The IALIIS announces the holding of a two-day conference at Birzeit University entitled: “Palestinian Refugees: Different Generations but One Identity.”
Monday and Tuesday 21-22 November 2011
Simultaneous translation is available
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Day One: Monday, November 21, 2011
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9:30 – 10:00
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Registration
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10:00 – 11:00
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First Session: Conference Opening and UNRWA Keynote Address
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Roger Heacock, Chairperson
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Munir Qazzaz, Vice President for Community Affairs- Birzeit University: Words of Greeting. ( English) ( Arabic)
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Asem Khalil, Director, Ibrahim Abu-Lughod Institute of International Studies: Opening Speech (English) (Arabic)
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Filippo Grandi, Commissioner-General of UNRWA: Keynote Address: “Constant challenges in an evolving regional context: An UNRWA perspective on the state of Palestine refugees”
Speech in English Speech in Arabic
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Signing Ceremony of a Memorandum of Understanding between Birzeit University and UNRWA
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11:00 – 11:15
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Coffee Break
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11:15 – 13:00
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Second Session: (Trans)formation of Refugee Identity
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Asem Khalil, Birzeit University: Chairperson and Commentator
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Ilana Feldman, George Washington University: “Palestinian Refugee Experience in a Changing Humanitarian Order.”
See draft paper in English
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Mezna Qato, St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford: “Lessons in emancipation: Palestinian refugees and histories of pedagogical self-determination (1948-1958).” (via Video Conference)
See Abstract in English See abstract in Arabic
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13:00 – 14:00
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Lunch Break
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14:00 – 15:45
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Third Session: Changing Perspectives of and Approaches to Palestinian Refugees
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Alex Pollock, UNRWA: Chairperson and Commentator
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Kristine Beckerle , Yale Law School: “Pity versus Rights’ Recognition: Rejection of the Victim Label by Palestinian Refugees.”
See draft paper in English
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Sari Hanafi, American University of Beirut, Flexible Citizenship and the Inflexible Nation-State: “New Framework for Appraising the Palestinian Diaspora’s Movements.” (via Video Conference)
See draft paper in Arabic
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Day Two: Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011
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9:30 – 10:00
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Registration
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10:00 – 10:45
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Forth Session: Palestinian Refugee Identity
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Islah Jad, Birzeit University: Chairperson
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Rosemary Sayigh, American University of Beirut, (Keynote Speaker): “Palestinian refugee identity and identities: strategy, generation, class, region.”
See draft paper in English
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10:45-11:00
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Coffee Break
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11:00 – 12:45
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Fifth Session: Comparing Experiences of Refugeehood
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Marwan Khawaja, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), Beirut, Lebanon. Chairperson.
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12:45 – 13:45
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Lunch Break
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13:45 – 15:45
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Sixth Session: Diaspora, State and the 'Return' Paradigm
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Esmat Zaidan, Birzeit University: Chairperson and Commentator
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15:45-16:00
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Seventh Session: Concluding remarks
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Dr. Magid Shihade, Birzeit University: Report on the Conference
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Concept Note on The Conference of the Ibrahim Abu-Lughod Institute of International Studies
The concept of the refugee, as associated with the Palestinian case, is not limited to those who were actually displaced from historical Palestine during the nakba of 1948 in addition to those driven out during the Israeli invasion of June 1967 (the naksa). Palestinian refugees include successive generations of descendants of the first refugees. Nor is one speaking of Palestinian camp residents only, since many Palestinians left these camps to reside elsewhere in countries of first asylum or emigrated and today reside in the Diaspora. Any serious study must also include those formally described as internally displaced, having been forbidden from returning to their original homes without being driven over the borders of the state of Israel.
The conference will deal with Palestinian refugees under this broad definition, taking into account their material, social, psychological and cultural conditions in a comparative context, with the aim of identifying changes over time, and from one generation to another. Comparative studies will be made between those living within and outside of refugee camps, and as between regions and countries of residence, and between Palestine and other cases in the world.
Conference organizers are therefore calling for papers dealing with such questions as:
1. In what ways can various generations of refugees, whether or not they are camp residents, be distinguished from non-refugees?
2. In what ways does the treatment of Palestinian refugees vary from one host country to another, and within the near and far Diaspora, and why?
3. What characterizes the life of refugees, including “displaced persons,” and what significant differences does one find within various areas of historical Palestine?
4. What useful comparisons can be made between the Palestinian case and others, worldwide?
The working hypothesis to be tested by the conference is that Palestinian refugees, six decades after the nakba, continue to share characteristics across geographical borders and socio-economic categories, in complex intellectual, social and psychological ways. They are also by and large subjected to particular conditions with regard to such matters as health, education and labor. These characteristics distinguish them from Palestinian non-refugees.
Results of research prepared for and discussed at the conference is of intrinsic interest as it tests the very assumptions on which work has been carried out so far. Conference deliberations and publications should, for their medium- and long-term implications, also attract the attention of experts and decision makers in the run-up to the creation of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state within the June, 1967 borders. And more immediately, they have implications regarding the provision of services and needs to Palestinians, notably in the field of protection, at a time when UNRWA, for example, is facing a grave financial crisis.
This exemplary comparative and trans-disciplinary conference is intended to benefit from the broadest possible contributions of local and international experts and expand the scope of refugee studies in Palestine and worldwide.
