As part of Mada al-Carmel’s series ‘Politics in the time of Coronavirus’, Dr Osama Tanus, paediatrician and doctoral student of public health, has given an online lecture exploring the implications of settler colonial practices on the current Coronavirus crisis. Drawing on the analysis of the Marxist scholar David Harvey, Tanus sets out a case for critiquing our understanding of ‘natural disasters’ like viruses. Whilst viruses exist in nature, the recent wave in highly contagious viral mutations like Ebola and Coronavirus are largely driven by ‘un-natural’ human interventions, and are spread rapidly by human means.

Tanus builds on this by pointing to the unequal impact of diseases in colonial contexts around the world: more often than not, indigenous populations suffer disproportionate rates of illness and infection. Palestinian communities in Israel and in the Occupied Palestinian Territories have suffered from higher rates of Coronavirus infections. The alienation of Palestinians in their own land and loss of Palestinian sovereignty, as well as problems accessing healthcare and Arabic-language information about Coronavirus, all have a role to play in evaluating why this might be the case.

Watch the lecture (in Arabic) here.

Mada al-Carmel, the Arab Center for Applied Social Research, held its fifth annual conference for Palestinian doctoral students last Saturday, 3 August 2019, at the Ramada Oliviee Hotel in Nazareth. Dozens of students, academics, researchers and activists were in attendance to discuss the doctoral research of Palestinian students. This year’s conference was marked by its contribution to the advancement of a new generation of female Palestinian researchers, with the participation of nine females and one male researcher.

The conference was opened with welcoming remarks from the conference’s academic committee members, Dr. Mohanad Mustafa, Mada al-Carmel’s General Director, and Dr. Ayman Aghbaria, Lecturer at Haifa University. Dr. Mustafa stressed the importance of the conference as “an assembly of knowledge where students meet, share knowledge and experience, and connect with researchers from different universities. It is a space to refine the knowledge-producing act of the new generation of researchers, which is a political act of resistance, as it produces knowledge under the colonial power, defying and criticizing it as well as the colonizer himself, the reality under colonialism, and its cognitive tools and research methodology. Dr. Ayman Aghbaria then touched on the importance of the researcher being an educated witness, practicing the act of research, meditation and discernment of the truth. He added that, “What we seek is to move the Palestinian academic from observation and watching to the field of active witness.” He concluded by referring to the shape of the coming Palestinian select, which the PhD student program in Mada al-Carmel seeks to form.

The conference included three sessions. The first session, moderated by Dr. Ayman Aghbaria, was on Women’s Identity: Paths of Formation and Images of Representation. The session included three interventions, the first, “The management during religious identity change among young Muslim women in Israel ,” was presented by researcher Aisha Hajjar Aghbaria, a PhD student in the Communication and Journalism Faculty at the Hebrew University. This research dealt with the possibilities offered by social networking sites to women with a traditional, patriarchal social identity with regard to the elaboration and presentation of their religious identity under the rule of a secular state.

The second intervention, “Transformations in Contemporary Islamic Thought: The Status of Women in the Islamic Fiqh (Law) Academy,” was presented by Nahed Kanaan, a PhD student in the Middle East Department at Ben-Gurion University. This research dealt with the status of Muslim women in the social and historical cultural context (1981-2018) within the walls of the Fiqh Academy, a supreme institution that is considered an umbrella for the Islamic world, by examining how “fatwas” on women’s issues and rights have evolved, and describing the feminist fiqh discourse within the academy.

The third and final intervention in this session, “Feminism by Male Writers: “Yousuf Idris” as an example,” was presented by researcher Amani Hawari, a PhD student in the Arabic Language and Literature Department at Haifa University. In her research, Ms. Hawari tried to find an answer to the question: “Is the male writer feminist in his literature?” This provoked a debate about what makes writing feminist in terms of content, ideas, methods, and gender of the writer. She then presented Youssef Idris as an example of a feminist writer.

