In solidarity with Birzeit: The black, the white, and the gray

Abstract

Abstract Birzeit University (BZU)—established in 1924 by the Nasir family—was born out of struggle and developed as a microcosm of the Palestinian national movement against the Zionist settler colonial state of Israel. This article explores specific moments of solidarity with BZU and beyond. I map out a genealogy of three modes of solidarity with Palestine analyzed in light of the political thought and praxis of Amilcar Cabral, Albert Camus, and Hannah Arendt. BZU has been an important and contested site for individual, collective, and universal solidarity initiatives, as gestures of solidarity have been made since 1974 and have continued since then, including the establishment of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel in 2004. In this article, I trace the shifting apathy, empathy, and sympathy expressed with the Palestinian struggle and BZU with a particular emphasis on initiatives by Jewish and Israeli intellectuals. Although this article is neither a chronology nor a moral taxonomy, it aims to produce an indigenous, de-orientalized, and de-colonized account of the meanings of solidarity with Palestine.