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Khalid Farraj on the Institute's 60 Years of Research on Palestine and the Struggle Against the Occupation
Date: 
January 20 2023

Sixty years have passed since establishing the Institute for Palestine Studies (IPS) in Beirut. Founded in 1963, the organization is considered one of the first to document the Palestinian struggle and the Arab-Israeli conflict. IPS has provided Arab and foreign readers, intellectuals, journalists, researchers, and university students with scholarly and objective texts about the Palestinian cause, identity, and struggle against Zionism.

The Institute went through multiple stages during its journey, starting with its founding in 1963 by three prominent Palestinian intellectuals: Constantine Zurayk, Walid Al-Khalidi, and Burhan Dajani. Later, they were joined by prominent intellectuals from across the Arab world to search for ways to confront the challenges resulting from the establishment of Israel on Palestinian land, which oversaw the expulsion and ethnic cleansing of its inhabitants. 

These individuals saw that the most appropriate way to document the Nakba — the catastrophe — was to establish an Arab research institution that would chronicle the events, study the facts, and answer the difficult questions left in the void of settler destruction. For sixty years, IPS has documented Palestine and its cause through books and publications, addressing the false narratives propagated by the illegal occupation. For over half a century, the Institute has presented innovative analytical research projects to identify the causes, actors, and policies related to the Arab-Israeli conflict. 

Since its foundation, the Institute has been able to adapt to changing realities and stand firm in a region plagued by instability. IPS has been able to keep pace with the digital world, launching numerous virtual projects, such as the Interactive Encyclopedia of the Palestinian Question, Palestine Social History Archives, Al Quds Newspaper — featuring Palestinian newspapers that were published before the Nakba — and other databases of interest to researchers and non-researchers.  

We spoke with Khaled Farraj — the Director General of the Institute for Palestine Studies — in Rumman Cultural Magazine to learn about the Institute's efforts over the past 60 years to document Palestine's intellectual, historical, and cultural heritage while promoting the Palestinian struggle as a just cause to readers and the world. 

In our previous interview with you, published in "Ruman" (December 2021), you discussed the historical difficulties that the Institute faced, such as wars and uprisings. Now, we would like to ask: What are the key factors that have allowed IPS to not only survive but also thrive over the past 60 years, particularly considering that the Institute focuses on research and culture, which are less influential fields compared to politics?

Over the past 60 years, there have been numerous political and social changes, including wars, the rise of oppressive and sectarian regimes, and ongoing Israeli aggression against Palestine and the Arab countries, such as the 1967 and 1973 wars, the Lebanese Civil War, the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty, the first and second Intifadas, and the repeated wars on Gaza. Despite the collapse of several political systems and regimes, the institution that supports the Palestinian cause has remained steadfast in its intellectual pursuits, preserving its Arab identity and keeping the Palestinian cause at the forefront of Arab issues. The Institute has always maintained its independence as an objective research and scientific entity, not affiliated with any government or political organization. It has also refused conditional funding and avoided involvement in partisan or sectarian disputes, allowing it to remain independent of the fate of any country.

The Arab identity of Palestine has remained prevalent in the minds of Arab people, as recently demonstrated by the 2022 FIFA World Cup held in Qatar, where it was clear that, after several years of the Abraham Accords, Palestine is still present and strong. Not only in the hearts of the Arab masses who attended the World Cup — but also in the resolute rejection of normalization with Israel, as expressed by many young people who refused to participate in interviews or dialogue with the Israeli press.

I would like to point out that the Institute for Palestine Studies occupies a privileged position among the audience of readers and researchers, winning trust and appreciation through the empowered research it publishes and the abundant knowledge it produces, which is distinguished by its commitment to strict academic standards.

