De-Colonial Summer School is ‘prerequisite before individuals come out and speak on Palestine’

The Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project (IRDP) will host a Palestine De-Colonial Summer School in Istanbul, Turkey. The program will be held at Sehir University from August 1-12.

The course is designed to re-center how the subject of Palestine is approached from a de-colonial perspective. Topics that will be discussed include settler colonialism, the Nakba, narrating Palestine, and Palestine resistance.

“I think it’s important to re-center the discussion on Palestine into an understanding of the history of settler colonialism as the foundation for what the Palestine struggle is all about, because now it has shifted so much and the focus has been changed from settler colonialism to UN resolution 181, to the two-state framing, to expanding the economy, to ending the occupation; but the core of it is not really tackling the fundamental issue, and that is that we have a settler colonial program that wants to take over the land and dispose of the population,”IRDP director Dr. Hatem Bazian said.

The deadline to apply for the program is July 10. The cost of the course, which includes program fees, housing, teaching and food, is $1,700. An applicationform to register for the course can be found on the IRDP website.

Registration is open for anyone, however the course is intended specifically for college students or young individuals involved in activism for Palestine.

“For individuals who want to organize on Palestine, I think this is a fundamental course that they need to undertake,” Bazian said.

The professors for the course include Dr. Bazian, Dr. Nur Masalha, Dr. Ilan Pappe, Dr. Sawsan Zaher, Diana Buttu, and Omar Barghoutti. According to Dr. Bazian, each professor brings a different area of expertise to the program.

Dr. Bazian believes it is essential for those who want to advocate for Palestine to gain the knowledge that will be taught in the program.

“It’s almost a prerequisite before individuals come out and speak on Palestine to have this type of background from specialists and individuals that have done research from the earliest period all the way up to the contemporary period,” he said.

The Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project is an initiative of the UC Berkeley Center for Race and Gender that studies Islamophobia and its impact on Muslim communities.

To learn more about the Palestine De-Colonial Summer School, visit the IRDPwebsite.