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NEWS
News Editor Karissa Ketter
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News Writers Chloë Arneson and Pranjali J Mann
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news@the-peak.ca
PALESTINE DAYS
A talk on Palestinian leadership under the British Mandate Bassam Abun-Nadi spoke on Palestine’s anti-colonial struggle YASMI N VE J S S I M S EK // STAF F W RI TE R
On June 1, SFU’s Centre for Comparative Muslim Studies (CCMS) held an event at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in collaboration with The Caucus. Educator and activist Bassam Abun-Nadi explored the absence of military academies in Palestine and its effect on the country’s anti-colonial struggle. The British Mandate for Palestine started after World War I and lasted until 1948. It saw British rule over Palestine after the fall of the Ottoman Empire. The British Mandate was “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” When talking about Palestine’s history, Abun-Nadi explained there are three antagonists — the British imperial project, the Zionist movement, and the Palestinian leadership, who were urban notables. Abun-Nadi explained the Mandate resulted in the notables (an urban and elite social class) of Palestine becoming parliamentarians — which could be thought of as government officials. This, however, came to an abrupt end with the Nakba — which refers to the displacement and ethnic cleansing of 750,000 Palestinians from their home country. Following the Nakba, the urban notables became the Palestinian leadership. Abun-Nadi explored the notables’ responsibility in losing Palestine and their anti-colonial struggle. Being an educator himself, Abun-Nadi focuses on the impact of education on Palestine’s history. He observed the absence of military academies in Palestine, a free school to train men for the Ottoman army. This was important as several of the officers who came out of the academies in other parts of the Middle East went on to become anti-colonial figures and leaders of their home countries. Because Palestine lacked military graduates, the urban notables were forced to adopt leadership. There are several reasons there are no military academies in Palestine, according to Abun-Nadi. The first being “the Ottoman Empire did not design its institutions with the collapse of the empire in mind” and therefore did not plan for new borders.
Secondly, military academies were only located in regional capitals. Holy cities and their surrounding areas were exempt from being drafted, leaving Jerusalem unable to have military academies. “What that meant is that Palestine barreled into the Mandate era without any institutionalized knowledge on how to resist an occupation,” said Abun-Nadi. This left the country with no one but the notables and peasants, who had no military training or no education at all, respectively, added Abun-Nadi. “In analyzing the anti-colonial struggle of the Palestinians, one would imagine had they had military officers it would have decisively changed the way that they were able to engage with the British empire,” said Abun-Nadi. The absence of military academies, and therefore officers, left the notables in charge. “The urban notables were not incompetent. They were not. The urban notables were supremely competent in all the wrong things.” The notables’ lack of leadership training may have enabled the occupation, but it was not a fault of their own.
Palestine barreled into the Mandate era without any institutionalized knowledge on how to resist an occupation. BASSAM ABUN-NADI // EDUCATOR AND ACTIVIST
“The game had changed in such a way that the tools they had at their disposal just didn't work anymore. They were playing chess while everyone else was playing rugby,” said Abun-Nadi.
The talk was a part of a larger three day event on Palestine. PHOTO: Amal Abdullah
Abun-Nadi ended with encouraging people to forgive each other and the urban notables for their share of the responsibility of Palestine’s past in the spirit of truth and reconciliation. Abun-Nadi is an SFU alumni and the founder and president of the grassroot organization RECLAIM, which works “to bridge the gap between Muslims and non-Muslims through education.” This talk marked the first of three Palestine Days at SFU, hosted by CCMS, MENA film festival, Institute for the Humanities, and other groups, at SFU. The Palestine Days lasted from June 1–3 and included film screenings, lectures, and workshops all surrounding Palestine and its peoples. You can learn more from Abun-Nadi on his podcast “PreOccupation: A Not-So-Brief History of Palestine” and attend the next Palestine Days events. A Sky with no Stars will be available soon on CCMS’ Youtube channel. For more information on the Palestinian occupation, visit Amnesty International’s website or United Nations’ Human Rights Comission’s website.
FUNDING FOR GRADUATES
NDP announces $3.75 million in graduate research scholarships 10 post-secondary institutions will receive similar research scholarships P RA NJALI J MANN // NE WS W RI TE R
SFU is set to receive $630,000 in domestic graduate research scholarship funding. The provincial government’s press release notes the scholarships will be awarded based on merit. The focus will be research-based projects in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and business disciplines. The research funding comes as an effort of the BC government to close BC’s skills and talent gap, under the StrongerBC Economic Plan. This particular “investment will support 250 awards of a minimum of $15,000 each through March 2024.” “One of the ways we can strengthen our communities is by investing in students so that they feel ready to take on whatever comes their way,” said Katrina Chen, MLA for Burnaby-Lougheed. To find out more about the grant, The Peak contacted Anne Kang, minister of advanced education and skills training. Kang mentioned the BC graduate scholarship program was started by the government in 2018 with $20 million invested so far. She noted throughout 2022–23, the $3.75 million fund will provide domestic graduate scholarships across 10 postsecondary institutions. This includes British Columbia Institute of Technology, University of British Columbia, University of the Fraser Valley, University of Victoria, and SFU.
NDP MLA Anne Kang hopes the scholarships will help increase accessibility to education. Kang underlined the funding is coming because the provincial government wants to “work hard to invest in affordable postsecondary education and break down barriers for people by investing in post-secondary institutions.” According to her, these scholarships can be used by graduate students to “cover their life expenses such as tuition, rent, food, childcare, and transportation. The purpose is so they can focus on their studies and be successful.” For all domestic undergraduate and graduate students, the government offers these grants through the Student Aid BC program. Under this program, $50 million has been invested this year, covering financial assistance for about 4,000 graduate students in BC. On April 14, Tuition Freeze Now held a rally outside of Kang’s office in protest of the cost of tuition. International student fees and tuition has increased by 4% within the last year. Kang added the issue of affordability is being worked on and several steps included a funding review looking into cost of
PHOTO: Amirul Anirban / The Peak
living and tuition for all twenty five post-secondary institutions in BC. She also stated, “I am very confident by 2028 that the government and post-secondary institutions will have invested in 8,000 student housing. That means there will be more affordable housing and safe housing on campuses.”
Continue to work hard to invest in affordable post-secondary education and to break down barriers for people by investing in post-secondary ANNE KANG MINISTER OF ADVANCED EDUCATION AND SKILLS TRAINING
Kang said education is being made more affordable in BC by “eliminating tuition fees for former youth in care” and allowing adults to receive free adult basic education.