On the administrative level, the various members of IPS have committed themselves to regular work, whether on the Board of Trustees, the Executive Committee, or the Research Committee, which meets twice a year. Over time, the work of these bodies has contributed to institutional memory, which is now relied upon by the current generation of researchers and staff. This accumulated knowledge and experience have allowed IPS to expand into new research areas and utilize modern tools for dissemination. Additionally, thanks to our long history of research, the Institute has been able to seamlessly transition to digital projects, such as the Interactive Encyclopedia of the Palestine Question, which was launched in June of 2022 in partnership with the Palestinian Museum and is available in Arabic and English. This interactive encyclopedia — which currently has over one million words and has received 160,000 unique visitors since its launch — is constantly being updated and will be available in French and Spanish in the future.

IPS has been able to maintain its status and adapt to the changing demands of communication with a broad audience, including Palestinians, Arabs, and the international community, through independence, trustworthiness, credibility, and a consistent output of knowledge.

 

Portraits of founders of the Institute

Can you speak about the Institute’s rigorous and independent research activities, including in terms of publications, books, projects, and other elements of knowledge production?

Since 1963, IPS has released around 800 reference books about Palestine and the Arab-Zionist conflict, which are considered essential sources for studying these topics. These books are used in Palestinian and Arab universities as a source of objective research. For instance, many Palestinian universities include the book The General Survey of Israel 2020 — or parts of it — in their curricula. This book — which is published every five years by the Institute — covers various aspects of Israeli society, politics, and life, with the goal of understanding its developments. It is written by Palestinian writers and researchers who specialize in Israeli affairs. The fifth edition is currently being prepared for release in 2025.

We can also mention the Institute’s library, which is regarded as one of the most significant libraries in the world that specializes in the Palestinian cause and the Arab-Zionist conflict. It has existed since the establishment of IPS and includes the Constantine Zurayk Center for Documentation and Information Gathering. The library houses over 79,000 books and hundreds of magazines, newspapers, documents, archives, photos, and maps. All of these resources are accessible to visitors.

 

Constantine Zurayk Library 

It is also noteworthy that IPS regularly organizes dozens of conferences each year, as well as a series of seminars and events that involve participation from writers, translators, researchers, and other individuals from Palestine and other countries. These conferences have played a significant role in bringing important issues to the forefront of national and research agendas. For instance, in late October and early November of 2022, the Foundation held a conference titled “Reassessing the British Mandate in Palestine" in honor of the 100th anniversary of the League of Nations' approval of the mandate. This conference was conducted in partnership with several universities in the US, Canada, UK, and Palestine — Brown, Columbia, Exeter, Sussex, Toronto, and Birzeit — and was held both in-person and virtually over the course of three days on the campus of Birzeit University. During this conference, 71 papers were presented in Arabic and English, with simultaneous translation.

It appears that the Institute’s target demographic includes writers, scholars, and other individuals who use its publications and books for research purposes. Is there an effort to reach readers who come from a non-research background and perhaps a younger audience?

Just before the COVID-19 outbreak, we had begun upgrading the Institute’s website to align with recent advancements in technology and communications. Although the pandemic had negative impacts, it also allowed the Institute to re-evaluate its methods of interacting with various audiences in different locations. Through teamwork, we began to systematically attract a younger demographic via Palestine Square, the blog of the Institute. We also published the first socio-political-economic series on “Coronavirus in Palestinian Life,” which included about 66 articles by young writers from Palestine, Lebanon, and beyond. These writers documented initiatives, campaigns, and developments in Palestine and Lebanon from the beginning of the crisis in 2020, which allowed us to discover many capable young writers. As such, our blog became a platform for a new generation of youth, who we’ve also sought for longer scholarly projects that were published in the Journal of Palestine Studies. Some also formally joined the Institute. Through Palestine Square, we have been able to reach people all around the world. We have also been able to host webinars via Zoom. Borders are no longer an obstacle to attending events or contributing to the Institute’s work.

As the pandemic slowly subsided, we moved to a hybrid work model. An example of this is a recent conference we organized titled “Reassessing the British Mandate in Palestine,” which brought together speakers from all over the world to Birzeit University, in-person and online.

