With Khaled Odetallah, In partnership with the Suleiman Al-Halabi Unit for Colonial Studies and Epistemic Liberation

Wednesday, June 23, 17:00–19:00
Location: The Palestinian Museum
Language: Arabic

At the onset of the genocide in the Gaza Strip, our hands were tied—and they remain tied to this day. We were faced with existential questions of meaning and purpose, and with the question, “What can we do?”—without ever pretending to have the answer or the way forward. The work on the art intervention "This Is Not an Exhibition"—and subsequent exhibitions and interventions—was a declaration of refusal against the genocide and an elevation of the voice of life in the face of the machinery of death.

We ask ourselves daily: What does our life mean? What does it mean for the political scene in Palestine and the world to persist as it is, while Gaza is being bombed every minute—even as this text is being written, read, and worked on? How has the narrative of powerlessness become a tool for restricting political action in Palestine? Have we truly lost all initiative—or has paralysis become a reproducing framework to ensure our political inactivity? How do peoples and communities act in moments of political repression and historical turning points? And why are we, Palestinians, compelled to divide Palestine into areas and regions called the West Bank, Gaza, and the interior when we talk about political action? Why has each area acquired unique characteristics and conditions that set it apart politically? And what is our stance today regarding what we are living through and what lies ahead?

Join us in this individual and collective conversation around narratives of defeat and victory, and the stories and experiences that lie in between.