Gaza in Context: A Collaborative Teach-In Series — Session 13
 

Regional Responses to the War on Gaza

Featuring:
Mouin Rabbani
Safaa Al-Ahmad
Amal Saad
Hesham Sallam
Omar Sirri
Ziad Abu-Rish

Moderator:
Bassam Haddad 

Teach-In Session 13

Mouin Rabbani, Regional Dynamics of the Gaza War

Safaa Al-Ahmad, Saudi Arabia and Yemen: The Propaganda Proxy Wars

Amal Saad, Understanding Hizbullah’s “Solidarity with Palestine”

Hesham Sallam, Sisi and the War on Gaza: The Myth of the Political Lifeline

Omar Sirri, Generational Politics and Palestine in Iraq

Ziad Abu-Rish, Jordan: A Brutal Friend 

Gaza in Context Collaborative Teach-In Series

We are together experiencing a catastrophic unfolding of history as Gaza endures a massive invasion of potentially genocidal proportions. This follows an incessant bombardment of a population increasingly bereft of the necessities of living in response to the Hamas attack in Israel on October 7. The context within which this takes place includes a well-coordinated campaign of misinformation and the unearthing of a multitude of essentialist and reductionist discursive tropes that dehumanize Palestinians as the culprits, despite a context of structural subjugation and Apartheid, now a matter of consensus in the human rights movement.

The co-organizers below are convening weekly teach-ins and conversations on a host of issues that introduce our common university communities, educators, researchers, and students to the history and present of Gaza, in context. 

Co-Organizers: Arab Studies Institute, Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, George Mason University’s Middle East and Islamic Studies Program, Rutgers Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Birzeit University Museum, Harvard’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Brown University’s Center for Middle East Studies, University of Chicago’s Center for Contemporary Theory, Brown University’s New Directions in Palestinian Studies, Georgetown University’s Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, Simon Fraser University’s Centre for Comparative Muslim Studies, Georgetown University-Qatar, American University of Cairo’s Alternative Policy Studies, Middle East Studies Association’s Global Academy, University of Chicago’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies, CUNY’s Middle East and Middle Eastern American Center, University of Illinois Chicago’s Arab american cultural Center, George Mason University’s AbuSulayman’s Center for Global Islamic Studies, University of Illinois Chicago’s Critical Middle East Studies Working Group, George Washington University’s Institute for Middle East Studies, Columbia University’s Center for Palestine Studies, New York University’s Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies

Featuring

Hesham Sallam is coeditor of Jadaliyya ezine. He is a Senior Research Scholar at Stanford University's Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, where he serves as Associate Director for Research. Sallam is author of Classless Politics: Islamist Movements, the Left, and Authoritarian Legacies in Egypt (Columbia University Press, 2022), co-editor of Struggles for Political Change in the Arab World (University of Michigan Press, 2022), and editor of Egypt's Parliamentary Elections 2011-2012: A Critical Guide to a Changing Political Arena (Tadween Publishing, 2013).

Omar Sirri is a research associate in the department of politics and international studies at SOAS University of London. He is writing a book about security checkpoints in contemporary Baghdad.

Ziad Abu-Rish is Co-Director of the MA Program in Human Rights and the Arts, and Visiting Associate Professor of Human Rights, at Bard College. He is a 2020–21 American Druze Foundation Fellow in the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University. His research explores state formation, economic development, and popular mobilizations in the Middle East, with a particular focus on Lebanon and Jordan. Abu-Rish was previously Assistant Professor of History and Founding Director of the Middle East and North Africa Studies Certificate Program at Ohio University. He serves as Co-Editor of Arab Studies Journal and Jadaliyya, as well as Co-Director of the Middle East Studies Pedagogy Initiative (MESPI) and the Lebanese Dissertation Summer Institute. He is also a Research Fellow at the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies (LCPS).

Mouin Rabbani has published and commented widely on Palestinian affairs, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the contemporary Middle East. He was previously Senior Analyst Middle East and Special Advisor on Israel-Palestine with the International Crisis Group, and head of political affairs with the Office of the United Nations Special Envoy for Syria. He is Co-Editor of Jadaliyya Ezine.

Safa Al Ahmad is a journalist and filmmaker who has directed documentaries for PBS and the BBC focusing on the Middle East. Her film ‘Saudi Secret Uprising’ was a rare documentary showcasing the historically unprecedented protests in the kingdom. Her work on Yemen spans over decade and reflects the bloody trajectory of the conflicts within the country and their international impact. Her film ‘Yemen Under Siege’ revealed the staggering human toll of the conflict in Yemen and received two Emmy Awards. Safa is  the winner of the Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Award for Journalism, the El Mundo award for journalism, the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE) International Press Freedom Award, the Association of International Broadcasting (AIB) Best International Investigation.

Amal Saad is a Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at Cardiff University. She specialzes in Hizbullah and its relations with the Resistance Axis. She has authored several works on Hizbullah including the book Hizbullah: Politics and Religion, Pluto Press (2002). She previously wrote “Challenging the Sponsor-Proxy Model: The Iran-Hizbullah Relationship,” Global Discourse, volume 9, no.4, November 2019. Her most recent policy paper is “Guns and Governance: How Europe Should Talk with Non-State Armed Groups in the Middle East: Hizbullah,” European Council on Foreign Relations, November 2020. She is currently writing a book on Hizbullah’s regional power Hizbullah and the Resistance Axis: From National Resistance to Regional Power, London: Palgrave-Macmillan (forthcoming 2024). Amal was a Visiting Scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for Peace’s Middle East Center.