Who are the Palestinians? What Constitutes Palestine?

March 3, 6:30pm-8:00 pm

Donations Appreciated

This lecture is an introduction to the plight of the Palestinians. It shares reflections by a third-generation Palestinian whose family was forcibly evicted from their home in Zirin (a village that was demolished by Israeli armed forces in 1948) to a refugee camp in Jenin. The story of this family and more than at-the-time 750,000 other Palestinians, is known in the collective memory of Palestinians as the “Nakaba.” After almost 19 years spent in a Jenin refugee camp, after another Israeli invasion in 1967, the family, like many others, was forced to move again to Jordan, where the survivors of that exodus continue to live today. Their stories are the story of people made homeless and stateless.

Ibtesam Al Atiyat is an Associate professor of Sociology at St. Olaf College. Prior to that she served as acting director of the United Nations University/International Leadership Institute in Amman, Jordan and as program director of the Jordanian National commission for women. Al Atiyat received her PhD from Freie Universitart in Berlin, Germany. She completed her post-doctoral work in Sweden and the U.S. Kettering Foundation in Deliberate Democracy. Her research focused on social justice, post colonialism and the Middle East. She is the granddaughter of a Palestinian family who was displaced twice.