Teaching Palestine in Islamic Studies

Teaching about Palestine in religious studies and specifically Islamic studies carries a particular set of challenges that come from a pervasive tendency in public and political discourse and in scholarship to explain the origins of the “conflict” in Israel/Palestine as a century-old conflict between Jews and Muslims. This roundtable brings together scholars in Islamic studies who reflect on and share their experiences of incorporating Palestine into their teaching. Some of us have done so since long before the Hamas attack in October 2023 and Israel’s annihilation of Gaza and ethnic cleansing of the West Bank in response. We teach Palestine in a climate of institutional repression of pro-Palestinian solidarity activism. Participants in this roundtable offer their reflections on how they have navigated this landscape in their own institutional context and share both particular pedagogical tools/activities and questions that have arisen from their experiences.