Xook k'iin - Mujeres, palabras y territorio
Present Continuous: On Palestinian Land, Labor and Economy
This is a two-day symposium on the political economy of Palestine and the reconstruction of Gaza
5. July 2025
10.00-21.00
10.00-21.00
6. July 2025
10.00-21.00
10.00-21.00
Save the Date
For free
for adults and children older than 14
in English
Amid 20 months of bombing and ongoing genocidal violence against Palestinians in Gaza, this two-day symposium seeks to critically engage with the political economy of Palestine and the violent imaginaries of some of the proposed reconstruction plans of Gaza.
Present Continuous explores the present realities of bulldozer capitalism: where real estate speculation, destruction of land, techno-centric planning, and the genocidal logics of settler colonialism converge. By tracing these patterns of capital accumulation, the symposium will attempt to reconcile how this extends legacies of colonial domination and economic, spatial control over people, land, and resources of Palestine. The program will invite participants to reflect on the role of international actors—including Western states—in structuring both the historical and ongoing dynamics of the region through long-standing structures of exploitation, de-development of Palestinian industries and agricultural production, and militarization.
Through panels, workshops, and artistic interventions, Present Continuous offers the space to discuss how the prisms of land, labor, industry, energy, and infrastructure can help us understand the economic architecture of the occupation over the past century, while reflecting on how these logics of economic domination have been resisted and are being reimagined for alternative futures.
People of all backgrounds are warmly invited to join the symposium.
Day one: Saturday, 5 July 2025
10:00 am Opening Notes
by Mohammed Abdallah and Jule Ulbricht
10:30 am Imperial Continuum: Palestine and the Region
with Sherene Seikaly and Raja Khalidi, moderated by Lama El Khatib and Joud Al Tamimi
12:00 pm Lunch
Cooking in Gaza under Genocide A Resistance of Flame and Fragrance
with the Palestinian Cooking Club
2:00 – 4:30 pm Working Sessions
Colonial Continuities: British Mandate Policies and the Foundations of Resource Extraction in Palestine
by Global South United
Against/Through Reconstruction:
Conjuring Liberated Cities in Collective Imaginations
by Sanabel Abdel Rahman
Learning from and with the Palestinian Diaspora in Berlin: Labor, Power, and Organizing
by Academic Opposition
4:30 Break
5:00 pm Political Economy of the Reconstruction Plans and Notes Towards Palestinian Liberation
with Nora Ragab (Palestine Speaks), Kareem Rabie, Mandy Turner and Mezna Qato, moderated by Sobhi Samour
7:15 pm Unsettled Earth, Study Session with Joud Al Tamimi and Lama El Khatib, and others
9:00 pm Closing
Day two: Sunday, 6 July 2025
10:30 am On Palestinian Land & Labor
with Faiq Mari, Riya al’Sanah (Workers in Palestine), and Sai Englert, moderated by Jule Ulbricht
12:30 pm Lunch
Cooking in Gaza under Genocide: A Resistance of Flame and Fragrance
with the Palestinian Cooking Club
2:30 – 4:00 pm Working Sessions
Unpacking Energy Imperialism
by WeSmellGas, Global South United & Klima4Palästina
Cartographies of Reconstruction: Remittance Routes from Berlin to Gaza
by Academic Opposition and Bard College Berlin students
4:00 pm Weapons, High-Tech, and Genocide in Gaza
with Hebatalla Taha, Dimitra Andritsou (Forensis/ Forensic Architecture), and Nabil Hamdan, moderated by Gale Raj
5:30 pm Break
6:00 pm Occupation by Infrastructure: Extractivism and the Fight for Energy Sovereignty in Palestine
with Munira Khayyat, Omar Jabary Salamanca, Mohammed Usrof, moderated by Baldeep Kaur
7:30 pm Closing remarks by Toufic Haddad
8:00 pm “Dreamscape”: Screening of short films
by students from Al-Quds Bard College and Bard College Berlin
9:00 pm Closing
