3.0 Witnessing as pedagogy

We are living in the Digital Age. With the rise of social media, the rampant spread of dis/misinformation, and the ubiquity of the propaganda machine that has taken on new digital forms, the act of witnessing–to choose to see and hear stories that have been silenced–has brought the issue of media literacy to a new level of urgency [ → 3.1 The importance of media literacy]. It has also inspired new ways of learning and teaching, both in classrooms  [→ 3.2 Complicating narratives] and in encampments] [ → 3.3 Encampments as sites of learning and care], as well as online through digital platforms and social media [ → 3.4 Lessons from social media].

Example Witness Statements 

• Palestinian writer Jenan Matari on witnessing: https://www.instagram.com/p/C-BFQ3QvynH/?hl=en 

• Dr. Javid Abdelmoneim, MSF Medical Team Leader in Gaza: https://x.com/msf_canada/status/1819011731588571204?s=12   

• Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan, pediatric intensive care doctor who gave witness account from Gaza at the DNC, in an interview with CNN’s Christane Amanpour: https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/20/tv/video/amanpour-tanya-haj-hassan  

The escalation of politically driven violence and genocide, in spite of mounting primary source evidence, has clearly demonstrated the insidious nature of propaganda, especially as it has adapted to the pace of social media and the contemporary news cycle, where media outlets come with their own biases and agendas. Some of the first and most foundational questions to ask of any piece of media is: who is producing this content, who is the intended audience, and what is the intended purpose? 

The consequences of this long history of attempting to legitimize Israel's colonization of Palestine have been seen in contemporary reporting of current events since October 2023. Shortly after October 7, 2023, the Israeli government and journalists began reporting that Israeli prisoners of war were being sexually abused by their captors. These claims were soon disproven. However, this misinformation was quickly propagated by botched reporting from mainstream news outlets like the New York Times and used by government leaders to justify further intensifying the bombing of Gaza. In February 2024 official UN reports came out that “credible allegations of egregious human rights violations” were being committed against Palestinian women and girls. Later, in August 2024, further reports came to light that Palestinian men were being tortured and raped in Israeli prisons, though little reporting on these abuses have come from major news outlets, while Israeli leadership has rushed to defend the soldiers accused of rape. Some observers have made comparisons to Abu Ghraib, a scandal that erupted in 2004 following reports of the abuse and torture of Iraqi prisoners held at the prison by U.S. soldiers, that ultimately helped turn public opinion against the Iraq War. The coverage of Noa Argamani, an Israeli hostage taken by Hamas on October 7, 2023, is another example of intentional peddling of misinformation. Following her rescue on June 8, 2024, she spoke on August 21 in front of G7 embassy representatives in Tokyo. Media reporting following her statement distorted her tone and suggested that she was abused in Gaza. However, she then clarified quickly in an Instagram story (that has since expired) that her words were taken out of context, and she had been injured when the Israeli Air Force bombed a building near where she was being held captive. 

Propaganda and Media Literacy: A Case Study

Media literacy requires critical engagement with dominant media narratives, assessment of sources, and recognizing possible mis/disinformation and biases. We live in a world rife with information, and media literacy is an essential skill. The dominant narratives around Palestine, and Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians, provide ample material for examining how biases play out in media reporting, institutional statements, and in political rhetoric, particularly when compared to the ongoing War in Ukraine and Ukrainian resistance to Russian occupation.   

At an October 29, 2023 protest in Vancouver, British Columbia, Natalie Knight, an Indigenous scholar and English instructor at Langara Community College, gave a speech about the October 7 attack within the context of occupation and decolonization, calling it both an “amazing” and “brilliant” offensive. She framed the attack as an act of Palestinian resistance against an Israeli occupier – a history that precedes 70 years prior to October 7, 2023. Knight’s scholarly expertise is specifically on Indigeneity and decolonization. While Indigenous people are not monolithic, several Indigenous groups have expressed public support for Palestine and others have drawn parallels to the Oka Crisis of 1990. A clip, taken out of context, was circulated online and led to an immediate call for her firing, a charge led by BC politicians (primarily by former BC Minister Selina Robinson), leaders of Zionist organizations, and members of the public. Knight was placed on administrative leave, then briefly reinstated, and then ultimately fired. Ironically, Selina Robinson also lost her position as post-secondary education minister in the fallout over comments she made during a recorded talk wherein she stated that Gaza was historically “a crappy little piece of land with nothing on it,” and when it came to light that she had gone well beyond the bounds of her position to pressure Langara Community College into firing Natalie Knight. Knight’s termination also raises serious concerns about academic freedom and highlights some of the risks of public scholar activism. [ → “Academic Freedom: Agreements at UBC” in 3.3 Encampments as sites of learning and care] 

