00:23:00.680 declaring Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination. 339 00:23:00.780 --> 00:23:04.900 The proposed resolution shook the entire world. 340 00:23:06.280 --> 00:23:09.580 Declaring Zionism as a form of racism 341 00:23:09.580 --> 00:23:12.940 would reconfigure the Arab-Israeli conflict 342 00:23:12.940 --> 00:23:15.920 on the heels of the October 1973 war 343 00:23:15.920 --> 00:23:19.500 from a peacemaking imperative to a justice struggle. 344 00:23:19.880 --> 00:23:23.160 As such, it would no longer be sufficient 345 00:23:23.160 --> 00:23:27.040 to reform Israel and demand its withdrawal from Arab territories. 346 00:23:28.400 --> 00:23:34.000 Resolution 3379 sought to dismantle Jewish national supremacy 347 00:23:34.000 --> 00:23:38.580 as a political structure predicated upon the removal, 348 00:23:38.900 --> 00:23:42.980 forced exile, dispossession, second-class status, 349 00:23:43.220 --> 00:23:45.720 and elision of the Palestinian people. 350 00:23:46.000 --> 00:23:51.320 At the core of it, the resolution rejected Jewish-Zionist 351 00:23:51.320 --> 00:23:53.460 settler sovereignty in Palestine. 352 00:23:53.860 --> 00:23:58.280 Western states saw it as a threat to their entire world order. 353 00:23:58.540 --> 00:24:02.600 After all, Israel was not and is not 354 00:24:02.600 --> 00:24:04.560 the only settler colony in the world. 355 00:24:04.780 --> 00:24:09.780 I have grown up in one, and I am speaking before you now in another. 356 00:24:10.620 --> 00:24:13.800 Introduction of the amendment concerning Zionism 357 00:24:13.800 --> 00:24:17.920 dramatically diminished Western support for the entire resolution. 358 00:24:18.460 --> 00:24:22.900 Western states were prepared to condemn anti-black racism, 359 00:24:23.080 --> 00:24:25.240 especially in South Africa and Namibia, 360 00:24:25.340 --> 00:24:28.680 but were reticent in regard to the question of Zionist domination. 361 00:24:29.160 --> 00:24:32.320 In fact, inclusion of the question of Palestine 362 00:24:32.600 --> 00:24:35.640 in the decade against racism provided a useful pretext 363 00:24:35.640 --> 00:24:38.400 for Western states to withdraw their support entirely. 364 00:24:39.000 --> 00:24:44.000 The General Assembly passed Resolution 3379 in November 1975 365 00:24:44.600 --> 00:24:50.020 by a vote of 72 for, 35 against, and 32 abstentions. 366 00:24:50.460 --> 00:24:53.000 The United States and Israel were shaken, 367 00:24:53.160 --> 00:24:56.100 and the U.S. Congress introduced dozens of bills 368 00:24:56.100 --> 00:24:59.480 to reduce its financial contributions to the United Nations. 369 00:25:00.600 --> 00:25:02.100 Like in 2017, 370 00:25:02.600 --> 00:25:05.600 when UN ESCWA introduced its report, 371 00:25:05.940 --> 00:25:09.420 sensationalist controversy surrounding the resolution 372 00:25:09.420 --> 00:25:11.560 obscured its content. 373 00:25:12.660 --> 00:25:14.100 Then as now, 374 00:25:14.340 --> 00:25:18.200 we are so consumed by the political theatrics 375 00:25:18.200 --> 00:25:22.960 that we do not get to consider the racial analysis and its implications. 376 00:25:23.860 --> 00:25:27.760 Consider that during the 1975 committee deliberations, 377 00:25:27.820 --> 00:25:29.100 Fayez Sayyid explained, 378 00:25:29.400 --> 00:25:29.640 quote, 379 00:25:29.640 --> 00:25:32.560 Zionism essentially vests certain rights, 380 00:25:32.740 --> 00:25:34.160 very important rights, 381 00:25:34.400 --> 00:25:37.240 in some people and denies them to others. 382 00:25:37.520 --> 00:25:40.120 For example, it says that a Jew, 383 00:25:40.320 --> 00:25:42.340 simply by virtue of being a Jew, 384 00:25:42.520 --> 00:25:46.400 has the right to return to the Palestinian territories 385 00:25:46.400 --> 00:25:47.860 occupied by Israel, 386 00:25:48.640 --> 00:25:50.840 even if he had never been there before. 387 00:25:51.480 --> 00:25:54.400 But it also says that his compatriot, 388 00:25:54.400 --> 00:25:57.080 a non-Jew, has no such right, 389 00:25:57.180 --> 00:25:59.140 and that the indigenous Palestinian 390 00:25:59.140 --> 00:26:02.980 Arab dislodged in 1948 or 1967 391 00:26:02.980 --> 00:26:07.420 also has no such right because he is not a Jew. 392 00:26:08.220 --> 00:26:12.100 But Sayyid did not limit his racial analysis of Zionism 393 00:26:12.100 --> 00:26:15.140 to the distinctions between Jews and non-Jews. 394 00:26:15.260 --> 00:26:18.700 He also explored how Zionism produced racial stratification 395 00:26:18.700 --> 00:26:20.040 amongst Jews themselves. 396 00:26:20.480 --> 00:26:21.980 He continues, quote, 397 00:26:22.100 --> 00:26:25.800 like a cancer, racism has a propensity for expansion. 398 00:26:26.020 --> 00:26:27.540 It defies containment. 399 00:26:27.540 --> 00:26:30.980 Having adopted a racist approach towards non-Jews, 400 00:26:31.000 --> 00:26:33.920 Zionism soon came to draw a color line, 401 00:26:34.040 --> 00:26:35.340