The 73rd SGRA Forum: Palestine and the Wall Between Us

The 73rd SGRA Forum will take place as a hybrid event as per the details below. Please register for the event if you wish to attend.

 

Title: Palestine and the Wall Between Us

 

Date/Time: June 25, 2024 (Tuesday) / 17:30 to 19:00 (followed by dinner reception*)

 

How to attend: In person or via Zoom webinar

 

Venue: Showa Women’s University, Central Administrative Building, 3F (Building labeled “AB” on the campus map. Please enter through the Main Gate.)

 

Language: English and Japanese, with simultaneous interpretation **

 

Registration: Please register via this link

 

* Please join us for the dinner reception with Palestinian food after the event (free).

 

** Simultaneous interpretation will be done via Zoom. If you are participating at the venue and need interpretation, please bring your own device (smartphone, laptop, etc) and earphones. 

 

Contact: SGRA Office ([email protected])

 

 

About the Forum

The ongoing conflict in Palestine is often described as “too complicated” to understand. This characterization can be seen as a myth that aims to foster indifference towards a conflict that has been going on for more than 75 years. This event seeks to unravel these complexities by examining the situation through an objective and humanitarian lens, emphasizing why it should matter to everyone. Through insightful presentations and discussions with experts, Palestinians, and students actively involved in pro-Palestinian movements, we hope to shed light on the importance of addressing this issue and the various barriers encountered along the way.  

 

The term “wall” in this context carries profound significance. It represents not only the physical barrier due to apartheid and colonization in Palestinian territories but also the invisible wall that stifles open discussion and suppresses free speech on this topic. Students worldwide are breaking these invisible barriers through protests and activism, sparking necessary public debate and bringing fresh perspectives to the forefront. 

 

This event aims to provide participants with a comprehensive understanding of the Palestinian cause, exploring both local and global perspectives. Attendees will gain new insights and consider diverse approaches to address the issue.

 

Program

17:30

Opening (MC: Aqil Cheddadi, Keio University, Visiting Lecturer)
Opening Remarks (Junko Imanishi, Atsumi Foundation/SGRA Representative)

 

17:35

Presentation 1: Hani Abdelhadi (Meiji University, Senior Assistant Professor)
Basics of the Question of Palestine: Revisiting the Historical and Political Compositions (JP)

 

18:05

Presentation 2: Weam Numan (Tokyo Institute of Technology, Graduate Student)
Architecture of Control: How Built Environment is a Weapon of Colonization (EN)

 

18:20

Presentation 3: Takami Mizokawa (Waseda University, Undergraduate Student)
Student, Queer and Environmental Activists Taking a Stand: Pro-Palestine Movements in
Tokyo Since October 2023 (JP)

 

18:35

Q&A and Discussion (JP/EN)
Moderator: Yoshiaki Tokunaga (JSPS Postdoctoral Researcher, Nihon University)
Online Q&A Facilitator: Lifu Guo (Tsukuba University, Assistant Professor)

 

19:00　Close / Dinner reception

 

Presentation Abstracts

Presentation 1: Hani Abdelhadi (Meiji University, Senior Assistant Professor)
Basics of the Question of Palestine: Revisiting the Historical and Political Compositions

Currently, movements in solidarity with the Palestinian people are taking place all over the world, with many participants in Japanese society. However, in order to realise not only a ‘ceasefire’ but also justice beyond that, it is also important to have a long-term perspective that leads to structural and essential changes. The primary importance for this is to act in line with justice, backed up by knowledge and logic, not only sympathy. For this reason, the aim of this event is not to explain the latest developments and new facts, but rather to explain the long and complex history of the Palestinian issue and the important and basic points for understanding the current political composition of the situation, and to reconfirm the foundations that all people should share.

 

Presentation 2: Weam Numan (Tokyo Institute of Technology, Graduate Student)
Architecture of Control: How Built Environment is a Weapon of Colonization

Architecture is the physical manifestation of politics. It not only encapsulates the designer’s perspective of the world around them, but can also be used as an apparatus for political control. This is very clearly exhibited in the colonial architecture of the west bank and Gaza, but also invisibly in the public spaces that have been the chosen locations for Pro-Palestine protests in Tokyo and around the world.

In this talk we attempt to draw parallels between the architectural apparatuses that contribute to the daily oppression and control of Palestinians, and the comparable yet understated apparatuses of architectural control in public spaces around the world.

 

Presentation 3: Takami Mizokawa (Waseda University, Undergraduate Student)
Student, Queer and Environmental Activists Taking a Stand: Pro-Palestine Movements in Tokyo Since October 2023

Since October 2023, various groups such as students, the queer community, and environmental activists have been joining Palestinians in Japan to call for ceasefire as well as the liberation of Palestine through demonstrations and events. Through presenting cases from Tokyo, this presentation looks at the activities of these groups over the past 7 months, and considers how they address the issue of Palestine/Israel.

 

Speakers

Hani Abdelhadi

Ph.D. (Media and Governance), Keio University. Senior assistant professor at Meiji University / member of the board of directors of the Tokyo Camii Institute. His major publications include “The Impasse on Solutions for the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict” and “The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict in Islamic Law.”

 

Weam Numan

Weam is a Palestinian Jordanian Architect and game environment designer who was born to a father from Tulkarem, Palestine, and a mother from Yafa Palestine. Weam graduated her master’s program from Tokyo Institute of Technology where she is currently balancing between researching the influences of virtual game architecture on cognition, and advocacy for Palestine. Having worked in the game industry for 5 years in Jordan, Europe, and America, she is currently working as a 3D Environment artist in Japan.

 

Takami Mizokawa

Undergraduate student at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Waseda University majoring in Middle Eastern and Islamic studies. His research focuses on queer issues in Arabic literature and the Arabian sphere. He is also a translator and involved in pro-Palestinian activism.

 

Aqil Cheddadi

Aqil Cheddadi is a licensed architect and a visiting lecturer (full-time) at the faculty of Policy Management at Keio University Shonan Fujisawa Campus. He received his MArch from the Moroccan National School of Architecture in Rabat, and obtained his master’s in Media & Governance from Keio University. He was a scholarship recipient from the Atsumi Foundation in 2022. His research focuses on informal and emergent practices of city-making, including slums and historic towns of Morocco, as a case study.

 

Yoshiaki Tokunaga

Yoshiaki Tokunaga is a JSPS Postdoctoral Researcher at Nihon University. He received the Atsumi Scholarship and completed a doctoral program in area studies at the University of Tokyo (Ph.D. 2024). His research focuses on the political and legal history of Modern Iran. He has also published articles on the development of parliamentary system in the 1920s such as “Between Parliamentary Control and Fiscal Discipline: The General Budget Act for 1303/ 1924-25 (1925) on the Eve of Pahlavi Rule,” Middle Eastern Studies 59(6).

 

Lifu Guo

Lifu Guo is an Assistant Professor in the Bureau of Human Empowerment, the University of Tsukuba. They graduated from the Department of Area Studies, the University of Tokyo. Their research focuses on feminism and queer studies, especially the gender and sexual politics in modern mainland China. Recent publications include “Medals and Conspiracies: Chinese and Japanese Online Trans-Exclusionary Discourses during the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games,” Kazuyoshi Kawasaka & Stephan Würrer (Eds.) Beyond Diversity: Queer Politics, Activism and Representation in Contemporary Japan, Düsseldorf University Press, pp.117-135, 2024.