“Who Will Hang the Bell?”: The Palestinian Habba of 2021
Abstract: 

This essay reflects on the Palestinian habba of 2021, contextualizing it within the broader trajectory of Palestine’s century-old anti-colonial continuum. Noting the substantial scale and intensity of the latest mobilizations, this essay argues that colonial structural realities induce a cyclical regeneration of popular resistance in historic Palestine and in exile. Nevertheless, the emancipatory prospects of this resistance depend on the transformation of moments that carry revolutionary potential into a long-term struggle, one that is sustained by rejuvenated national institutions pursuing unified anti-colonial principles and political programs.

Author biography: 

Abdel Razzaq Takriti is associate professor, Arab-American Educational Foundation Chair in Modern Arab History, and founding director of the Arab-American Educational Foundation Center for Arab Studies at the University of Houston. He is the author of Monsoon Revolution: Republicans, Sultans, and Empires in Oman, 1965–1976 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016) and the coauthor, with Karma Nabulsi, of The Palestinian Revolution website, learnpalestine.politics.ox.ac.uk (Oxford University Department of Politics and International Relations, 2016).