The second session was on “Palestine: Historical, Social and Economic Approaches” and was moderated by Dr. Ameed Saabneh, lecturer in the Sociology Department at Haifa University, and a member of Mada al-Carmel’s Research Committee. The session included three interventions, the first was by Dr. Elham Jaber Shamali from Gaza via Skype, a doctor of history from Ein Shams University. Dr. Shamali presented a paper entitled, “Jewish National fund and its role in Zionist project in Palestine (1901 – 1948) .” In it, she addressed the Jewish National Fund (JNF) noting that it played an important role in the looting of Palestinian lands until 1948. The JNF managed to provide 31 million Palestinian pounds from several sources to take over an area of 936,000 dunums. It also applied transfer policies to displace the villagers and clans of the Bisan area, east of the Jordan River from the 1920s. During the 1948 war, the Fund was a key element in the expulsion of Palestinians from their villages and cities. The second intervention, “The political economy of the West Bank- Israeli economic relationships after 2005: a class and sectoral  analysis ,” was presented by researcher Walid Habbas, a PhD student in the Sociology Department at the Hebrew University. Mr. Habbas addressed the phenomenon of increasing economic relations between the inhabitants of the West Bank and Israel, despite the apartheid regime and the intensification of the colonial structure and tools of control imposed by Israel on the inhabitants of the West Bank at the end of the second intifada. He reckons that “economic relations between the West Bank and Israel cannot be explained solely by the colonial structure exercising control and domination of the inhabitants and territories of the West Bank, while disregarding the role of the Palestinian population. He notes that they are not passive players, and not all of them are in the category of being exploited and managed, as some of them also play a significant role in shaping the form, density and quality of economic relations with Israel.”

The third speaker, Researcher Siham Waked, a PhD student at the School of Cultural Studies at Tel Aviv University, presented a paper entitled, “Palestinian Village Women and the Path of Change: Arrabeh as an Example.” In it, she referred to the changes in the historical geographical reality in Arrabeh, and its impact on women, as she examined the strategies used by the women in determining their own identity in a transitional society.

The third and final session was on Palestinian Women: Roles and Societal Challenges. The session was moderated by Dr. Sonia Bolous, a member of the conference’s academic committee, a visiting scholar at Mada al Carmel and a lecturer in the International Relations and Law Department at Antonio de Nebrija University in Madrid. The first speaker was researcher Maysoon Abu Rayya, a PhD student at the Sociology Faculty at Ben-Gurion University. In her intervention, Ms. Abu Rayya presented her research on  the Selection Strategies of Divorced Muslim Arab Women Seeking to Re-marry , in which she attempts to understand and analyze the motivations and strategies that drive divorced Palestinian women to remarry under a patriarchal social system, as well as the difficulties they face when declaring their desire to do so.

The second speaker was Camelia Ibrahim, a PhD student in gender studies at Bar Ilan University, who spoke about Palestinian single women in Israel: Stress sources, support resources, coping strategies and adjustment. , addressing the need to treat celibacy as a natural condition and not a transition to marriage. She argued that there are four types of confrontation among single women: one aimed at reaching marriage, another aimed at addressing negative emotions, the third aimed at self-realization, and finally, the fourth heading towards negotiating the family and society and reconciling with the cultural heritage.

In the final intervention at the conference, researcher Huzam Hardal Zureik, a PhD student at the Social Work Faculty at the Hebrew University, addressed The Social Work Profession and Female Social Workers in Arab Palestinian Society: Public Perception and Media Representations. She noted that several stereotypes and negative prejudices have been formed about the social work profession, while attempting to highlight the position of the social work profession in society in general and the media in particular. Ms. Hardal Zureik also tried to shed light on the experience of Palestinian social workers in the social services departments in Arab towns and cities and the violence they face in their work.

The conference also included the annual awarding of grants by Mada al-Carmel to 10 graduate students participating in the seminar.

At the end of the conference, Dr. Areej Sabbagh Khoury, a member of Mada-al-Carmel’s executive committee, summarized the conference and thanked the participants. She spoke about the importance of self-criticism in Palestinian studies, and not only criticism of the colonial situation. She noted that Mada seeks to provide an academic hub that provides students with tools of criticism and knowledge in their studies through critical approaches to oneself and to the colonial context.

On June 22, 2019, Mada al-Carmel – The Arab Center for Applied Social Research – held its annual academic conference in Nazareth entitled “Transformations in Political Participation in the last Two Decades and a Glance Towards the Future.” Dozens of academics, university students, politicians and activists participated in the conference. The conference included academic presentations based on research papers presented to the conference.

