There is a place in my heart where gratitude is a neighbor to everyone
And Zeba is there And Fariha is there And Tsige is there And Saul is there And Warsan is there And Carmen is there And Usha is there And Sundi is there And Soof is there And Islam is there
There is a place in my heart where gratitude is a neighbor to everyone And Zeba is there And Fariha is there And Tsige is there And Saul is there And Warsan is there And Carmen is there And Usha is there And Sundi is there And Sho is there And Soof is there And Islam is there As a matter of fact, Islam built it. And Hanine is there. And Dina is there. And Yoon is there. And everyone unrelenting and well-intentioned is welcome.
Over the past 5 days I watched as over 400 people signed up to see Islam Kamal and Dr. Hanine Shehadeh speak at the Palestinian Digital Worlds event. Only half of the people who signed up made it to the actual Zoom session and it still felt fuller than I could have anticipated. Islam Kamal tuned in from Ramallah in Palestine; Dr. Shehadeh from Beirut; Carmen and Usha from Palo Alto; countless others from as far and wide as South Africa and Tanzania and India and Egypt and Malaysia and a long list of European countries & territories that honestly disinterest me but still count for something.
I’m so used to virtual events being recorded that I forgot how much of a treasure it is to have to be all the way attentive because you know the only record that will exist of what you’re listening is what you extend yourself to actually digest in the moment. And what fed me was the commitment evident throughout–Dr. Shehadeh and Islam Kamal’s confessions to heartache and panic attacks and the borderlands of tears and not giving up. Still sharing, still archiving, still making sense of it, still showing up to tell the tale. To share in that is nothing short of humbling. Thank you to everyone who showed up, to everyone who is hurting and still committed. Thank you to everyone in the poem above for their sharing and caring and not giving up.
I am still processing all of what was exchanged, but I wanted to share out the links that came up in the Zoom chat for people who weren’t able to make it to the event to sift through, quoting the email that Carmen sent out (if you’re reading this, feel free to join the listserv to keep up with future events in the Stanford Humanities Center’s CPADA workshop series):
“Our speakers’ (Dr. Hanine Shehadeh and Islam Kamal) thought-provoking talks inspired many in the audience to share resources, articles, links, Instagram pages, etc—which, as requested, I have compiled below for your perusal. I have also attached Dr. Shehadeh’s article, “Palestine in the Cloud”. Please feel free to send anything I’m missing my way for further circulation!
Palestinian Museum Digital Archive: https://palarchive.org/
Email address for Islam Kamal’s organization: [reach out if you’d like to contact Kamal, I won’t include their email in this post in the interest of safety]
Librarians and Archivists with Palestine (LAP): https://librarianswithpalestine.org/
One of our audience members’ collation of resources: https://www.are.na/sab-roman/archiving-palestine-frouo5lkrz4
Palestinian Oral History Archive (POHA): https://www.aub.edu.lb/ifi/Pages/poha.aspx
Preservation of narratives from Kalk Bay, a fishing village in Cape Town, South Africa: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-05-14-walking-through-kalk-bays-history/
On the conversation of using AR and VR to archive, The Subterranean Imprint Archive which uses VR to counter-archive the legacy of technopolitics in Central and Southern Africa: https://francoisknoetze.com/subterranean-imprint-archive/
The Accountability Archive: https://www.accountabilityarchive.org/
Instagram account propagandavstruth: https://www.instagram.com/propagandavstruth/
Poets mentioned in the chat: Mahmoud Darwish, Mourid Barghouti
On Judith Butler… : https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v45/n20/judith-butler/the-compass-of-mourning [CW: ‘do you condemn . . .’ ]
Sophistication of state violence with Prof Joy James:”
One last link I would add is this Al Jazeera documentary I came across this week that helped me visualize the longevity of Palestine’s liberation struggle (for context, the Palestinian Museum Digital Archive is one of the sources that Al Jazeera uses for their archival footage! Yet another testament to the impact of Islam Kamal’s work):
To quote Dr. Shehadeh again:
“Over the last two decades, social media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter have been utilized to report and document events occurring in Palestine in real time. Through these platforms, the world was made aware of Israeli settler-colonial practices such as land annexation, exploitation, confinement, and military attacks. In addition to exposure, these platforms were also used to coordinate and mobilize both local and international protests. Palestinians and their allies around the world have made social media a central weapon not only in the narrative fight against Israel internationally, but, more importantly, also in the national revival of the rightfulness of the Palestinian plight. This has resulted in the propagation of Palestinian resistance in all its forms as Palestinians were using applications to coordinate actions among themselves (Ward 2021). . .
The Internet has facilitated the formation of a Palestinian identity in cyberspace, unlocking its expressive and liberating potential. This has resulted in a fundamental shift in how local events are disseminated in the global Palestinian public sphere, with the Internet serving as a critical building block in this process.” – Palestine in the Cloud
I left today’s event wondering:
What if the posts don’t die down?
What if the internet, itself a floating ‘homeland’ to many, is also amongst the colonized territories destined to be liberated through the domino effect catalyzed by Palestine?
What if we revive other internets along the way?
With Love & In Solidarity,
Neema 🤍
This session was such a balm. Generous and revelatory and sifting and communal. I was left with very similar (hope-filled) questions to those at the end of your post. Thank you for sharing the link to the session, and the resources, and for all you do. 🍉