Spore Hosts: Public Launch of the Association of Palestinian and Jewish Academics

The association includes researchers and teachers with expertise in the histories, religions, laws, politics and cultures of the region, as well as of Palestinian and Jewish diasporic cultures. Our collaboration is built upon our lived experiences, professional expertise, and ethical commitments.

Partition has defined life in Palestine/ Israel for almost a century. Palestinians and Jews have often been framed as adversaries. In Germany in particular, we are experiencing increasingly repressive state policies that include censorship, harassment and defamation, including threats to residence status or loss of employment. Against the violence of this positioning, we assert our intellectual, political, and ethical solidarity with each other.

For our launch, members of the Association will provide brief inputs on such topics as culture and memory; genocide, apartheid and settler colonialism; and antisemitism and anti-Palestinian racism. We will also discuss the origins of our group and outline our founding principles. 

With: Michael Barenboim (Barenboim-Said Akademie), Islam Dayeh (Ghent University), Aurélia Kalisky (Centre Marc Bloch/ Saarland University), Sami Khatib (Orient Institute Beirut), Tyme Khleifi (Barenboim-Said Akademie), Elad Lapidot (University of Lille), Tamar Novick (Humboldt University of Berlin), Jesse Olszynko-Gryn (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science), Nahed Samour (Radboud University Nijmegen), Marc Siegel (Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz), Hanan Toukan (Bard College Berlin (on leave 24’-25’), and Hannah Tzuberi (Freie Universität Berlin).