PLEASE NOTE: the event of December 14 has been postponed to the next semester

Leiden Teach-in Circle on Palestine

The Teach-In Circle is an independent initiative to organize a series of discussions where teaching and research staff of Leiden University draw on their areas of academic expertise to invite students and colleagues to learn about different aspects of the violent crisis in Palestine/Israel, its history and background, and its reverberations around the world. Participants in the network came together motivated by the observation that it has become more difficult than ever to safely have open discussion of this issue, at the very moment when it reaches an unprecedented level of televised killing, destruction, and displacement. We are alarmed by this suffering, and by the tendency of leaders of European governments and institutions to downplay or justify it. We reject any attempt to inhibit expressions of solidarity, or to silence or police lucid discussion of what many international legal experts have identified as a genocidal campaign by Israel.

Most of us have research specializations in the social sciences or humanities, on some aspect of political, historical, cultural, legal or economic life in Palestine and Israel or the broader Middle East region. Some of us have origins and family there; and some work on thematically relevant topics in other world regions. We believe we have the responsibility to counter and complement the incomplete and misleading narratives that tend to dominate mainstream media coverage, and which often validate vengeful collective punishment on the basis of spurious claims of self-defence. We have heard students and colleagues express a need for spaces of learning and discussion, and we affirm that members of the Leiden University community have the right to freely engage with locally produced research on these experiences of mass violence and their legitimizing ideologies.

Each event will feature a small panel of speakers focusing on a shared topic or theme. The series begins with general introductions, focusing on current military actions and their impacts for people on the ground, and considering these from the perspectives of international law and of the history of expulsion and occupation. The series continues with presentations on particular topics in order to construct a broader understanding: from histories of Zionism and of the movement for Palestinian self-determination; to mechanisms of boundary construction, dispossession, militarization, and discrimination; and the role of organized labour, literature, surveillance, and everyday forms of resistance. Finally, the series branches into specialized cross-cutting topics, examining resonances with conflicts, displacements, and occupations in other world regions, international solidarity initiatives, and connections between US/Western imperialism in the Middle East and xenophobic politics in Europe.

Each event is open to all students and staff members of Leiden University. In any case of difference of understanding, presenters and attendees are expected to treat one another with respect and dignity.

For inquiries, contact: leiden.teachin@gmail.com