Columbia University
Center for Palestine Studies
Educational Program: Palestine In Between
From 2020-2022, LIFTA x CPS (Columbia Center for Palestine Studies) Presented: ‘Palestine, IN-BETWEEN’, a semester-long program that explored contemporary Palestinian cultures and yearnings across generations in Palestine and its diaspora.
Through media including live panels, original videos, podcasts, essays, film screenings, and social media campaigns, ‘Palestine, IN-BETWEEN,’ spotlighted the untold and unfamiliar. It gave precedent to the under-celebrated; the agents of design who draft and re-draft blueprints for present-day liberation.
‘Palestine, IN-BETWEEN’ was an ode to the powers of self-freedom and agency that breathe life into all beings, unbound from restrictions imposed by states and systems. Its content helped to lay the foundation for desired futures by rejecting the projections of a homogenous Palestinian experience and deconstructing the often flattened Palestinian identity.
This program was presented by: CPS + LIFTA Volumes with Lena Mansour and Cher Asad.
Palestine IN-BETWEEN was co-sponsored by The Society of Fellows and Heyman Center for the Humanities and the Center for Archaeology.
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Learn more about the program at the CPS Program page or at PALESTINEINBETWEEN.COM
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FEATURED PROGRAMMING:
*LOVE & INTIMACY VIDEO SERIES:
Short intimate interviews and conversations that center intergenerational outlooks on love and intimacy in Palestine and the diaspora, with discussions highlighting—but not limited to— disconnects, desires, relationships, trauma, teaching, learning, and beyond.
View the series here!
*FILM SCREENINGS:
-‘Mussolini’s Sister’ by Juna Suleiman
-‘Trouble in Paradise’ and ‘Moonscape’ by Mona Benyamin
*PODCASTS:
-EP1: Sustainable Farming Practices in Palestine
We present a podcast exploring land and food politics throughout Palestine. We'll discuss the unique challenges faced by farmers within the Occupied West Bank's Area C, ancestral agricultural Palestinian practices being revived today, agroecology, and how sustainable farming can be a path to food sovereignty for Palestinians.
-EP2: Criminal Foods
We explore the criminalization of three popular edible plants within Palestine with our guest Rabea Eghbariah. Zaatar, akkoub, and miramiya are staples in Palestinian cuisine, and yet there is currently a legal ban on their picking, possession, and trade. We discuss these plants' cultural and economic history within Palestine and the history and significance of their prohibition by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority.
-EP3: The Black Goat Act
We explore the “Black Goat Act” with Rabea Eghbariah. The Black Goat Act, imposed by the Israeli government in 1950, criminalized the possession and herding of black goats, targeting the most abundant livestock animal in Palestine and centuries-old farming tradition. We discuss the different ways Israel has used and enforced this legislation throughout history to further its agenda of Palestinian erasure and dispossession.
*SPECIAL FEATURES:
-Parallax Haifa by Lama Suleiman
-‘Taking Leila Home’ by Solenne Tadros
-In Conversation with Al Ameen Archive
-‘Palestinian Wild Food Plants’ with Omar Imseeh Tesdelle
-'Palestine is Southern Syria: On Palestinian Solidarity with Jawlani Communities' by Muna Dajani, Alaa Iktaish, Bassel Rizqallah and Diaa Ali Hroub
*LIVE PANELS:
-On Palestinian Film: Mona Benyamin x Juna Suleiman x Nadiq Yaqub
-Palestinian feminist discourses: contemporary views and emerging movements with Riya Al'Sanah, Nour Swirki, Yara Hawari and Ghadir al Shafie, Moderated by Aamer Ibraheem
-‘Nothing Old, Nothing New’ with Bilna'es / Elias Wakeem, Freya Dutta, Ruanne Abou-Rahme (Moderator)
-‘Parallax Haifa: Stories of Everyday Parallel Spaces and Times’ with Lama Suleiman and Nadine Fattaleh
The Mosaic Rooms
Educational Takeover
From June 15-19th, 2020, we took over the Mosaic Rooms’ digital presence.
People are rising up against a historical and continuous process of subjugation and violence. What is the relationship of resistance to the imaginary and the ideas of possibility? Resistance, at its core, is a response to lived realities while engaging, and creating, parallel realities. And if this resistance exists on a continuum, how do we acknowledge history without relegating it to the past? How do we bring it into our approach to resistance and solidarity in the present? These are some of the threads that inform the way we envision alternative futures.’
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Learn more about the program here.
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This program included:
- A visual annexation diary that explains the drip-down effects of annexation on Palestine by Maen Hammad
- Anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist material situated by Orsod Malik within a contemporary context
-Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4
-Live Conversation: LIFTA x ORSOD
- Testimonies of African Palestinians in Jerusalem pulled from A Historiography on Fatima Bernawi & the African Palestinians of the Old City by Edan Mehretu
-Part 1 / Part 2
Printed Matter
Educational Takeover
On November 22, 2020, Printed Matter hosted a video and conversation created by LIFTA featuring content from ‘Volume I: Future Palestine.’
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Learn more about the program here.
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This program included:
- A video by Mooni Studio
- A conversation with the co-founders of LIFTA
BLZE LLC / 2024