The conference was opened with a welcoming opening session, moderated by Ms. Einas Odeh- Haj, the Associate Director of Mada al-Carmel. Ms. Odeh- Haj stressed the importance of the conference and its theme in the current political situation, stating that the recent parliamentary elections and the decline in voting percentages has reaffirmed the need for a collective political project where the joint list would be at its core and the parliamentary action would be one of its constituents. Mr. Mohammad Barakeh, Head of the Higher Follow-up Committee for the Arab Citizens of Israel, gave a short speech in which he pointed out the importance of the meeting between politicians and academics in scientific conferences, stressing the role of the Follow-up Committee and the founding steps it has taken in recent years. Mr. Mudar Younis, Mayor of Arara, and Chair of the National Committee of Arab Local Authorities, also spoke about the advantages of local politics and local leadership transformations in local governance. He indicated that despite the positive changes in the qualities of local leaders on a personal level, they still rely on the traditional bases in the local elections. The last speaker of the session, Dr. Johnny Mansour, member of Mada al-Carmel’s board, welcomed the attendants reaffirming the importance of the papers to be presented at the conference, the value of the dialogue resulting from such conferences and the role of Mada al-Carmel in approaching the Palestinian political reality with academic tools that benefit the community and political leadership. As well as the relevance of the conference as an academic forum in Palestinian society to discuss its affairs.

After the opening, the first session of the conference was moderated by Ms. Areen Hawari, a researcher at Mada al-Carmel. Dr. Ameed Saabneh, a lecturer at Haifa University and a member of the research committee at Mada al-Carmel, presented his analytical paper on the opinion poll conducted by Mada al-Carmel on political participation. Dr. Saabneh analyzed the attitudes of the Palestinian public through a socio-economic approach, indicating that there are two major trends within the Palestinian society: the collective approach, which sees the organization of Palestinian society as the most important formula for improving the status of the Palestinians; and the individualistic approach which favors integration in Israeli society. He pointed out that the higher the educational level of the individual, the higher the tendency for the collectivist approach. This is contrary to the prevailing impression that the Palestinian middle class tends towards integration and assimilation in the Israeli society. 

Professor Mohammad Amara, a lecturer at the Beit Berl Academic College, commented on Dr. Saabneh’s paper by saying that there is a need to take the Israeli political context and its changes in the past decade into consideration when interpreting the survey results, and not to be satisfied with just the class or economic educational approaches. Dr. Mtanes Shehadeh, Knesset member from the Alliance of the National Democratic Assembly and the United Arab List (Balad-Ra’am), said that the poll explains much of the political behavior of the Palestinian society in the recent elections. This is because the people see parliamentary action as an important political option, but it sees collective action as an option that must accompany the parliamentary option, including the organization of the society outside the parliament.

The second session, which was moderated by Dr. Hanin Majadele, a lecturer at the Al-Qasemi Academic College of Education, discussed the subject of political organization. Dr. Mohanad Mustafa, General Director of Mada al-Carmel, presented his paper on the political organization among the Palestinians in Israel between the policies of hope and cynicism. He explained that the policy of hope is reflected in three points; collective political action, collective political organization and the development of a collective political project. The more society advances in achieving these three demands, the more hope people have, and their political participation and involvement with politics increases, and vice versa..

First discussant, Mr. Muhammad Khalayleh, a PhD student at Haifa University, commented on the paper by saying that there is a decline in the public’s trust in the various political institutions in Palestinian society, which confirms the policy of cynicism, stressing that the future vision documents (issued by the Palestinians in Israel more than a decade ago) were not translated into collective political action after they were published, as they remained elitist perceptions that did not reach the general public. Aida Touma-Suleiman, Knesset member from the Alliance of the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality and the Arab Movement for Change (Hadash-Ta’al), pointed to the need to give hope to people by reforming the Joint List. The List had comprised a policy of hope for people when it was established in 2015, and there is a need to develop a discourse that addresses people’s expectations from the Joint List.

The last session was moderated by the activist and lawyer Ali Haider. Dr. Hunaida Ghanim, director of the Madar Center for Israeli Studies, presented her paper which addressed the Palestinian political discourse since the publication of the future vision documents. Dr. Ghanim referred to the dialectic of nationality and the homeland, the changes in Israeli society and their impact on the Palestinians in Israel and their behavior and political thought, particularly the rise of the national-religious discourse in Israeli politics.

Mr. Awad Abdel Fattah from the Campaign for One State and the former General Secretary of the National Democratic Assembly, commented on the paper stressing the importance of rethinking the approach of Israel as a settler-colonial state. Finally, Dr. Mansour Abbas, the head of the Balad-Ra’am Alliance, commented on the paper by saying that it was essential to adopt a political and parliamentary discourse that addresses the current political reality, even if this necessitates connecting with new sectors of Israeli society and building partnerships with them in order to advance the interests of the Palestinian society. 

It should be noted that the conference booklet, which included the papers presented at the conference, was distributed to the attendees. The conference was funded by Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, and was prepared by an academic committee composed of Dr. Muhannad Mustafa, Ms. Einas Odeh-Haj, Dr. Ameed Saabneh and Dr. Rawia Abu Rabia.