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UPDATED:Feb. 10 at 12:15 p.m.

Around 150 people gathered in the SUNY ESF Gateway Conference room for a “teach-in” for Palestine featuring Syracuse University faculty panelists Monday night.

The event, co-organized by Palestinian liberation advocacy groups 315Students4Liberation and SU’s chapter of Faculty for Justice in Palestine, hosted SU Middle Eastern studies professors Dana Olwan and Carol Fadda. The professors delivered a presentation to explain Palestinian perspectives and the historical context behind the conflict.

A representative from 315Students4Liberation, who asked to be referred to using only their initials, said the group has been planning the teach-in for a few months. They said they hoped the event would create a space for “all voices (to) be heard.”

“People united will never be defeated,” F.D. said. “We need to work together as a community, and that community should be broad.”

F.D. also said collaboration with other on- and off-campus organizations would be crucial in ensuring the pro-Palestinian narrative is not ignored, especially in a community that prioritizes “Indigenous solidarity.”

The teach-in followed the format of a seminar-based course with panelists introducing learning objectives for the session, establishing dialogue guidelines, giving a presentation about the material and splitting the attendees into breakout discussion groups.

“Coming here today, we are collectively showing to universities that academia is a place for having these conversations,” said the moderator, a SUNY ESF transfer student who asked to remain anonymous.

The moderator said they emulated a classroom setting to address a lack of discussion on the Israel-Hamas war and Palestinian perspectives on college campuses.

Following the initial Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, SU has discouraged faculty members from discussing the conflict in certain settings. At an Oct. 25 University Senate meeting, SU’s Provost Gretchen Ritter said that while faculty can discuss the Israel-Hamas war when it is relevant to the course material, doing so in other contexts can create “an unfair power dynamic that can make some students feel unwelcome, unsafe or unsupported.”

The teach-in began with an “intention-setting” session, at which Jonathan, a Palestinian-American who did not give his last name, went over the guidelines for the discussion, which he said would center around the “US-based Israeli colonization of Palestine.”

Jonathan also said he wanted to dispel the fear surrounding these conversations and promote an open dialogue amongst the college community.

After establishing the guidelines, the moderator introduced several learning objectives and community agreements for attendees, some of which included considering diverse viewpoints and sharing lived experiences using a first-person perspective.

Following the introduction, the event transitioned into a panel featuring the two SU faculty members and several speakers who wished to remain anonymous. During the session, each panelist delivered a section of a presentation titled “The Urgency of Palestine: A Teach-In,” which they said served to “underscore the history” of the decades-long conflict.

Fadda centered her presentation on the underlying historical relationship between Israel and Palestine, describing it as an “ongoing genocide” of the Palestinian people.

“Context needs to be at the forefront of our conversation and analysis,” she said.

Fadda first presented several statistics outlining the effects of the “115-day aerial bombardment” of Gaza following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. She cited a recent statistic from Gaza’s Ministry of Health which stated that 26,000 people had been killed in Gaza since the war started.

She described some of the “unspeakably cruel” effects of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, saying Israel has targeted Palestinian infrastructure. Fadda also said the Israeli government is engaging in “scholasticide,” or the systematic destruction of centers of education. Seven academic institutions in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged since Oct. 7, the Toronto Star reported.

Fadda also said she believes Palestinians have been “under siege” by the Israeli government for the past 16 years leading up to Oct. 7, referring to the state of Palestine as the “largest open-air prison” and a “testing ground” for U.S. military technology.

Olwan started her presentation by thanking several “solidarity activists” on college campuses and throughout the community. She expressed gratitude for the groups speaking out for Palestinian liberation and contextualizing the current conflict by discussing the Nakba — a mass displacement of Palestinians in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

She said several Israeli state-enforced systems, such as its military checkpoints, are “routine forms of humiliation” intended to subjugate Palestinians in Gaza. She also said people should consider the “75-year history of Israeli settler colonialism” when discussing the current war.

“Even non-violent resistance has been met with Israeli resistance,” she said.

After the two speakers, attendees split off into five breakout groups, all of which emphasized the intersectionality between Palestinian liberation and other movements. One group discussed Indigenous land justice while another talked about LGBT rights.

Enzo Saccuccimorano, a SUNY ESF student and member of 315Students4Liberation, said he was not involved in planning the event but helped facilitate one of the breakout groups. He said he hoped the teach-in would help bring light to a “non-dominant narrative” on college campuses.

Saccuccimorano also said he was glad the breakout discussions promoted intersectionality, emphasizing how there are several ties between the experiences of Palestinians in Gaza and the historical treatment of Indigenous people in the U.S.

Another SUNY ESF student, Alexa Howe, said her breakout discussion, which addressed “Ecocide,” taught her how the military-industrial complex has a significant negative impact on the health of the environment in Gaza. She described the actions of the Israeli government as “eco-terrorism.”

At the teach-in’s conclusion, moderators surveyed attendees, gauging feedback to consider for future initiatives and demonstrations. They urged the audience to look to their social media for more information about similar events.

“One of the key things that a lot of people are getting wrong, even people who are taking part in activism for Palestinian liberation, is that this is not an issue that started this past year,” Saccuccimorano said. “It’s ongoing. It’s a genocide.”

Published on January 30, 2024 at 2:01 am

Contact Julia: jmboehni@syr.edu