In February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine in an attempt to occupy the country as Russian territory in the latest phase of the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War that began in 2014. Following the invasion, Ukrainian flags could be seen flying across Western nations on cars, in windows, on Facebook profiles, etc. in mass solidarity with Ukraine. Many are still visible and flying today. Western powers condemned Putin and Russia, and the EU issued solidarity campaigns with Ukraine. In August 2024, Ukraine launched a surprise cross-border attack in Russia’s Kursk region, occupying over 1,000 sq km of the region. U.S. Senator Lindsay Graham called the incursion “bold, brilliant, beautiful." There has been no backlash for those remarks though they are similar to Natalie Knight's phrasing. 

On Institutional Statements 

Since October 7, there have been new debates about the release of institutional statements regarding public crises, and in turn, new institutional policies and guidelines around such statements. Most of these policies and recommendations have resulted in a future reduction of these kinds of public communications. Institutional statements, and the rhetoric of the new guidelines regarding them, are also worthy of pedagogical engagement under a critical media literacy lens.

Example Statements 

• University of Toronto - Memo on Institutional, Divisional, and Departmental Statements (PDAD&C #38)

• Johns Hopkins University - On institutional statements from the university

• Harvard University - Institutional Voice

Resources

On Pedagogy

• Gennaro, Steve, et al, eds. Transformative Practice in Critical Media Literacy: Radical Democracy and Decolonized Pedagogy in Higher Education. Taylor & Francis, 2024. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/10.4324/9781003375555/transformative-practice-critical-media-literacy-steve-gennaro-michael-hoechsmann-nolan-higdon. 

• Hickey-Moody, Anna, and Christine Horn. "Family stories as resources for a decolonial culturally responsive pedagogy." Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education 43, no. 5 (2022): 804-820. https://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2022.2062834. 

• Mazawi, André Elias, and Michelle Stack, eds. Course Syllabi in Faculties of Education: Bodies of Knowledge and Their Discontents, International and Comparative Perspectives. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350094277. 

• “Teaching Media Literacy on Palestine and Israel.” Teaching for Black Lives. https://www.teachingforblacklives.org/teaching-media-literacy/.  

• Tebaldi, Catherine, and Kysa Nygreen. "Opening or impasse? Critical media literacy pedagogy in a posttruth era." Cultural Studies↔ Critical Methodologies 22, no. 2 (2022): 143-153. https://doi.org/10.1177/15327086211065810. 

• Wong, Shelley, Thuy Tu, and Ilham Nasser. "Transformative Pedagogy in Occupied Palestine: International Student Discoveries and Awakenings." Journal of Education in Muslim Societies 3, no. 1 (2021): 68-101. https://doi.org/10.2979/jems.3.1.05. 

Examples

The conflation of Zionism and Judaism

Zionists and Pro-Israel groups often try to conflate the political ideology of Zionism with the Jewish religion in an attempt to deflect blame from Israel and repress criticism of the Israeli state. The issues of this conflation come into clear focus in the controversy over the adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism. Originally drafted by Kenneth Stern as part of the American Jewish Committee, the definition has now been taken up for more nefarious purposes, and Stern has since raised the alarm that it has been weaponized by right-wing Zionist movements to stifle free speech and censor criticism of Israel. Israeli law scholar Neve Gordon argues, “the definition has concurrently produced a chilling effect on Palestinians and pro-Palestinian activists, students, and staff, and should be understood as a counterinsurgency tool developed to shield Israel from resistance to its oppressive form of racial governance, its ongoing denial of Palestinian liberation, and, following its recent war on Gaza, from accusations of genocidal violence” (45).

• The Editors of Britannica. "Zionism." Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Zionism.  

• Pappe, Ilan. Ten Myths About Israel. Verso Books. 2017.

• "Our Approach to Zionism," Jewish Voice for Peace.  https://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/resource/zionism/. 

• "Palestine Remix: Timeline of Palestine's History." Al Jazeera, https://remix.aljazeera.com/aje/PalestineRemix/timeline_main.html. 

• Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism, https://criticalzionismstudies.org/.  

• "Jewish Faculty Against IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism." Jewish Faculty Network. 2021. https://jewishfaculty.ca/jewish-faculty-against-the-ihra-defn/. 

