Faculty members from the Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention, the Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies and the Center for Israeli Studies held a roundtable discussion Thursday afternoon to discuss the use of responsible language when discussing complex narratives surrounding Gaza.

Held in the Admissions Building, students, faculty and community members were present at the discussion. The moderators were Lior Libman, the director of the Center for Israel Studies, and Lubna Omar, the associate director of the Center for Middle East and North African Studies, who are Israeli and Palestinian, respectively. Kent Schull, the CMENAS director; Shay Rabineau, a CIS associate director; and Max Pensky and Kerry Whigham, the co-directors of I-GMAP, were the faculty members leading the discussion.

“Unfortunately, we have seen how facts, narratives and even language itself can be weaponized to reinforce and entrench positions,” Libman said. “Our hope, though perhaps idealistic, is that while deeply held loyalties may remain, we can at least come to an agreement on how to responsibly introduce and engage with facts, frame narratives thoughtfully and explore constructive approaches to this complex issue.”

After the moderators were introduced, Whigham began the roundtable by offering different definitions of mass atrocities and genocides. Genocide was legally defined by one of the first United Nations conventions, the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide as acts “that are committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.”

Whigham mentioned the other two mass atrocities the U.N. made illegal — crimes against humanity, widespread or systematic attacks against civilians, and war crimes, acts of extreme violence against protected groups during wartime. He also defined the Responsibility to Protect — a 2005 U.N. rule that says every country is responsible for protecting its own populations from genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity and that every country in the world has a responsibility to help every other country protect its populations against these crimes. Precedents set under the U.N. charter also state that every country is obligated to intervene if another fails in its responsibility to protect.

“Now in cases of atrocity, governments are often, because of the RTP largely, incredibly reticent to label atrocity crimes as atrocity crimes because of that, because it means that there’s a responsibility to act if they do so,” Whigham said. “And in this way, oftentimes what we see is the use of legal definitions and technicalities and debates over language as a means of avoiding intervention or avoiding engagement on issues.”

Pensky applied these definitions of mass atrocities to the violence in Israel and Gaza, saying a hierarchy for mass atrocities does not exist, as all are equally illegal and unjustifiable. He posited that the ongoing violence is not between Israel and Palestine but between political and military elites and civilians.

“When things go really badly wrong, I think all of us, psychologically, we’re only human, and I think we fall back into ‘either or,’ black and white — it’s what we do,” Pensky said. “And I think that one of our responsibilities as people who are engaged in higher education, as students, as teachers, as learners, is not to reverse that with psychology, but to push back a little and say, ‘What is our work that we have to do?’ ‘What is our responsibility, as engaged people, to think beyond some of these things that actually limit us?’”

Rabineau, also an associate professor of Israel studies, described Zionism as “the late-19th and early-20th century movement that aimed to create a Jewish nation-state in Palestine.” He said its two prevailing, parallel narratives — as either a liberation movement for historically oppressed people or as a European colonial project that displaced indigenous Palestinians — shape the way people see current events.

Schull concluded the discussion by describing the prevailing narratives within Gaza, the West Bank and the Palestinian diaspora.

“For many, many Palestinians, I would probably say the vast majority of them, they see their history, their narrative as one of systemic oppression, denial of identity and an inability to exercise basic sovereignty and basic self-determination,” Schull said. “This has been a systemic situation since World War I in the Middle East and post with the creation of the Palestine Mandate and then with the creation of the state of Israel in the war of 1948.”

He discussed the mass displacement of Palestinians and the treatment they receive compared to other refugees, that Palestinians have their own U.N. organization, and laws that apply to other refugees do not always apply to them. He acknowledged the diverse perspectives within the Palestinian diaspora regarding the recognition of their right to self-determination, ranging from violent tactics to using civil society organizations to work toward peace.

Following the conclusion of the panelists’ speeches, the floor was opened to questions from the audience. The discussion remained mostly respectful, as faculty and students shared perspectives, questions and personal experiences.

“Just being able to hear from people who are actually involved in genocide and mass atrocity prevention, and seeing what that’s like on the ground and what people are actually talking about and the ways in which that differs from the very loud, very charged popular discourse was very helpful for me,” Azriel Elul, a junior majoring in Judaic studies, said.

During the discussion, an attendee began to make inflammatory comments, leading to a heated argument between him and the panelists. After campus security was called and issued him a warning, an officer remained outside the room for the remainder of the event.

This event is part of a series that the three departments are presenting following the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack and the start of Israel’s assault on Gaza. The next event in the series, “Peace is Possible: A Conversation with Aziz Abu Sarah and Maoz Inon,” will take place on Oct. 15 and will feature an Israeli and a Palestinian speaker.

“I think it was successful, because it brought students and faculty and even administration to have these difficult conversations and ask very difficult questions,” Omar said. “And I guess the disruption that happened proved the point that we should have more of these events, so we can have a civil dialogue and not attack each other in the way he did.”

Editor’s Note (10/1/24): To reflect uncertainty as to the identity of the attendee who made inflammatory remarks prompting a call to campus security, a qualifying clause has been removed for clarity.