This week saw the beginning of a lecture series on the history of Palestine, an initiative launched by DU History.
The lecture series will run throughout the rest of the Michaelmas semester with talks taking place both in person and online. The six week program will see academics from Palestine, Israel, the UK, and Ireland discuss topics ranging from Palestinian literature to Zionism.
These speakers will include Louis Allday, Hazem Jamjoum, Bayan Haddad, Brendan Ciarán Browne, Rashid Khalidi, Georgia Andreau and Avi Shlaim.
The first guest speaker welcomed by DU History was Dr Louis Allday, a historian, editor and writer who founded Liberated Texts, a book review website focused on older texts holding current relevance which have been forgotten, underappreciated, suppressed or misinterpreted since their release.
Allday discussed the publication and translation of texts released by the Palestine Research Centre along with his involvement in reviewing, translating and republishing a number of books released by this institution between the 1960s to the 1980s.
Speaking on the importance of these texts, Allday said they are “components in a long and ongoing and broad spectrum of resistance” which illustrate the continuity of Palestinian resistance, revolutionary learning and scholarship up to the present day.
“The diversity of this literature and how all encompassing it is is a reflection of how all encompassing the Palestinian resistance is, which in turn, is a reflection of how all encompassing the Zionist War against Palestinian identity is and Palestinian existence”.
He went on to say that “the systematic destruction of libraries, archives, historical sites and religious buildings, everything that is ongoing in Gaza and elsewhere right now has to be understood in that context, in the broad historical context of Zionist war against Palestinian identity and existence” emphasising again how “placing the ongoing genocide in that historical context is crucial”.
Allday discussed the following books: Zionist Colonialism in Palestine by Fayez A. Sayegh; On Zionist Literature by Ghassan Kanafani; and Zionist relations with Nazi Germany by Faris Yahya, placing each within both their historical and modern contexts.
Speaking to Trinity News following lecture the Secretary of DU History Ciarán Hegarty said: “This series has been a longstanding project of DU History’s, and was something our committee tried to get off the ground last year but were unfortunately unable to organise in time”.
“Coming into this semester I think we all felt an increasing sense of urgency as the situation in the Occupied Territories, and now Lebanon, worsens day by day”.
He added that the encampment held by Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) and Trinity Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (TCD BDS) last May also influenced the societies decision to run this series saying how it “shaped our outlook, showing just how much can be achieved through student-led action”.
Discussing the motivation behind this series Hegarty said: “Our primary objective is to promote awareness of the struggle of the Palestinian people, both then and now, among the college community.”
According to Hegarty, the society “firmly believes that knowledge is power, and that the study and appreciation of history should go hand in hand with activism”.
“By platforming scholarly voices from Palestine, Israel, and these islands we hope to equip students and staff with the tools to counter Zionism and to advocate for an end to occupation, and the violent destruction of the Palestinian nation”, he concluded.
Next week’s lecture is set to take place at 6pm in the GMB where Hazem Jamjoum will discuss Zionism, the history of Israeli state and the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