For a variety of reasons, North American education systems tend to simplify the narratives of traumatic historical events. For example, when considering the Holocaust or 9/11 and the ensuing War on Terror, there is a danger of teaching these events as exceptional or isolated–that the Holocaust is unique as the historical atrocity that defined genocide and thus unthinkable to be repeatable, or that what happened on 9/11 began and finished with the tragedy of the Twin Towers falling and the heroicism of the firefighters involved. These are narratives that are often tied up with national politics and cultural hegemony. 

One of the most important ways of pushing against the status quo is to contextualize the event when teaching historical or contemporary traumas driven by political or ideological difference. In other words, to engage in the “why” and “how” leading up to an event, as well as the (geo)political and sociocultural ramifications following the event, not just the event itself. The following two sections demonstrate how the ongoing genocide in Palestine can be connected to the afterlives of the Holocaust and 9/11, as well as the importance of teaching global, historical events in ways that encourage intellectual growth and teach students how to make connections between their present and history. This work of critical thinking is also essential in understanding the importance of media literacy and the role propaganda plays in shaping common narratives and collective memory [ → 3.1 The importance of media literacy].

“Never again.”

The meaning of “never again” can be controversial, but according to the commitment that drove the creation of the first human rights treaty of the United Nations General Assembly on 9 December 1948, the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, it signifies “a commitment to learn from and not repeat history.” There is an enduring debate in studies about Holocaust education whether or not the Holocaust should be taught as a “unique” event or as a tragedy that can yield “universal” lessons. Scholars argue that “there is a strong pedagogical rationale for investing university-level Holocaust education with some comparative dimension” (Haynes, 299) alongside a “a combination of historical and ethical thinking and a form of thinking that attend[s] closely to specificity rather than one that trade[s] in absolutes and universals” (Foster et al, 71). 

One way of attaining a level of specificity that allows for productive learning and digestion is to develop thematic frameworks with which to approach different aspects of genocide (Aalai 2020, 210). This would also encourage students to apply lessons learned from the Holocaust, and to draw critical comparisons to other atrocities. In this vein, organizations like Jewish Voice for Peace and Jewish Faculty Network in Canada, alongside scholars such as Israeli American historian Omer Bartov, have named what is happening in Palestine as genocide. Israeli law scholar Neve Gordon and international relations scholar Nicola Perugini have even argued that Israel has used strategic tactics, like claiming all of Gaza to be operating as a “human shield” for Hamas, to “carv[e] out a legal justification for genocide.” Gordon and Perugini note that this tactic was also used in the War on ISIS, though Israel has escalated and expanded its use in the Gaza Strip. 

“Never forget.”

As Brenna Bhandar explained, the invasion of Iraq by the U.S. in 2003 and the subsequent war that lasted until 2011 helped set the stage for the degree of violence committed by the Israeli military in this contemporary iteration of the genocide in Palestine, as witnessed through the scale of destruction of land, resources, and infrastructure and the broadcasted violation of international law. In fact, the framework of the “War on Terror” and labeling all dissidents as terrorists has been a key strategy of both the U.S. and, broadly, Western nation-states. It is also a key tactic of Israeli hasbara [“A3: BB”]. What is now often taught in schools is to “never forget” what happened on 9/11. However, beyond a commemoration of the tragedy of September 11, 2001, the context, history, and aftereffects surrounding the attacks and the victims are largely forgotten or erased. 

Indeed, this attitude of indiscriminately labeling resistance to the occupation as “terrorism” has now informed the ways in which the Israeli military targets these alleged terrorists. In what news outlets like Al Jazeera have been calling “AI-assisted genocide,” the Israeli military has been using a database generated by new and otherwise untested artificial intelligence to identify targets in its unceasing bombing campaign of refugee camps and other civilian areas. Although human operators need to confirm targets, there is as-yet no system of accountability. Moreover, as in any other industry seeking to incorporate AI-technology into their systems of operation, the priority is efficiency and producing as many results as possible. Experts on human rights and technology have spoken on the involvement of Big Tech companies in contributing to the devastation of Palestine and how AI-driven military attacks may amount to war crimes. Making these connections can only be made possible by considering the complexities of the interconnected historical contexts.

