The UK government and police have taken newly repressive measures to discourage anti-genocide and anti-Zionist protests through criminalisation of the slogan ‘Globalise the Intifada’. Keir Starmer tells us that “if you stand alongside people who say ‘globalise the intifada’, you are calling for terrorism against Jews, and people who use that phrase should be prosecuted.” At least seven people have now been arrested for allegedly using the slogan in the UK alone, and the slogan is also outlawed in Germany and parts of Australia.
Starmer’s defamatory claims have already been refuted by members of BRISMES and by expert specialists working at the University of Leeds, complemented by a collective letter signed by hundreds of scholars and published online.
This event discusses what the term intifada actually means through the history of uprisings and anti-colonial resistance across the Arabic speaking world. Drawing on examples from the Palestinian intifadas of 1936, 1987 and 2000, the Iraqi Intifada of 1952, the Bahraini uprising of 1956 and numerous other struggles it will explain the significance for Palestinian liberation in particular, and why it remains such an important strategic slogan to this day.
Speakers:
- Professor Tahrir Hamdi (Director of the Arab Open University in Jordan)
- Anne Alexander (Author, Revolution is the Choice of the People: Protest and Revolt in the Middle East and North Africa)
- Dr Abdaljawad Omar (Birzeit University)
Chair: Professor Nicola Pratt (Warwick University, President BRISMES)
Our government has criminalised some public uses of the word ‘intifada’ precisely because it has deep resonance with struggles for liberation across the world. Come and find out more about the real history that this repression aims to erase and how we can turn lessons from the past into activist strategy today.
Hosted by: Protest is not Terrorism and BRISMES, co-sponsored by BRICUP
Sign up to this event here: https://actionnetwork.org/events/intifadahistory
Protest is not Terrorism 
Leave a comment