The Palestine Exception: Film Screening and Discussion

We invite you to join a screening of The Palestine Exception, a documentary directed by JAN HAAKEN and JENNIFER RUTH, followed by a panel discussion including the directors.

At Duke on Wednesday, Dec. 4, 7pm-9pm, White Lecture Hall (doors open at 6:30pm)

The event will also happen at UNC-Chapel Hill on Tuesday, Dec. 3, 6pm-8pm,
Murphey 116 (doors open at 5:30pm).

Both events are free and open to the public.

About the film:
"The Palestine Exception tells the story of the largest anti-war movement since the 1970s as students, faculty and staff on campuses across the US demand divestment from companies doing business with Israel and an end to the war on Gaza. The documentary features diverse academics explaining the history of censorship around criticism of Israel and Zionism.

After years of right-wing assaults on higher education, attacks took a new form in 2023 and 2024 that has been described as the new McCarthyism. As students across the country organize protests against Israel's war on Gaza, decades-long taboos in academia around criticism of Israel-the "Palestine exception"-are shattered. This film features professors and students as they join calls for a ceasefire and divestment from companies that do business with Israel and face waves of crackdown from administrators, the media, the police and politicians. Scholars from diverse disciplines explain what is at stake in these protests and why so many young people identify with the Palestinian cause. The documentary unfolds as a story of college campuses as sites of both rebellion and repression, places where personal and collective histories converge in unexpected ways."

Featuring interviews with academics including Ellen Schrecker, Jennifer Gaboury, Judith Butler, Premilla Nadasen, Saree Makdisi, Ted Khoury, and Sophie Smith (Duke PhD in Literature).

More info and trailer:
https://www.palestineexceptionfilm.com/

Co-sponsored by: John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute; African and African-American Studies; Art, Art History & Visual Studies; Asian and Middle Eastern Studies; Asian-American and Diaspora Studies; Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies; International Comparative Studies; and Literature at Duke University