The Palestine Festival of Literature Hosts a Unique Conversation on “Surviving Colonialism” in Jerusalem

“Surviving Colonialism,” a panel discussion organized as part of the five-day Palestine Festival for Literature, could not have been better timed for the audience that gathered in the new garden of Nordic Café in East Jerusalem on May 21.

The event, part of the 2023 program of the Palestine Festival of Literature under theme of “Palestine & the Global South,” came just days after “Jerusalem Day,” where Israeli nationalists wielding a sea of Israeli flags stampeded through the Old City for the annual “Flag March” to celebrate Israel’s victory in the 1967 War, shouting racist and violent chants against Palestinians. The event is clearly intended to show who is in control of Jerusalem.

Away from the turbulent action scenes, the literature event was held in  a calm atmosphere, where the audience in East Jerusalem held its collective breath while listening to the powerful words of the eloquent speakers.

The panelists know a thing or two about colonial control and resistance, and each made connections between the causes in their respective places of residence and the struggles of Palestinians against Israeli colonialism.

The discussion highlighted how the mere existence of Indigenous people under colonialism has much to teach us about perseverance in the face of violence. The works and reflections of all three writers demonstrate the collective struggle for survival, knowledge, art, and resistance.

Eve Ewing, an African American writer, scholar, and cultural organizer from Chicago, read excerpts from her collection, 1919, which powerfully expresses the ways in which brutal racial violence in Chicago leaves its marks on Black bodies. Her assertion that some parts of the city are too dangerous for African Americans to go to resonates with the experiences of Palestinians in Jerusalem (and many other places in occupied Palestine). She expressed the longing to find a place of shelter, “a place to die,” and “a place to live.”

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, a Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg scholar, writer, and musician from Canada, read excerpts from her works that called for fighting against capitalism and colonialism. As a member of a First Nations group, she explained that dispossession in the name of capitalism does not happen haphazardly; rather, it is a calculated system designed to remove the Indigenous person from the land.

Zukiswa Wanner, a South African novelist, editor, and curator from Johannesburg, shared the parallels of apartheid and racial segregation that she found between South Africa and Palestine. She apologized for the Afrikaaners of South Africa who have become the settlers of Palestinian territories today. Like the other speakers, she spoke up about the dangers of land expropriation (by investors, colonials, and capitalists) in erasing the lives and presence of the Indigenous people.

The panel was moderated by Mahdi Sabbagh, a writer, architect, and urbanist from Jerusalem.

It is essential for the oppressed to envision a different world, the panelists asserted. Change begins with an act of the imagination.

Even if our generation may not live to see this future ourselves, Ewing shared, it is important to stay committed to “seeing something that seems impossible. This is the only way out.” People have to imagine and practice “the ways we want to relate to each other, and the ways we want to treat each other.”

As Simpson described it, a better world is one where our “great-grandchildren know what respect feels like.” It is a world where they are “valued, heard, and cherished.” An important link ultimately connects grandparents and grandchildren. Aki, which is Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe) for “the land” that gives life, gifts us with natural resources, and people are thus called to give more than to take—by means of reciprocal care for all living things.

As the audience was encouraged to think about the wisdom and generosity of the land, the local Muslim call to prayer—adhan—could be heard in the distance, a happy melding of various spiritual traditions.

The writers seemed to agree on what is important: people have a duty to show up and to do what is ethical. The mission of writers, filmmakers, and overall creative types is to persist on daring to imagine a better world through storytelling. It is a call to fight and refuse domination, while generating alternatives and working in organized groups collectively. There is much to learn from one another. It is important to amplify our voices: These voices are powerful; otherwise, there would not be such a deliberate effort to silence them.

The evening of poetry, experience-sharing, and prayer left the audience with a sense of hope. That a five-day literature festival was even planned and executed speaks volumes about the tenacity of Palestinians to persist in the face of state violence.

The Palestine Festival of Literature started in 2008 as an annual event where international authors are invited to address audiences and hold workshops in various Palestinian cities alongside local authors in a weeklong series of free public events that travels all around historic Palestine. Over the years, the speakers have experienced teargas and attacks; and at times, including in Jerusalem, scheduled events were shut down by authorities. This year’s festival included workshops, film screenings, and panel discussions in Haifa, East Jerusalem, Nablus, Ramallah, and Bethlehem from May 20 to 25.