In 2023, we commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Nakba.
The Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe) of 1948 has been called the poisonous root of all that has plagued the Holy Land since that time, with a never-ending impact that pervades the Middle East and the entire world. We cannot hope to understand the present turmoil in the Holy Land - let alone achieve a just peace for all those who live there - without knowing where and how this world-shaking conflict began: with the ethnic cleansing of indigenous people from their homeland.
Join us for a unique educational and thought-provoking presentation, with moving firsthand recollections of the Nakba, expert historical analysis, and riveting video clips.
ILAN PAPPE: The world-renowned author Ilan Pappé is widely regarded as the pre-eminent voice among Israel's "New Historians." His courageously ground-breaking, myth-shattering work of 2006, "The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine," draws upon previously classified archival evidence and clearly presents to the world the truth about Israel's birth and the ideology that drove it: that the forcible removal of the indigenous Palestinians from their homeland was wholly intentional and was considered essential for the creation of the state of Israel. Ilan Pappé's large body of work also includes the 2017 book "Ten Myths About Israel" and the 2023 article "Using the Right Language: The ‘Incremental Genocide’ of the Palestinians Continues." Professor Pappé founded and directed the Academic Institute for Peace in Givat Haviva, Israel and was the Chair of the Emil Tuma Institute for Palestine Studies in Haifa. He was a senior lecturer in Middle Eastern History and Political Science in Haifa University, Israel. Today Pappé is Professor of History and Director of the European Centre for Palestine Studies at the University of Exeter, United Kingdom. Besides his focus on the modern Middle East and Israel and Palestine in particular, he has also written on multiculturalism, Critical Discourse Analysis, and Power and Knowledge in general.
SAMIA KHOURY: Nakba survivor Samia Khoury has been throughout her life a leading voice in the Palestinian Christian community. She has written and spoken widely on all aspects of the Palestinian experience, from her vivid recollections of the Nakba to the current realities of life under the Israeli military occupation. Some of the former can be found in her article "The Nakba and Its Aftermath." In her 2014 memoir "Reflections from Palestine: A Journey of Hope," Khoury beautifully explains the wide-ranging social and political problems facing Palestinians under occupation through the sweet and sorrowful experiences of family and community life. Educated in the U.S. at a Methodist-affiliated college, Samia Khoury is a co-founder of Sabeel, the Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem, a founding member of Birzeit University Board of Trustees, and former president of the Palestinian YWCA, among many other roles she has filled in Palestinian society.