Thursday, September 28th, 2023 at 12 PM ET - Featuring EMET’s Hussein Aboubakr, Director of our Program for Emerging Democratic Voices from The Middle East
Each year, Palestinian activists flood college campuses and public spaces to call attention the Nakba—the idea, presented as historical fact, that Palestinian society was destroyed and over 700,000 Palestinians were displaced from their homes when the state of Israel came into being. Jews inflicted a grave injustice on the Palestinians, so the narrative goes, and in the name of righting that wrong, protest, revolution, and even violence are warranted.
Since 1948, the Nakba has been a rallying cry for Arab adversaries of Israel. As Hussein Aboubakr showed in his feature essay this month, each generation of Arab leaders and intellectuals has turned to the Nakba as a unifying political force in the Arab world, with hopes that it could motivate Arabs to improve their societies and ultimately overcome the Jewish state.
To think more about the Nakba's appeal in both the Arab and Western minds, and to discuss how these narratives have developed over time, we've invited Aboubakr to speak with Ghaith al-Omari, a former advisor to Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, and Mosaic editor Jonathan Silver.
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And here is the Zoom link for the event. We look forward to seeing you on Thursday.
