Apr 8, 2024
Introductory Remarks by Professor Frances Hasso (@nasawiyya)
“The Urgency of Anti-Imperial Feminism: Lessons from
Palestine”
Walaa Alqaisiya, Ca' Foscari University of Venice (via
Zoom)
(08:30-38:30)
This talk maps the epistemic, political, and moral grounds
informing the urgency of anti-imperial feminism that Palestine
brings into sight. Combining decolonial and Third-Worldist Marxist
theoretical approaches, the first part of the talk unpacks the
functionality of gender to the onto-epistemic foundations of
Zionist settler colonialism under US-led imperialism. The second
part discusses how the centering of the Palestinian national
question redefines the moral and political parameters of feminist
and queer mobilisation. In doing so, the last part shows the
limitations and tensions that post-structural feminist and queer
approaches carry, when dealing with the question of liberation,
violence, and development in global South contexts, such as
Palestine. (25 minutes)
“Christian Zionism, Displacement, and the Role of
Travel”
Jennifer Kelly, University of California, Santa Cruz (via
Zoom)
(~39:00-1:03:00)
A central tenet of Falwell’s Moral Majority, founded in 1979, was
unequivocal support for Israel and, by 1983, he began his first of
many “Friendship Tours to Israel,” which included meetings with
government officials and tours of Israeli military installations.
Today, Christian Zionism tours follow this template, pairing
pilgrimage with celebrations of Israel’s sustained displacement of
Palestinians. At the center of displacement in Jerusalem, for
example, is a biblical theme park—run by settlers—planned for
Silwan that comprises a cable car, a seven-story Jewish cultural
center on Wadi Hilweh land, and shopping centers and homes for
settlers. And, during this current genocidal war on Gaza, Christian
Zionists across the U.S. are once again eagerly seeing Israel’s
destruction of Gaza as a sign of end times and calling for
unchecked Israeli control over all of Palestine. In this paper, I
show not only how tourism is never a thing apart from colonial
state violence, but also how tourism is part of the fabric of a
U.S. Christian Zionism that both enables and facilitates
Palestinian displacement. (25 minutes)
Art credit:
"Untitled 2022" by Heba Zaqout, artist and fine arts teacher, martyred 13 October 2023 with two of her children in Gaza.