Focusing on the Big Picture: Where Are We Headed in Palestine/Israel?
Held at The Quaker Meeting House, Edinburgh on Saturday 26 October 2024
Israel’s war on Gaza captured the world’s attention. It revealed how complicit Western nations are in allowing Israel’s genocide to continue without regard for international law. It also brought millions of people of all ages and backgrounds out onto the streets, and university students out of classes and into campus encampments. At last Palestine has become a global issue connecting many other struggles.
However, Palestinians and Palestine remain under threat. Even as we are focused on Gaza, we cannot lose sight of the bigger political picture: collusion among Israel, the US and Saudi Arabia to “normalize” Israel’s apartheid regime over all of historic Palestine in their larger geopolitical interests of ensuring Western hegemony over the Middle East in face of Iranian threats and Chinese inroads.
The ICAHD UK conferences in London and Edinburgh evaluated the tragic and dramatic developments in Palestine/Israel over the past year. With the focus on the Big Picture, we asked what is our push-back? How are the Palestinians and their allies ratcheting up their struggle for Palestinian rights?
Central to the Conferences was the release of ICAHD’s new reframing document putting the reality of Palestine into a settler colonial - apartheid context.
The conference was also sponsored by Scottish Palestine Forum whose secretary, Jan Benvie, provided the welcome.
First Session
Focusing on the Big Picture: Where Are We Headed in Palestine/Israel? Speakers for Session One were Jeff Halper, Director, ICAHD and Daoud Ghoul, a Human Geography PhD student at Newcastle University, originally from Silwan, Jerusalem.
Second Session
Session Two - Focusing on the Big Picture: Can the Media Be Mobilized Against Israeli Apartheid and for Palestinian Rights? Maria Pallister – Journalist, author and chair of Pax Christi Scotland Jan Benvie, Secretary, Scottish Palestine Forum
Third Session
Session Three - Focusing On The Big Picture: How Can Popular Mobilization Be Made Into An Effective Instrument for Changing Government Policy? Livnat Konopny-Decleve - political anthropologist, currently affiliated with the University of Edinburgh, anti-Zionist Israeli Jew. Misha Vides – Jewish student activist from Edinburgh University