Dear all,
As a doctoral student with a background as a
human rights worker in conflict zones including a short posting in the occupied West Bank several years ago, I am interested in this conversation. I don't doubt the value of the proposed workshop yet find myself dwelling on the importance of 'how' such scholarly pursuit is conducted. It seems to me
fundamental that Palestinian scholars be fully involved at every level of such a scholarly endeavour, that there not be particular impediments to their participation and that there be positive efforts to include them and to facilitate their involvement. Also, if it is to be useful for those to whom it matters most, specifically those displaced by the colonial project that is at the root of settlements, it seems to me crucial that such a workshop align itself with the principles of the BDS movement. Perhaps the workshop could take place in the West Bank?
William Payne
PhD Candidate - Critical Human Geography
York University
"Compassion is an unstable emotion. It needs to be translated into action, or it
withers… And it is not necessarily better to be moved. Sentimentality, notoriously, is entirely compatible with a taste for brutality or worse."
-Susan Sontag
(Regarding the Pain of Others)