An international Conference | 4-5 October 2025 | University of Macedonia | Thessaloniki - Greece
Apart from their geopolitical implications, recent developments in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict have ignited intense discussion, particularly within academic and intellectual circles throughout the world. There is a widening gap between opposing interpretive communities, with evident power imbalances: in parts of the West, critiques of Israel's destruction of Gaza may be conflated with antisemitism, with significant repercussions. In the US in particular, the presidents of Penn and Harvard Universities were compelled to resign over accusations of "tolerating antisemitism," while in Germany, the traditionally stringent policy regarding public criticisms of Israel has impacted university life, resulting in the termination of contracts for some academics expressing solidarity with Palestinians. At the same time, although all relevant documents by the International Court of Justice and the UN Secretary General highlight the ongoing occupation of Palestinian territories by Israel, only non-European countries have been vocal in their critiques of Israeli policies, with some even advocating for the suspension of diplomatic relations. In December 2023, South Africa launched a legal campaign to label Israel's actions in Gaza as genocide, leading to the opening of an ongoing case at the ICJ. However, amidst these dynamics, genuine antisemitism exploits the context of the conflict: the appearance of the sign ‘Jews not allowed’ in a bookstore in Istanbul in late October 2023 was a worrying sign of the blurring boundaries between solidarity with Palestinian civilians on one hand, and hatred against Jews, on the other.
The proposed international conference aims at comprehensively examining these complexities, with a specific focus on the intellectual and discursive battles over Palestine and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The conference seeks first and foremost to promote and defend the right to critique, and confront practices that endanger academic freedom and critical thinking over power, hegemony, war, civic rights and human dignity.
Scholars from all scientific fields are invited to assess the current continuities and discontinuities in the ideological, political, social, institutional, educational, cultural, epistemological and historiographical attitudes towards Israel and the Palestinians from the UN Palestine Partition Plan of 1947 following the Israeli military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza since 1967, (i.e. control, punishment, internal borders, settler colonialism, poverty, displacement and intimidation of Palestinians) and the acts of Palestinian resistance that followed suit. We are especially interested in works that will consider the effects of the deadly Hamas attacks on 7 October 2023 in Israel, and the subsequent disproportionate response with Israel’s devastating war on Gaza's population and infrastructures. The conference is looking for contributions that may include but are not limited to:
The Palestinian Question and its impact on international academia and academic freedom
The Palestinian Question in university and school curricula
The Palestinian Question and political cleavages in Europe and beyond
Pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli political activism and lobbying including:
Pro-Israeli think tanks (e.g.. AIPAC)
The Boycott-Divestment-Sanctions (BDS) Movement
Civil society responses to the conflict
Intellectual wars and reconciliation initiatives: Revisiting peace and reconciliation practices after the current war
Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe and beyond
Covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: information wars & media
Music, cinema, literature and the arts as a battleground, including:
The Eurovision ‘wars’
Censorship in the arts
Memory wars, cultural heritage and their role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Narrating the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; contemporary
historiographical issues, including:
Anti-Jewish persecutions and settler colonialism before and after the Holocaust
The Nakba, Palestinian displacement and refugees
The impact of destruction, loss and violence on the intellectual war over Palestine, including
Scholasticide and the impact of war on the academic community in Gaza
Oppression and Resistance
The political economy and ecology of war
The clash of ideologies: Zionism and Palestinian Nationalism
Colonialism, imperialism and Western epistemology: their effects on the crises in the Middle East
Gender, militarism and patriarchy, everyday colonialities and feminisms for/of Palestinian and Israeli bodies and subjects
Lawfare and global legal dimensions of the conflict including
Manipulative interpretations of international law
The case for genocide in Gaza
Abstracts must be submitted to conferenceintellectualbattles@gmail.com
Submissions should include an extended abstract and a short bio
Abstracts should be approximately 500 words in length and should include:
a summary of the argument
a reference to the body of literature that the papers engages with, along with its disciplinary or interdisciplinary framework.
a brief description of the methodology applied and/or the type of primary sources used (data, interviews, etc)
Deadline for abstracts: Monday, April 28 *** DEADLINE EXTENDED: MAY 4
Announcement of results: Monday May 19 ***June 15***
Bursaries opportunities | There will be limited opportunities for travel funding and accommodation for those unable to cover their participation through their own institutional funding. Please include a relevant request in your application, explaining why you require support. The results of the bursary allocation will be announced a week after the abstract acceptance results.
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