Decolonizing Haifa — Translation of Course Description

A course offered in a municipally owned building and paid for with municipal tax monies is teaching anti-Zionist activists another chapter in operating against the state in which they live. Because there is no English translation for this course promotion blurb on their website, I am translating it here in full below the image of the online description. I am doing this without editorial comment for the moment. But what you should know is that the programme will take place in the building provided to the feminist organization, Isha l’Isha. Isha ‘Isha also receives a budget of 40,000 NIS from the municipality (among other donations and supporters). Therefore taxpayer monies are supporting this programme because participant fees certainly are not!

Decolonizing Haifa – To learn, to recognize, to correct

Invitation to register for participating in a study group about the Naqba for activists in Haifa

Upon what corrupt foundations is the City of Haifa based? On what values? What do we know about the social relations and about the cultural, economic and political life that existed in the city before Zionism? Does anything remain of them and of their communities on the ground or in the culture of the city? What about this and our activities to promote equality and social justice?

Learning about the Naqba and return of the Palestinian refugees is a complex challenge for many Israelis: it shakes the foundations upon which we were educated, raises our suspicions and horror, but also arouses curiousity and even hope. Learning about the Naqba is an opportunity to get free from the chains of collective memory to develop new relations between Jewish-Israelis and Palestinians. that are based upon equality, recognition and taking responsibility.

How can we, as Jewish citizens of Israel in 2021, partners in, and profitting from, the ongoing Naqba against the Palestinian people? And, as activists, does our fight serve efforts to hide and promote normalization? Is there another way? Can the discussion concerning the future of Wadi Salib include recognition of the injustices of the Naqba together with the oppression of the Mizrachi Jews? How can we act toward preservation of buildings and sites along with the return of the Palestinian refugees? Can recognition of the colonization of the space coincide with the fight for climatic justice and environmental quality? How can we oppose the gentrification processes without ignoring the Jewification of the city?

If you have a background and experience in activism and these question bother you — the NGO Zochrot invites you to participate in a study group designed for activists that combines learning about the Naqba with practical discussions on responible activism that shakes the colonial system rather than contributes to it.

In the first part of the programme we will expand upon our theoretical and historical knowledge concerning the Naqba in the Haifa region. By means of lectures and visits to different neighbourhoods we will try to look at our familiar landscape and ourselves with fresh eyes the identify signs of Palestinian life and their continuing erasure. In addition, we will dicuss the branched ramifications of the Naqba and denial of the right of return on forms of oppression on different communities in the city.

The second part of the course will focus on translating the knowledge and recognition into a process of taking responsibility and acts of correction. We will talk about the importance of recognition of the Naqba as a condition for activism that is decent, honest and equal. We will place our activism within a global context of fighting colonialism: we will learn about freedom to protest and about legal and tecnological tools for protecting our safety; finally, we will plan and carry out an activity to raise awareness of the Naqba in the Haifa area.

Come and let us crack the walls of silencing around the events of 1948 and their outcome and build an activist community by means of learning together and taking responsibility for the colonial power relations.

• the programme includes 12 session that will take place in Haifa
• the fee for participation is 200 NIS (or less based on need)
• planned beginning of the programe is 7 October 2021