“Anti-Palestinian racism is adjacent to Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism but specifically aims to silence, erase, dehumanise and defame Palestinians and their allies who publicly advocate for Palestinian human rights”

​

BEISAN ZUBI

 

      In a new resource created by Beisan Zubi she defines Anti-Palestinian Racism, breaking it down into ten different ways it how it manifests.

 

      Theatres and cultural organisations around the world have adopted policies on equality, diversity and inclusion, aiming to challenge their own racist and discriminative practices. Despite this, Anti-Palestinian Racism and how it manifests is often excluded from the conversation and sidelined. Rather than address this, cultural organisations continue to foster a hostile environment for Palestinians which is often built on a foundation of anti-arab and Islamophomic discrimination.

 

     Standing up for Palestinian liberation means standing up for an intersection of rights. Beisan goes on to state: 

 

“This form of racism intersects with colonialism, sexism, xenophobia, cultural appropriation, and more; it seeks to justify and normalise Palestinian dispossession and oppression, as well as to isolate diaspora Palestinians and discourage them from advocating for Palestinian liberation.”

 

    Whilst many cultural institutions care about issues Palestinians are subjected to, like climate crisis, LGBTQ+ and refugee rights, often Palestinian connection, leadership and narratives are erased from these struggles. Furthermore, Israel often exploits these conversations through Pinkwashing (a state or organisation appeals to LGBTQ+ rights to deflect attention from its harmful practices) and greenwashing (a state or organisation appeals to environmentalism to deflect attention from its harmful practices), and international conversations become co-opted by these frameworks, harming Palestinians further.