The Institute’s publications and studies have become vital resources to the activities of supporters of the Palestinian cause worldwide. Activists have used our publications to communicate with their audiences. For example, Middle East Eye picked up an article we published about the Tantura massacre, and NBC News aired a report about the ownership of the land that the new U.S. embassy is set to be built on by referencing resources from our publications. Many authors of Palestinian heritage from Latin America relied on publications by the Institute to write about their families and histories of exile. 

Despite all challenges, the Institute successfully breathed new life into all aspects of its work.

You spoke about youth and the Institute’s efforts in the digital sphere through the blog and the Interactive Encyclopedia of the Palestine Question. My question is regarding the Journal of Palestine Studies: how has the Journal continued steadily for decades, even though many newspapers and magazines were forced to stop due to adverse financial or political conditions?

The Journal of Palestine Studies (JPS)  is a quarterly journal that allows for the extensive publication of research. The Institute’s continuity cannot be separated from the Journal’s continuity. JPS is run by an editorial committee that leads the planning, editing, and execution of the journal.

Over the years, there have been changes in the journal in terms of keeping pace with emerging topics and dealing with research areas that were not previously focused on. The Institute has also been interested in pumping new blood into the editorial boards of the three journals that it issues. While each journal has its own editorial board independent from the other, they all meet once a year to discuss and consolidate visions, and plan for future issues, and collaborate on translations or cross-publishing. 

In 2007, the global financial crisis forced us to stop publishing our French journal, Revue d’études Palestiniennes, despite its importance among Francophone audiences. We are reconsidering ways to resume publication.

 

Publications
 

You mentioned the Interactive Encyclopedia of the Palestine Question, which is an ongoing project. Are there other projects that you are currently planning?

Three projects are involved in our vision of continuity: the first project is related to the Constantine Zurayk Library, specifically the documentation and information collection center. We are currently working on an initiative that is not public yet, and that is the digitization of a set of audiotapes as part of the Institute’s oral history work.

The second project will emerge during the Institute’s annual conference, which addresses various important topics. This year, the Institute will focus on all that has or has not been produced (in scholarly terms) about the Nakba. This is to commemorate 75 years of the Nakba and celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Institute of Palestine Studies. 

The third project is our Art Endowment. Over the past few years, we have introduced a new concept for continuity through our relationship with artists. In 2022, we launched an initiative to reach 500 artists worldwide to donate works of art that will be sold at auction, with the proceeds to be allocated to IPS. We were successful in reaching great artists all over the world, a sign of the positive response to the Institute. We aspire to reach 1000 artists. This would not have been possible without the trust and credibility of the Institute and its valuable research production about the Palestinian cause, including on culture and visual arts. 

Our relationship with these artists isn’t just in the nature of them being supporters of the Institute but also as allies to Palestine and its cause. They have formed a public space with us to also stand with Beirut, the city of Arab culture. A year ago, we established an exhibition hall in our building in Beirut which we called Keyword: Palestine, to exhibit artwork in a symbolic message to our loyalty to Beirut. This city has embraced the Institute for 60 years.

In the past three years, IPS has withstood serious challenges: the pandemic, the port explosion in Beirut, and the war on Gaza. We have been at the head of a coalition consisting of important universities and research centers while still being able to keep up with current and emerging events. For instance, in an accelerated period of time, we published a book about the martyrdom of Shireen Abu Akleh. With little notice, we organized a Beirut-based symposium on the conflict over offshore gas fields between the Israeli regime and Lebanon. This was the fourth symposium in a series that dealt with the topic — the participating papers will be issued in book form. 

The Institute was also deeply concerned when the Israeli occupation shut down six NGOs in Palestine under the pretext of “terrorism.” We issued a monograph in English on this subject. We always try to keep up with developments in the Palestinian research scene.