The student encampments, as they have been aptly named, for example UBC’s the People’s University for Gaza, have become a critical site for reimagining and actually remaking what a space of learning can look like when community engagement, collaboration, and an ethics of redistribution and reciprocity are centered. A diversity of student groups across innumerable intersections of identities have gathered on university campuses across the globe with two main goals: 1) pushing their universities to divest from genocide (in the form of the university’s financial portfolio, in line with the Academic Boycott branch of the BDS movement), and 2) to raise awareness and call for recognition of the scholasticide in Gaza. Encampments have become spaces of public pedagogy where professors, staff, students, community members, and knowledge keepers support one another, share, and learn together. Pedagogy scholars have responded to the encampments, seeing how students, along with the staff and faculty who have joined them, are leading by example, demonstrating “the enactment of education as something you do with and for other people” (Jane Kenway and Katie Maher). In these critical spaces that approach the contextualization and historicization of conflicts that have long been seen as "too complicated to discuss or formulate a coherent opinion about" and thus oversimplified and depoliticized, the student encampments have become a place of study and struggle, mutual transformation and growth, and dialogue. As Dr. Leigh Patel writes, “[the student encampments have] been the entry point for further, deeper study of imperialism, settler colonialism, and the gendered, raced, and ableist tactics of genocide.” 

[ → Read faculty statements of solidarity with student encampments in "Context and Purpose"]

[ → Read about the different types of transdisciplinary connections being made in encampments in 2.1 Anti-colonial inter/transdisciplinary networks]

See the Instagram accounts of the encampment at UBC for more details and examples, and follow for more information:

Continuing this work as scholars

• Organizing teach-ins. informal discussions that are publicized and open to community. These can be co-facilitated with emerging scholars, community activists, and knowledge keepers for an interdisciplinary discussion. Teach-ins can also be useful ways of activating your particular scholarly expertise in a more publicly-oriented exchange.

• Decentralizing theory from the academy [“A1/A2: JP”]. unlearn and dismantle the hierarchy placing university specialist training as the apex of knowledge and expertise. Community has a right to the language of theory and can participate in its interpretation and application, particularly outside the academy. Support collective, reciprocal learning outside the classroom space.

• Reorienting yourself within the academic space. Especially if tenured, the privilege that goes hand-in-hand with a university position can give you a certain amount of room to stand beside and in front of students on the frontline for Academic Freedom [“A1: AI”]. University affiliations also provide access to resources. What might redistribution of resources look like given your role and position in the university and the publics you serve?

Examples

Teach-Ins

• Dorothy Kim. "Race and DH." Digital Humanities Summer Institute 2024. Class held in U Vic's student encampment.  https://x.com/dorothyk98/status/1799156569923526794. 

• Amsterdam Institute for the Humanities | "History is not context, it's reality; On Israel/Palestine: Witnessing Palestine through Art," https://aihr.uva.nl/content/events/2024/03/israel-palestine3.html?cb

• University of Maryland | Palestine Teach-in Series: https://umdpalestineteachin.com/ 

Academic Freedom: Agreements at UBC

1. CUPE 2278 (UBC) resources on TA rights, https://www.cupe2278.ca/collective-agreement-2.  

2. Collective Agreement Between The University of British Columbia and The Faculty Association of The University of British Columbia, https://hr.ubc.ca/sites/default/files/documents/Faculty-CA2019-2021_0.pdf.  

Resources

Networks & Organizations

• Institute for Palestine Studies, https://www.palestine-studies.org/ 

• Jadaliyya | Pedagogy: https://www.jadaliyya.com/Category/170.  

• Palestinian Students and Scholars at Risk, https://pssar.ca/.  

• Scholars at Risk Network, https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/.  

• The Racial Violence Hub, https://racialviolencehub.com/ 

Books & Articles

• Ahmed Kabel, “Pedagogy and Epistemics of Witness: Teaching Palestine in a Time of Genocide,” https://socialtextjournal.org/periscope_article/pedagogy-and-epistemics-of-witness-teaching-palestine-in-a-time-of-genocide/.  

• Brickey, Chigbo Alyson, Arthur Anyaduba and Kerry Sinanan. "Palestine Teach-In: In our own words." The Manitoban. Dec 2023. https://themanitoban.com/2023/12/palestine-teach-in-in-our-own-words/46333/ 

• Drummond, Susan G. Unthinkable Thoughts: Academic Freedom and the One-State Model for Israel and Palestine. UBC Press, 2013. https://www.ubcpress.ca/unthinkable-thoughts

• Patel, Leigh. No Study Without Struggle: Confronting Settler Colonialism in Higher Education. Beacon Press, 2022. https://www.beacon.org/No-Study-Without-Struggle-P1887.aspx 

• Sangha, Jeevan. "For Campus Encampments Supporting Gaza, What’s Next?" The Tyee. 7 June 2024. https://thetyee.ca/News/2024/06/07/Campus-Encampments-Supporting-Gaza-What-Next/.  

• al Shaibah, Arig. “Navigating Human Rights and Expression Rights with an Ethic of Care.” UBC Office of Equity and Inclusion, 26 January 2024. https://equity.ubc.ca/news-and-stories/navigating-human-rights-and-expression-rights-with-an-ethic-of-care.  

