Settler Colonialism and Palestine: A Conversation

How is settler colonialism defined? In part, it is a mode of domination. Settlers occupy a region, permanently eliminating or displacing indigenous populations. North Americans are familiar with this phenomenon from our own continent's history, as well as the histories of Australia, South Africa and other nations. A growing number of scholars and activists propose that the creation of Israel and its expansion into occupied territories of Palestine also fits squarely within the settler colonialist frame. 

Does the settler colonialist frame help us understand what is at stake now for Palestinians, Israelis, their freedom and their chances for peace?Join us for a conversation between two leading scholars about the far-reaching impacts of settler colonialism, specifically on the Palestinian people. How does the US's involvement inform Americans' understanding of Israel's role in this crisis? Do we all live in what the Lorenzo Veracini calls “a settler colonial global present”?

Rashid Khalidi is the author of The Hundred Years' War on Palestine, Palestinian Identity, Brokers of Deceit, and The Iron Cage, among others. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and many other journals. He is the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University in New York and co-editor of the Journal of Palestine Studies.

Lorenzo Veracini is Associate Professor of History at Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne. His research focuses on the comparative history of colonial systems and settler colonialism as a mode of domination. He has authored Israel and Settler Society (2006), Settler Colonialism: A Theoretical Overview (2010), The Settler Colonial Present (2015), and The World Turned Inside Out (2021). Lorenzo co-edited The Routledge Handbook of the History of Settler Colonialism (2016), manages the settler colonial studies blog, and was Founding Editor of Settler Colonial Studies.