In August, I attended a screening of Aurora’s Sunrise at the New Plaza Cinema. The documentary depicts the annihilation of Armenian lifeworlds in the Ottoman Empire at the beginning of the twentieth century. In August, the film was received as … Continue reading “Where Scenes of Catastrophe Reappear: On Armenian and Palestinian Solidarities”
No one watching the proceedings in the International Court of Justice on January 11 and 12, 2024—when South Africa accused Israel of genocide in Gaza—could have missed the racialized geopolitical atmospherics of the moment. On the South African side stood … Continue reading “Palestine and the Contours of the Third World”
In a 2001 telephone interview with the New York Times from Vienna, Johann August Schülein, then president of the Freud Society of Vienna, said of Edward Said’s disinvitation, “A lot of members of our society told us—they can’t accept that … Continue reading “Theory as Stone”
Two weeks after Israel began bombing Gaza, I was messaging with a close friend who now lives in New York. I had long known her to support Palestinian liberation, but now her tone was different. She expressed that too many … Continue reading “Justice Without Exception: Zionist Narrative and the Crisis of Liberalism”
These days, condemnation seems to be on everyone’s lips. In the nearly two months that have passed since Hamas launched its deadly attack on Israeli-controlled territory in the early hours of Saturday, October 7th, it seems that just about every … Continue reading “On Condemnation: Terrorism, Violence, and the Question of Palestine”
This is a revised version of a talk delivered at the symposium “Palestine and the Historian” at Harvard University on a panel titled “Borders, Apartheid, Carcerality.” My comrade Mary Jirmanus Saba—a filmmaker, geographer, and media studies scholar—recently participated in a … Continue reading “What Is Our Responsibility as Intellectuals to Palestine?”
On Friday, November 17, 2023, a group of PhD students in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Toronto organized a teach-in entitled “Decolonization and the War on Gaza,” held during the annual AAA/CASCA meeting that was taking place … Continue reading “Palestine and Our University”
A curious strength emerges when lying on the earth in solidarity with the dead. On October 26, 2023, I joined a die-in on the USC campus as a faculty ally. There, in the act of laying my body on the … Continue reading “Lying Down to Stand Up for What Is Right”
Palestine is today’s Vietnam. Five decades ago, it was Vietnam’s anti-colonial struggle for independence—first against the French colonists and then against the US imperialists—that sparked international protest and solidarity. “Vietnam” became a synecdoche of the global Third World Liberation movement. … Continue reading “Palestine Is Today’s Vietnam”
On Friday, November 10th, the recently formed NYU Faculty for Justice in Palestine held a teach-in on campus on the theme of Palestine and the University. I share my remarks from that evening here. My name is Lou Cornum. I am … Continue reading “Palestine and the Project of Native Studies”
This lightly edited speech was written for the November 4 Free Palestine: National Day of Action in Montreal that was organized by the Palestinian Youth Movement. I am standing here in solidarity with the Palestinian peoples who are today demanding … Continue reading “No Human Animals: On Black Solidarity with Palestine and the Defense of Life”
Palestine Now Edited by Maya Mikdashi, Jasbir Puar, Helga Tawil-Souri Palestine Now editors invite contributions reflecting upon current and historical conditions in and of Palestine and Israel. As we collectively confront the “ethical indifference with which racial violence is met” … Continue reading “Palestine Now–Call for Essays”
I. On October 14, 2023, Australia voted in a referendum on the Indigenous Voice to Parliament, an attempt to enshrine consultation with Indigenous peoples in the Australian constitution. The proposal originated in the Uluru Statement from the Heart, adopted by … Continue reading “Yes/No: Referenda and Mandates”
Eighty scholars from the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism (ICSZ) today released an open letter to universities and other institutions, demanding they retract their statements endorsing Israeli genocide against Palestinians. During the past two weeks of Israeli attacks … Continue reading “Open Letter from the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism’s Research Community”
My characters change the course of the war. Now, that didn’t happen, because my characters didn’t exist. But if they had have existed everything that happens [in the movie] is fairly plausible.-Quentin Tarantino While newspapers around the world, including, notably, … Continue reading “Figurations of Naziism as a Foil for (Violent) Revenge Fantasies: Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds and the Making of a “New White Man” Post-9/11”
