An-Najah Hosts Digital Video Conference with Eastern Washington University
28 October 2009
Nablus - On Wednesday, the Research Journalism Initiative (RJI) facilitated a videoconference between An Najah National University and Eastern Washington University in the United States. The conference, which explored themes of poetry and identity, was RJI’s second of the semester and part of an ongoing cooperation between An Najah and Eastern Washington University.
Participants read their own poetry as well as the work of Palestine’s best known poets. Students discussed the role of poetry in expressions of Arab culture and the imperative contributions poets have made to the Palestinian national movement. “Without poetry and literature, we would have lost everything,” said An Najah student Ahmad Qabha. “The poets were our guards. Words protected us from colonialism and from the Occupation.” Beesan Ramadan, student of the Faculty of Economics, highlighted how in its formative years, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) combined the beauty and insight of poetry with the popularity of music radio to inspire millions. By these efforts, she said, entire generations of Palestine came to learn the lyrics of its most talented poets. And while the tradition of poetry in Arab culture certainly predates the Palestinian national movement, this era ensures that Palestinian poetry will span well into the future. Participants talked at length about Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish, in particular. When asked how Darwish came to be regarded as the national poet of Palestine, RJI Program Manager, Falastine Dwikat explained it did not happen overnight. She said that Darwish’s early support was enough to earn an election to the PLO. However, in the subsequent period he suffered disillusionment, which eventually led to his resignation. “Only then,” Dwikat said, “did he begin to speak for us all.” The event also featured a reading of the work of RJI Academic Advisor, Sa’ed Abu Hijleh. During the discussion that followed, students of An Najah contextualized the term “martyr” and explored the sense of joint identity that characterizes their national movement. This, in turn, led to questions about collective identity in the United States. Regarding the US Civil Rights Movement, students of Eastern Washington University admitted that they did not feel as connected to the period as they should, and suggested that as a society, perhaps the US suffers from a short memory. Dwikat challenged this assumption. “The more a person’s national identity is under threat,” she offered, “the more it becomes a part of your personal identity.” Skyler, a student at Eastern Washington University, agreed. Referring to the American experiences of September 11th and the recent presidential election he observed, “Deep divisions between liberals and conservatives made people on both sides feel more American. I worked on the Barack Obama campaign,” he continued. “When Obama won, it was the first time in a long while that I felt proud to be American.” In true Palestinian form, students of An Najah closed the session with improvised music, sharing the poetry of Mahmoud Darwish made famous by Palestinian musician Marcel Khalife. “My homeland, I’ve already chosen you,” they sang. “Let my time and world deny me, as long as you remember me.” RJI’s program at An Najah National University in Nablus is designed to provide new opportunities for cooperation between Palestinian students and their counterparts across the world. RJI is a project of the Assistant to the President for International and Strategic Affairs at An Najah National University and is hosted as an independent global studies initiative at the Korean-Palestinian IT Institute for Excellence. RJI’s next videoconference, “Women in Leadership,” will begin at 4:15pm on Wednesday, November 11th in the Old Campus Library. Please contact RJI Program Manager Falastine Dwikat for more information: [email protected].
Participants read their own poetry as well as the work of Palestine’s best known poets. Students discussed the role of poetry in expressions of Arab culture and the imperative contributions poets have made to the Palestinian national movement. “Without poetry and literature, we would have lost everything,” said An Najah student Ahmad Qabha. “The poets were our guards. Words protected us from colonialism and from the Occupation.” Beesan Ramadan, student of the Faculty of Economics, highlighted how in its formative years, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) combined the beauty and insight of poetry with the popularity of music radio to inspire millions. By these efforts, she said, entire generations of Palestine came to learn the lyrics of its most talented poets. And while the tradition of poetry in Arab culture certainly predates the Palestinian national movement, this era ensures that Palestinian poetry will span well into the future. Participants talked at length about Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish, in particular. When asked how Darwish came to be regarded as the national poet of Palestine, RJI Program Manager, Falastine Dwikat explained it did not happen overnight. She said that Darwish’s early support was enough to earn an election to the PLO. However, in the subsequent period he suffered disillusionment, which eventually led to his resignation. “Only then,” Dwikat said, “did he begin to speak for us all.” The event also featured a reading of the work of RJI Academic Advisor, Sa’ed Abu Hijleh. During the discussion that followed, students of An Najah contextualized the term “martyr” and explored the sense of joint identity that characterizes their national movement. This, in turn, led to questions about collective identity in the United States. Regarding the US Civil Rights Movement, students of Eastern Washington University admitted that they did not feel as connected to the period as they should, and suggested that as a society, perhaps the US suffers from a short memory. Dwikat challenged this assumption. “The more a person’s national identity is under threat,” she offered, “the more it becomes a part of your personal identity.” Skyler, a student at Eastern Washington University, agreed. Referring to the American experiences of September 11th and the recent presidential election he observed, “Deep divisions between liberals and conservatives made people on both sides feel more American. I worked on the Barack Obama campaign,” he continued. “When Obama won, it was the first time in a long while that I felt proud to be American.” In true Palestinian form, students of An Najah closed the session with improvised music, sharing the poetry of Mahmoud Darwish made famous by Palestinian musician Marcel Khalife. “My homeland, I’ve already chosen you,” they sang. “Let my time and world deny me, as long as you remember me.” RJI’s program at An Najah National University in Nablus is designed to provide new opportunities for cooperation between Palestinian students and their counterparts across the world. RJI is a project of the Assistant to the President for International and Strategic Affairs at An Najah National University and is hosted as an independent global studies initiative at the Korean-Palestinian IT Institute for Excellence. RJI’s next videoconference, “Women in Leadership,” will begin at 4:15pm on Wednesday, November 11th in the Old Campus Library. Please contact RJI Program Manager Falastine Dwikat for more information: [email protected].
