2024 Winter Gathering 1-3 November, Sarum College, Salisbury
Theme: Against Genocide – is a new Palestine/Israel possible?
REGISTRATION IS NOW CLOSED.
Email [email protected] for inquiries
Registration Sarum College, Salisbury, from 4pm Friday 1st November, dinner 6.30pm, first session 8pm. Leave 2pm Sunday 3rd November.
TIMETABLE *
FRI 1 NOVEMBER: REGISTRATION OPENS 3PM (DINNER 6.30pm)
OPENING LECTURE 8-10PM
The Bosnian Experience of Judeo-Islamic Convivencia: History and Challenges
Speaker: Dr. Mirnes Kovac (Journalist and political analyst, Sarajevo)
SAT 2 NOVEMBER FIRST SESSION 10-11.30AM
Palestine/Israel: The geo-political long view.
Speakers: Andrew Feinstein (Executive Director of Shadow World Investigations).
Rania Hafez (Lebanese academic and writer. Associate Professor, University of Greenwich).
COFFEE
CONFERENCE KEYNOTE: 12.15-1.45pm
From Beirut to Jerusalem
Speaker: Dr Ang Swee Chai (Ang Swee Chai is a practising orthopedic surgeon. She is the co-founder of charity Medical Aid for Palestinians. In 1987 Dr Ang was awarded the Star of Palestine, the highest award for service to the Palestinian people).
LUNCH
THIRD SESSION 2.45-4.30PM
A cultural history of Palestine and its peoples
Speaker: Dr Atef Alshaer (Westminster University, specialist on culture and politics in the Arab world)
COFFEE
FOURTH SESSION 5pm-6.30pm
How We Move Forward: Lessons from Anti Racist Movements in Britain
Speaker: Ilyas Nagdee (Writer/activist and Racial Justice Director, Amnesty International).
DINNER
SATURDAY EVENING 8pm-9.30pm
A celebration of Palestinian art and cultures, curated by Naomi Foyle. Featuring readings by Gazan poet Basman Derawi (via zoom), in conversation with Dr Atef Alshaer and Alan Morrison, co-editors of Out of Gaza: New Palestinian Poetry, who will be reading poems from the anthology. Featuring a live music performance from renowned Manchester-Palestinian singer/songwriter Reem Kelani, accompanied by pianist Bruno Heinen.
SUNDAY 3rd Nov FIRST SESSION 9.30am-10.45am (Check out 9am)
British Muslims and British Jews –can we come together to combat Islamophobia and antisemitism?
Panel 1: Emily Hilton (Organiser & Campaigner, UK Director, Diaspora Alliance, Co-Founder Jewish NGO Na’amod)
In conversation with Dr Shamim Miah.
COFFEE
FINAL SESSION 11.15am - 12.45pm
British Muslims and British Jews –can we come together to combat Islamophobia and antisemitism?
Panel 2: Speaker: Rabbi Alexandra Wright Senior Rabbi, The Liberal Jewish Synagogue, the oldest Liberal synagogue in the UK & President of Liberal Judaism.
+ fellows roundtable facilitated by Mohammed Abdul Aziz..
LUNCH 1PM & DEPARTURE
*this timetable may be subject to change. Any changes will be announced on the Institute website.
Israel's response to the Hamas attacks on 7 October 2023 has put the political ideology of Zionism under the spotlight.
Centuries of antisemitism, expulsions and pogroms in Europe spurred some Jewish leaders to develop Zionism, a nationalist ideology whose primary call is for the creation of a separate Jewish homeland where Jews could live in safety and security. This call was magnified by the Nazi attempt to exterminate all of Europe’s Jews culminating in the Holocaust.
The British, who held a governing mandate over Palestine, endorsed the Zionist project by committing to the establishment of a homeland for the Jews. After the Second World War, and the huge expansion of Jewish immigration to Palestine, tensions between the colonial power, Jewish immigrants and the indigenous Palestinian population, led to UN partition plan that handed over the land of Palestine to the Zionist project. This quickly became, and continues to be a settler colonial project predicated on a zero-sum game of erasing the indigenous population through ethnic cleansing and military occupation, buttressed by vicious racism. The Israeli state is protected by the US, the most powerful nations on earth, seemingly regardless of what it does to the remaining Palestinian population in Gaza and the West Bank, despite commitments to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
Can the seven million Israeli Jews and seven million Israeli Arabs and Palestinians ever live together in a shared territory based on equal democratic rights and with mutual dignity?
What does our history teach us of the prospect of Palestinians and Jews living together? Can a predominantly Jewish state ever treat its non-Jewish citizens equally and with humanity? What is the new antisemitism?
Join us for a compelling weekend of talks and discussions with national and international speakers where we explore Palestinian-Jewish history, scholarship, religion and culture and imagine alternative futures of what a post-Zionist state might look like and tackle the vital question: Is a new Palestine/Israel possible?
Open to Muslim Institute fellows only.
You can become a fellow for just £10 a month and get all the benefits of membership, including four issues of Critical Muslim per year and free entry to all our events, including the annual residential Winter Gathering weekend at Sarum College, Salisbury.
Gaza photo credit: Credit: gloucester2gaza
