A Georgetown University faculty group advocating for Palestinian liberation held a series of academic talks about Palestine’s history and international law Sept. 2 to 5.
Georgetown’s chapter of Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine (FSJP) organized the lecture series, titled “Palestine 101,” to provide opportunities for students to learn about Palestine and Gaza at an introductory level. The four lectures covered key moments in the region’s history, important international laws and agreements and the current phase of the Israel-Hamas war.
Elliot Colla, a member of FSJP and associate professor of Arabic and Islamic studies, said the lectures aim to cover gaps in community members’ education and knowledge.
“We are giving ample space to Palestinian perspectives and Palestinian analysis, which we see that the mainstream media systematically excludes, ignores and marginalizes,” Colla told The Hoya.
Colla said FSJP designed the lectures to be accessible to attendees with all degrees of prior knowledge of Palestine.
“These lectures are really intended for people who either know a lot, but want to know more, or people who are brand new,” Colla said. “We call it ‘Palestine 101’ because really what we’re doing in these lectures is meeting the community, meeting students and faculty and staff, where they’re at.”
The first lecture, held Sept. 2, provided an overview of the history of Palestine, including its British colonization, the advent of the state of Israel and subsequent conflicts and international agreements.
Yousef Munayyer, a Palestinian American writer and political analyst who led the Sept. 2 lecture, said the British repression of the Great Revolt, a Palestinian resistance movement in the 1930s, limited Palestinian organizing capability in subsequent decades.
“Even though Palestinians were sort of the majority, and while they were at a resource disadvantage against the Zionist movement, which had support from the outside, the repression of the Great Revolt weakened Palestinian society, weakened Palestinian capacity to mobilize and, as I noted, took a lot of activists and leaders out of the scene ahead,” Munayyer said at the event.
The lectures on Wednesday and Thursday evening covered the Middle East peace process and the United States’ impact on Palestine, respectively. FSJP will host a final lecture Friday evening, titled “Divestment: Enforcing International Law in a Time of Genocide,” which makes a case for divestment from Israel.
Hosts of the events included the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS), which researches the Arab world, the justice and peace studies program, and the Institute for Policy Studies, a progressive think tank.
Colla said the lectures brought together stakeholders from across campus and Washington, D.C., to include a variety of expertise.
“Students in America live in the most resource-rich environment in history: There is more information and more good, solid information now more than ever,” Colla said. “It is also overwhelming. So we’re going to try to give students some ways to ask questions, and ways to orient yourself, to find more information.”
Colla said this year’s lectures, in comparison to a similar series FSJP held in Sept. 2024, focus more on international law and genocide.
“We have begun to appreciate the depth of genocide denial in our community,” Colla said. “There’s more of an urgency this year even than last, and we are bringing forth information with the goal that the information will help people change the situation.”
A growing body of scholars and advocates have accused Israel of genocide in its war against Hamas in Gaza, including the leading academic association of genocide scholars. Israel has consistently denied claims of genocide, often characterizing such claims as antisemitic or anti-Israel. The International Court of Justice, which rules on genocide cases, has not yet made a ruling in a case brought against Israel by South Africa.
Colla said he hopes FSJP can host more lectures at Georgetown and throughout D.C.
“We’re trying to do these classes out in the community, and we’re been working with places like to make that happen,” Colla said. “It’s just that we’re all volunteers, and we have lives and families. So ideally, we’d be doing Palestine 101 on our campus, on any campus and in the cafes and the bars at night.”