Since the meeting of the Research Committee last June, there has been a discussion about our research priorities and strategies. We have agreed on several axes dealing with Palestine — regionally, in the Arab world, and internationally — by issuing a series of reviews and studies that present the mechanisms of Israeli hegemony and control over the Palestinians and on the ground as a continuation of what we previously published about the Jordan Valley. Palestinian water, and so on.

What are your thoughts on developing a template in which knowledge materials can be published for younger age groups?

The phoenix — the bird in the logo of the Institute — reflects its flexibility, renewable spirit, and dynamism, as this bird symbolizes continuous life. Therefore, the Institute is keen on using renewable templates through which knowledge production can flourish. An effort is being made to produce a podcast, and there are other plans to work with adolescents and children on activities related to the Palestinian cause. Our research strategy also discusses the art forms through which memory can be preserved for future generations so that they may benefit from it.

In the context of your talk about projects, partnerships, and research strategies, what’s the Institute’s plan going forward regarding its ability to maintain financial continuity for the sake of a guaranteed and continued mission? 

The Art Endowment is definitely not enough on its own. Every year, we try to arrange our financial affairs and research priorities through budgets from individual donors — albeit in small numbers — and, of course, by making significant cuts in certain budget items. Thankfully, there are institutions, endowments, and funds that are loyal to IPS, including the Qatar Fund for Development and the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development in Kuwait. These two funds are among the main pillars of our budget, in addition to donations from the Institute’s trustees and some friends in the United States and the Arab Gulf states. But the question remains: What if another pandemic strikes or if the Israeli regime launches a new war? In this case, the priorities of the budgets of the funds or donors change according to the circumstances. Hence, the Institute has taken the decision to build a financial portfolio, the proceeds of which will be invested in supporting budgets in the future, which would contribute to preserving the continuity, vitality, and renewal of IPS. This will allow us to employ a new generation of researchers, editors, and others and avoid the pressures of securing annual resources. Collection is not guaranteed and drains the energy of the work team in the organization.

To build up this financial endowment, we will reach out to many friends of the Institute, including researchers, university professors, businesspeople, and countries friendly to the cause worldwide, who have faith in the Institute’s work and ideology. We will ask them to donate to IPS one time, with the possibility of paying their contribution over the course of four years, with the aim of reducing the burden on them. We have the ambition to reach the desired number by 2027.

How important is building partnerships to supporting the continuity of the Institute and expanding its work, especially in the coming years? 

What has distinguished IPS throughout its long career is the number of local, Arab, and international partnerships, as well as the quality of these partnerships, such as collaboration with Palestinian cultural, artistic, and academic institutions, such as the Abdul Mohsen Qattan Foundation, the Palestinian Museum, Birzeit University, the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center and the Yabous Center in Jerusalem, as well as cooperation with the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies in Jerusalem. Doha — where an annual lecture on the Nakba is being organized in cooperation with the Arab Center — and preparations are underway for the annual Palestine Forum 2023, which will constitute a wide space for dialogue with researchers, academics, and youth from all over the world about Palestine and the Palestinian cause. 

We have also had a strong cooperation with Dar El-Nimer in Beirut, the American University in Beirut, the Arab Center in Washington, the Council for British Research in the Levant, the Center for New Directions in Palestinian Studies at Brown University, the Center for Palestine Studies at Columbia University, Hearing Palestine at the University of Toronto, the European Center for Palestine Studies, and the Center for Palestinian Studies at the Institute of Oriental and African Studies, among others. 

During the year 2022 alone, we cooperated with more than 20 institutions to organize joint events. We are always open to partnerships and forms of cooperation that are characterized by seriousness and commitment.

At the beginning of the interview, we referred to the annual conference, which was organized in collaboration with many research centers in major universities worldwide.

 

*Saleem Albeik conducted this interview for Rumman Cultural Magazine; it was first published on January 19, 2022. The interview was translated into English by Laura Albast and republished by the Institute. 

Salut to Prisoners exhibition that opened at the Institute's gallery, Keyword: Palestine, in April 2022

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