2024 Edward Said Memorial Lecture
The Australian 2024 Edward Said Memorial Lecture was delivered by Dr Samah Sabawi in Adelaide on 2 November 2024.
See Samah Sabawi’s 2024 Edward Said Memorial Lecture: The Ethnocentric State and Our Fragile Australian Democracy: How Support for Israel Erodes Democratic Values and Practices in Australia and the West
Synopsis:
Samah's lecture critiques Israel's self-portrayal as a democracy, arguing that this narrative serves to justify Western powers' allegiance to its regime, at the expense of the erosion of western democratic principles around the world. It posits that Israel functions as an ethnocratic apartheid state, privileging Jewish citizens over others. Israel’s policies, territorial expansion, and control are driven by an ethnonational agenda, one that contradicts the basic democratic and multicultural principles of modern Western states. The consequences of supportng this ethnocratic regime is eroding global democratic values, especially in countries like Australia, where political discourse has similarly demonized Palestinians and targetted Palestinian solidarity groups, leading to censorship and repression of fundamental democratic rights like free speech and protest.
About Samah Sabawi
Dr Samah Sabawi is a Palestinian author, playwright and poet and a recipient of multiple national and international awards.
Her theatre credits include the critically acclaimed and award-winning plays, Tales of a City by the Sea and THEM. In 2020 Samah received the prestigious Green Room Award for Best Writing in the independent theatre category, and was shortlisted for both the NSW and Victorian Premiers' Literary Awards.
Samah co-edited along with Stephen Orlov the anthology, Double Exposure: Plays of the Jewish and Palestinian Diasporas, which won the 2017 Patrick O’Neill Award. She co-authored I Remember My Name: Poetry by Samah Sabawi, Ramzy Baroud and Jehan Bseiso, edited by Vacy Vlazna, which won the 2016 Palestine Book Award.
Samah is the host of the webinar/podcast series The Book Room.
She received a Doctor of Philosophy degree from Victoria University for her thesis entitled Inheriting Exile, transgenerational trauma and the Palestinian Australian Identity.
Samah's debut novel Cactus Pear for my Beloved, has just been released.
Samah is the founder of Hakawatieh Productions, whose first animation film is How We Fall in Love which is set to be released in 2025.
Edward W. Said (1935-2003)
Edward Wadie Said (1935-2003) was a Palestinian-American literary theorist and one of the most articulate and visible advocates of the Palestinian cause. He taught English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. Before his death in 2003, Professor Said was seen as one of the leading literary critics of the 20th century, and described by many as an 'intellectual superstar' in the United States.
The annual Edward Said Memorial Lecture was inaugurated in 2005.
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