Focusing on the Big Picture:
Where Are We Headed in Palestine/Israel?
Held at Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church on Saturday 19 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.
Jeff Halper
Dr Jeff Halper is an Israeli anthropologist, the Director of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) and a founding member of the Palestinian-led One Democratic State Campaign.
He is the author of several books, among them: An Israeli in Palestine, on his work against the Occupation; War Against the People: Israel, the Palestinians and Global Pacification, which was shortlisted for the Palestine Book Award; and most recently, Decolonizing Israel, Liberating Palestine: Zionism, Settler Colonialism and the Case for One Democratic State.
In 2008, Jeff participated in the first (and successful) attempt of the Free Gaza Movement to break the Israeli siege by sailing into Gaza. He has served on the United Nations Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People and was a member of the international support committee of the Bertrand Russell Tribunal on Palestine. In 2006 Jeff was nominated by the American Friends Service Committee for the Nobel Peace Prize, together with the Palestinian intellectual and activist Ghassan Andoni.
Naema Wajeeh Aldaqsha
Naema Wajeeh Aldaqsha is a Postgraduate Teaching Associate and PhD researcher at the European Centre for Palestine Studies at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom. Her research focuses on the politics of representation, diplomacy, and political leadership in Palestine. Naema completed her MA in International Relations and Politics at Richmond, the American International University in London and holds a BA in English Linguistics and Literature from Al-Aqsa University in Gaza, Palestine.
With a robust background in both academia and practical experience, Naema has been working to contribute to the field of Palestinian studies. Her most recent works include an article on pro-Palestinian university encampments and a novella exploring historic Palestine. She has also accumulated valuable experience as an activist and translator in Gaza, further enriching her understanding of the socio-political dynamics in the State of Palestine.
Revd Dr Simon Woodman
Revd Dr Simon Woodman is the Minister of Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church and the Baptist Chaplain of King’s College London. Previously he lectured at Cardiff University and was a tutor and acting principal at South Wales Baptist College. Simon is not afraid to mix politics with theology and to push boundaries. He champions radical values and inclusivity while collaborating and engaging widely to bring about transformation.
Dr Livnat Konopny Decleve
Dr Livnat Konopny Decleve is a political anthropologist. She is currently affiliated with the University of Edinburgh as a British Academy International Fellow. Her PhD dissertations, accorded by Tel Aviv University, looked into perceptions of political action and sovereignty amongst Israeli Jewish left-wing activists who left Israel for political reasons and either moved abroad or to Palestinian localities in the West Bank. Her current research delves into alternative political imaginations of Jewish left-wing activists working in Israel/Palestine and abroad.
Clare Short
Clare Short, former MP whose extensive parliamentary career that began in 1983, included being appointed Secretary of State of International Development. She resigned from the Government in 2003 in opposition to the Iraq War and in 2004 she published An Honourable Deception? New Labour, Iraq, and the Misuse of Power which explained the causes of Britain’s involvement in the conflict and outlined how better decisions could have led to a different solution.
In 2006 Clare resigned the Labour whip in protest of the Blair government. She became an Independent Labour Party MP and used this position to campaign against Britain’s democratic
deficit and in favour of proportional representation. She stood down in 2010 and devoted her time to better management of urbanisation and improvement in the lives of slum-dwellers, promoting transparency in the oil, gas, and mining industries and seeking a just settlement in Palestine/Israel.
Clare is a patron of ICAHD UK.
Nick Dearden
Nick Dearden is the director of Global Justice Now and for over 20 years has campaigned against corporate globalisation and for global economic justice. Nick started his career at War on Want and went on to be corporates campaign manager at Amnesty International UK, and then director of Jubilee Debt Campaign (now Debt Justice), where he built strong relationships with campaigners in the global south. He is an author of Trade Secrets and Pharmanomics and regularly contributes political analysis to publications included The Guardian, Al Jazeera, Open Democracy, Red Pepper and Soundings journal
Conference discussion with Jeff Halper, Clare Short and Nick Dearden
A 13 minute discussion following Clare Short and Nick Dearden's individual presentations
Conference panel on the study tours
(14 minutes)
More information on the study tours is available here.