Conference-New Directions in Palestinian Studies: Political Economy (Brown University, 28 Feb. - 1 Mar.)

Conference-New Directions in Palestinian Studies: Political Economy (Brown University, 28 Feb. - 1 Mar.)

Conference-New Directions in Palestinian Studies: Political Economy (Brown University, 28 Feb. - 1 Mar.)

By : Jadaliyya Reports

Middle East Studies at Brown University presents:

Political Economy and the Economy of Politics: New Directions in Palestinian Studies

Friday, February 28 and Saturday, March 1, 2014

Joukowsky Forum
Watson Institute for International Studies
111 Thayer Street
Providence, RI 02912

There is now a critical mass of innovative scholars in the US, Europe, and the Middle East who work on Palestine and the Palestinians. The field has grown quantitatively and qualitatively, with new lines of inquiry pushing in several new directions simultaneously. New Directions in Palestinian Studies, a series of annual and thematically organized symposia supported by the Middle East Studies at Brown University in cooperation with other universities and institutes, provides a space for systematic reflection on the fast-paced academic knowledge production on Palestine and the Palestinians. The symposia bring together established and emerging scholars in a low-pressure workshop environment to take stock of research trends, to identify promising new questions and sources, to exchange experiences and insights, and to encourage networking across disciplinary and field boundaries. New Directions in Palestinian Studies, is founded and led by Beshara Doumani.

2014 Theme: Political Economy and Economy of the Political

Palestinian studies has long been shaped by a hot and ongoing conflict and by the special place of the “Holy Land” in the global imaginary. This has resulted in a hyper focus on some areas of research, such as politics and identity; and a general neglect of others, such as political economy and social history. The theme of political economy, broadly construed to include a range of approaches from social history to discursive constructions of “economy,” has been chosen as a focus for the first symposium, because it constitutes an enduring perspective that has recently gained significant traction. Sa’ed Atshan is the coordinator for the 2014 symposium, Molly Ratner is the research assistant, and Barbara Oberkoetter is the program manager.

REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED

This year’s symposium is organized and largely funded by Middle East Studies at Brown University. The senior scholars in the program have kindly agreed to pay their own expenses, thus freeing resources for younger scholars. The following institutions also contributed, in a variety of ways, to the realization of this gathering: The Watson Institute, Brown University; the Center for Palestine Studies, Columbia University; the Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies, New York University; Birzeit University; the Institute for Palestine Studies; Muwatin: Palestinian Institute for the Study of Democracy; Masarat: the Palestinian Center for Policy Research and Strategic Studies; and Mada al-Carmel: The Arab Institute for Applied Social Research.

Program

Friday, February 28

8:30–9:00am: Registration

9:00–9:30am: Welcoming Remarks and Introductions

Beshara Doumani, Director, Middle East Studies, Brown University

9:30–11:30am: Critical Reflections on the Political Economy of Palestine

11:30am–1:00pm: Infrastructure

1:00–2:30pm: Lunch (for hosts and panelists)

2:30–4:30pm: Land

  • Martin Bunton: Frames of reference for the study of land in Palestine
  • Munir Fakher el-DinThe Legacy of late Ottoman and British-Mandate land reforms in Palestine, 1858-1948

  • Ahmad AmaraEchoes of Legal Pasts: Landed Property Relations in the Negeb, 1858-1948
  • Discussant: Jo Guldi 

4:30–5:00pm: Coffee Break

5:00–7:00pm: Class

7:15pm: Dinner (for hosts and panelists)

 

Saturday, March 1

9:00–9:30am: Registration

9:30–11:30am: The Politics of Economy

Discussant: Beshara Doumani

  • Sherene SeikalySocial Man: Palestinian Capitalists and Economy

  • Sreemati Mitter: A History of Money in Palestine: The Case of the Frozen Bank Accounts of 1948

  • Samia Botmeh: The Political Economy of Palestinian Women’s Labour Supply: 1920-2010

11:30am–1:00pm: Political Economy of Occupation

  • Shir Hever: Privatization of the Occupation: The Core Masked as the Periphery
  • Omar Tesdell: Land and the Question of Palestinian Cultivation
  • Discussant:  Manal Jamal

1:00 – 2:30pm Lunch (for hosts and panelists)

2:30–4:30pm: Political Economy of Peace 

4:30–5:00pm Coffee Break

5:00pm: End of Formal Program

5:00–6:30pm: Next Steps
Concluding Remarks by Rashid KhalidiIlan Pappe, and Beshara Doumani

7:00pm: Dinner (for hosts and panelists)


Special Guests

 

Nadia Abu El-Haj
Professor of Anthropology, Barnard College
https://barnard.edu/profiles/nadia-abu-el-haj


Lila Abu-Lughod 
Joseph L. Buttenwieser Professor of Social Science, Columbia University
http://anthropology.columbia.edu/people/profile/347


Lama Abu-Odeh 
Professor of Law, Georgetown University
http://www.law.georgetown.edu/faculty/abu-odeh-lama.cfm


Joel Beinin
Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History and Professor of Middle East History, Stanford University
http://history.stanford.edu/beinin_joel


Bassam Haddad
Director of Middle East Studies, George Mason University
http://pia.gmu.edu/people/bhaddad


Elias Khoury
Global Distinguished Professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, New York University
http://as.nyu.edu/object/aboutas.globalprofessor.eliaskhoury


Brinkley Messick
Professor of Anthropology, Columbia University
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/mesaas/faculty/directory/messick.html


 

Nadim Rouhana
Professor of International Negotiation and Conflict Studies, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University
http://fletcher.tufts.edu/Fletcher_Directory/Directory/Faculty%20Profile?personkey=33BCCAC4-D7F6-4D45-A406-95E1A077F864

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Past is Present: Settler Colonialism Matters!

