Steve Salaita

Andom Ghebreghiorgis and the Limits of Left Electoralism

What must a radical candidate do to get some love?

For various reasons, I avoid political campaigns. I just can’t get excited about them, in part because electoralism has so thoroughly colonized the US left. In a healthy intellectual culture, its predominance would be automatic cause for skepticism. Unfortunately, these days sickness feels compulsory. Rejecting electoralism invites disdain and derision.

Amid the bickering on the US left about the utility of voting, a compromise usually emerges: voting is merely a form of damage control that one performs every few years before returning to the serious stuff. But the rhetoric of voting supersedes the physical act. In turn, elections have become a nonstop preoccupation. The off-season no longer exists.

The Magical City of Jerusalem

“Where are you from?” For Palestinians, it can be a devastating question.

The other day I was browsing the July issue of Palestine in America (an excellent magazine) featuring a profile of fashion designer Rami Kashou. Kashou is best known for his appearance on season 4 of Project Runway (2007-08), a design competition in which he placed second. He went on to a successful career in fashion.

Although I didn’t follow Kashou’s career, I remember him well. My wife and I liked Project Runway in its heyday and were watching when Kashou was introduced. His accent, his body language, his facial features—all felt deeply familiar. We glanced at each other. “Gotta be,” she said. The energy in the room got happier. We would have the rare opportunity to cheer on a Palestinian contestant.

Renouncing Israel on Principle

How to answer the question, “Do you affirm Israel’s right to exist?”

When anti-Zionists discuss the Middle East, the topic of Israel’s existence rarely arises. It’s almost exclusively a pro-Israel talking point. We’re focused on national liberation, on surviving repression, on strategies of resistance, on recovering subjugated histories, on the complex (and sometimes touchy) relationships among an Indigenous population disaggregated by decades of aggression. That a colonial state—or any state, really—possesses no ontological rights is an unspoken assumption.

The Unlocked Turnstile of Palestine Solidarity

At what point can Palestinians trust former Zionists?

Around a year-and-a-half ago, I received an email from Mira Sucharov, a professor at Carleton University, inviting me to join a conference roundtable, “Israel-Palestine Scholarship, Activism, and the Threat to Academic Freedom.” The request was polite and professional and the topic seemed fine (though the term “Israel-Palestine” always give me pause). A day later, I declined the invitation.

The Utility of Fear

Don’t buy the myth of fearless journalism. Real dissidents have good reason to be afraid.

Fearlessness. We often hear about the condition in relation to independent media: this journalist is fearless; that outlet produces fearless reporting. Fearlessness is our mandate; fearlessness depends upon your donation. It’s a strong claim, but not especially flattering as self-description, being the kind of adjective best left to disinterested parties. What does it really mean, though? Is it an empty branding device or does it signify indispensable contributions to public discourse?

The Big Picture

Settling into life as an ex-academic also means fighting off the aftereffects of academe.

When I was learning to be a school bus driver, our instructors talked often of the big picture. It was especially common during on-the-road training. An instructor would lean across the aisle and point to the windshield. “Remember the big picture.” Something abnormal or noteworthy was ahead.

The big picture was meant to sharpen perception of roadway unpredictability: low-hanging branches, potholes, lane mergers, road construction, accidents, broken stoplights, standing water, fallen wires, erratic drivers. We were being trained to avoid problems through early detection.

Hamza Yusuf and the Religion of Palestine

Bad things happen when Palestine is treated as a symbolic geography rather than a site of material struggle.

Sheikh Hamza Yusuf was recently in the news again. Yusuf, born Mark Hanson in 1958, is probably the best-known Muslim leader in the USA. (I know the word “leader” is loaded, so substitute “cleric” or “theologian” or “scholar” or “imam” or “hype man” if you wish.) Controversy is an inevitable feature of that position, so a journey through the social media cycle isn’t unusual, but Yusuf exhibits a talent for empty provocation. A good controversy pushes people to rethink common assumptions; those provoked by Yusuf impose orthodoxy on audiences who crave daring and meaningful ideas.

The Inhumanity of Academic Freedom

A transcript of the 2019 TB Davie Memorial Lecture at the University of Cape Town, delivered August 7, 2019.

I begin with a straightforward proposition: academic freedom is inhumane. Its inhumanity isn’t of the physical, legal, or intellectual variety. Even at its best, academic freedom is capable of transforming human beings into instruments of bureaucracy. It is inhumane as an ontological category. It cannot provide the very artifact it promises: freedom. To become practicable, academic freedom requires textual boundaries. Under this sort of regime, freedom is merely academic.