The future of Palestinian identity

About the event

This town hall was presented live at the Qatar National Library in Doha on December 15, 2022. It featured Palestinian cultural figures and supporters of the Palestinian cause, who provided a snapshot of the current conversation about the future of a collective Palestinian identity, illustrated by the lived realities of our guests. Dena Takruri, a Palestinian American journalist with AJ+, moderated this town hall-style conversation with three guests and approximately 20 students. Professor Dr. Tariq Dana, Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi and Palestinian American comedian and disability advocate Maysoon Zayid joined Dena on stage.

The town hall explored what Palestinian identity means in the face of the global diaspora and 75 years of statelessness, and centered around the questions: Has fragmentation and dispersal of Palestinian people, and their assimilation into various countries, begun to erode a contemporary identity? Or have the collective memory of the Nakba and the shared goal of a better future had a unifying effect? Do arts, language and culture provide deep connection and reconnection, and is that enough to sustain, strengthen or shape a national identity?

Along with our guests, students and recent graduates, including some from the global diaspora, talked about what it means to have a national identity without a nation.