On 5-6 March 2011, the Palestine Society at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London will hold its seventh annual conference, "Past is Present: Settler Colonialism in Palestine." This year`s conference aims to understand Zionism as a settler colonial project which has, for more than a century, subjected Palestine and Palestinians to a structural and violent form of destruction, dispossession, land appropriation and erasure in the pursuit of a new Jewish Israeli society. By organizing this conference, we hope to reclaim and revive the settler colonial paradigm and to outline its potential to inform and guide political strategy and mobilization.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is often described as unique and exceptional with little resemblance to other historical or ongoing colonial conflicts. Yet, for Zionism, like other settler colonial projects such as the British colonization of Ireland or European settlement of North America, South Africa or Australia, the imperative is to control the land and its resources -- and to displace the original inhabitants. Indeed, as conference keynote speaker Patrick Wolfe, one of the foremost scholars on settler colonialism and professor at La Trobe University in Victoria, Australia, argues, "the logic of this project, a sustained institutional tendency to eliminate the Indigenous population, informs a range of historical practices that might otherwise appear distinct--invasion is a structure not an event."[i]

Therefore, the classification of the Zionist movement as a settler colonial project, and the Israeli state as its manifestation, is not merely intended as a statement on the historical origins of Israel, nor as a rhetorical or polemical device. Rather, the aim is to highlight Zionism`s structural continuities and the ideology which informs Israeli policies and practices in Palestine and toward Palestinians everywhere. Thus, the Nakba -- whether viewed as a spontaneous, violent episode in war, or the implementation of a preconceived master plan -- should be understood as both the precondition for the creation of Israel and the logical outcome of Zionist settlement in Palestine.

Moreover, it is this same logic that sustains the continuation of the Nakba today. As remarked by Benny Morris, “had he [David Ben Gurion] carried out full expulsion--rather than partial--he would have stabilised the State of Israel for generations.”[ii] Yet, plagued by an “instability”--defined by the very existence of the Palestinian nation--Israel continues its daily state practices in its quest to fulfill Zionism’s logic to maximize the amount of land under its control with the minimum number of Palestinians on it. These practices take a painful array of manifestations: aerial and maritime bombardment, massacre and invasion, house demolitions, land theft, identity card confiscation, racist laws and loyalty tests, the wall, the siege on Gaza, cultural appropriation, and the dependence on willing (or unwilling) native collaboration and security arrangements, all with the continued support and backing of imperial power. 

Despite these enduring practices however, the settler colonial paradigm has largely fallen into disuse. As a paradigm, it once served as a primary ideological and political framework for all Palestinian political factions and trends, and informed the intellectual work of committed academics and revolutionary scholars, both Palestinians and Jews.

The conference thus asks where and why the settler colonial paradigm was lost, both in scholarship on Palestine and in politics; how do current analyses and theoretical trends that have arisen in its place address present and historical realities? While acknowledging the creativity of these new interpretations, we must nonetheless ask: when exactly did Palestinian natives find themselves in a "post-colonial" condition? When did the ongoing struggle over land become a "post-conflict" situation? When did Israel become a "post-Zionist" society? And when did the fortification of Palestinian ghettos and reservations become "state-building"?

In outlining settler colonialism as a central paradigm from which to understand Palestine, this conference re-invigorates it as a tool by which to analyze the present situation. In doing so, it contests solutions which accommodate Zionism, and more significantly, builds settler colonialism as a political analysis that can embolden and inform a strategy of active, mutual, and principled Palestinian alignment with the Arab struggle for self-determination, and indigenous struggles in the US, Latin America, Oceania, and elsewhere.

Such an alignment would expand the tools available to Palestinians and their solidarity movement, and reconnect the struggle to its own history of anti-colonial internationalism. At its core, this internationalism asserts that the Palestinian struggle against Zionist settler colonialism can only be won when it is embedded within, and empowered by, the broader Arab movement for emancipation and the indigenous, anti-racist and anti-colonial movement--from Arizona to Auckland.

SOAS Palestine Society invites everyone to join us at what promises to be a significant intervention in Palestine activism and scholarship.

For over 30 years, SOAS Palestine Society has heightened awareness and understanding of the Palestinian people, their rights, culture, and struggle for self-determination, amongst students, faculty, staff, and the broader public. SOAS Palestine society aims to continuously push the frontiers of discourse in an effort to make provocative arguments and to stimulate debate and organizing for justice in Palestine through relevant conferences, and events ranging from the intellectual and political impact of Edward Said`s life and work (2004), international law and the Palestine question (2005), the economy of Palestine and its occupation (2006), the one state (2007), 60 Years of Nakba, 60 Years of Resistance (2009), and most recently, the Left in Palestine (2010).

For more information on the SOAS Palestine Society 7th annual conference, Past is Present: Settler Colonialism in Palestine: www.soaspalsoc.org

SOAS Palestine Society Organizing Collective is a group of committed students that has undertaken to organize annual academic conferences on Palestine since 2003.

 


[i] Patrick Wolfe, Settler Colonialism and the Transformation of Anthropology: The Politics and Poetics of an Ethnographic Event, Cassell, London, p. 163

[ii] Interview with Benny Morris, Survival of the Fittest, Haaretz, 9. January 2004, http://cosmos.ucc.ie/cs1064/jabowen/IPSC/php/art.php?aid=5412