MELBOURNE, AFP: Saree Makdisi lecture 16Sep09 September 22, 2009

Editor’s comment: On 16 September 2009, UCLA Professor Saree Makdisi gave his lecture “Jerusalem: The Occupation of Memory” at the University of Melbourne. The lecture was organised by Australians for Palestine/Women for Palestine in memory of his uncle the late Edward Said and was supported by the Asia Institute, The University of Melbourne. It was chaired by Professor Ghassan Hage, Future Generation Professor of Anthropology and Social Theory at Melbourne’s School of Philosophy, Anthropology and Social Inquiry. Sonja Karkar of Australians for Palestine/Women for Palestine made the introductions and gave the dedication to the late Edward Said.  Despite there being a student picket at the university for unrelated reasons, the large lecture theatre saw an appreciative audience of around 200 people applaud Professor Makdisi’s erudite expose of the insidious nature of Israel’s occupation of Jerusalem.  His book sales “Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation” were indicative of an audience wanting to know more about the effects of that occupation on the Palestinians not only in Jerusalem, but in the West Bank and Gaza.  At a time when the two-state solution is still being contemplated, Professor Makdisi leaves no one in any doubt about the impossibility of that solution ever being just or bringing peace with the facts on the ground as they are.  And his solution?  Who can argue with equal rights for all peoples?

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