Reading Guides & Book Lists

• UBC Library | On Palestine : https://guides.library.ubc.ca/onpalestine/nonfictionbooks 

• LitHub | 40 Books to Understand Palestine: https://lithub.com/40-books-to-understand-palestine/ 

• Social Justice Books: A Project of Teaching for Change | Palestine: https://socialjusticebooks.org/booklists/palestine/ 

• The Conversation | 10 Books to Help You Understand Israel and Palestine, Recommended by Experts: https://theconversation.com/10-books-to-help-you-understand-israel-and-palestine-recommended-by-experts-217783 

Parallels to BLM and Arab Spring

In the past decade, social media has begun to play a critical role in the organization and amplification of social movements. Researchers really began attending to the mass impact of social media on civic engagement with the Arab Spring uprisings between late 2009 and 2012. Scholars have studied the impact of social media in creating networks of proliferation, and as a space for both voicing and organizing dissent. However, some have noted how social media platforms also took advantage of that moment of political activism and engagement to collaborate with repressive government regimes to remove content calling for free speech and human rights as well as help spawn accounts peddling disinformation. In the summer of 2020, with mounting protests within the Black Lives Matter movement following the murder of George Floyd, social media played a similar role in helping organizers and protestors disseminate information about protests and mutual aid calls, as well as build awareness around other murders of Black folks at the hands of the police. During and as a result of the 2020 BLM protests, activists began circulating resources in the form of infographics, short videos, and recommended reading lists, educating a widespread public through social platforms on Black history and experiences. However, this also led to the viral use of counter-hashtags, such as #AllLivesMatter, which then materialize as counter-protests that often escalate into violence,  algorithmic censorship, and performative allyship. 

The current Palestinian movement has seen all the negative and positive effects from previous social media movements reflected and magnified in this current movement. Countless educational platforms on social media have been created [ → 2.1 Anti-colonial inter/transdisciplinary networks]. Palestinian citizens, journalists, and diaspora have taken to sharing their stories in the face of brazen misinformation [ → 1.3 Social media as resistance]. Social media users have learned to navigate to the mediascape and heavy-handed censorship by adapting content to social media logics and using alternative spellings of Israel, Gaza, Palestine and genocide in content. There have also been more call-ins regarding performative allyship: when the Palestine genocide version of the Black Square on Blackout Tuesday surfaced through the AI-generated image of “All Eyes on Rafah,” activists were quick to tag more meaningful resources onto what was otherwise a decontextualized image.

Conversely, government institutions and social media platforms have also once again come together to silence certain voices and boost others. Israel has repeatedly shut down internet access to Gaza, a form of cyber-warfare, as early as October 27 and onwards. The Human Rights Watch has called Israeli destruction of infrastructure for resources including water and electricity “unlawful collective punishment.” Families and individuals in Gaza have relied on donations of e-sims to continue connecting with the outside world, though e-sims come with their own risks. More recently, during the student protests in Bangladesh, the government used a similar tactic of shutting down Internet access when student demands for government reform began picking up in July 2024 and the military was deployed to quell protests. 

Digital Iconography

Protest movements often come with specific iconography, with their own identifiable emoji sets that correspond to physical protest signs and symbols of liberation (e.g. Black Lives Matter ✊🏿, Pride 🏳️‍🌈, or Free Palestine 🍉). Digital media and culture scholar Photini Vrikki notes that emojis are “as politically charged as any other form of text.” Recent research suggests that protest symbols play a formative role “in mobilizing action and constructing a shared identity for a group pressing for social change” (Awad and Wagoner). These symbols can also be intentionally co-opted, misused, or decontextualized. For instance, the watermelon was initially used as a symbol of Black liberation until racist whites turned it into a symbol of poverty, where it has continued to be recognized as a racist stereotype, particularly in the U.S. However, the watermelon is currently a symbol of Palestinian liberation and has taken on new meaning in our current cultural consciousness, though Zionists are now actively trying to appropriate the watermelon as their own now, too. 

Examples of public scholarship on Instagram

• NewsCord (@newscord_org): exposing media bias through AI generated comparisons of major news outlet headlines related to Palestine and Israel

• Let’s Talk Palestine (@letstalkpalestine): sharing infographics on major events related to Palestine, and sharing resources and daily news

• Sabar Project (@sabarprojectorg): sharing historical research and narratives on Palestine

• The Palestine Academy (@palestine.academy): an education hub for social media Palestine awareness.