Worst form of settler colonialism in occupied Palestine: Ben Labidi

An associate professor and filmmaker in the media studies programme at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies has expressed the hope that the Third Annual Palestine Forum is going to help educate the public and give them a better understanding of the Palestinian condition. Speaking to 'Gulf Times' on the sidelines of the forum, Dr Imad Ben Labidi said, "the incredibly long occupation of Palestine that has been constantly described as conflict is clearly bloody and almost genocidal. It is a very violent event, and it has to be described in those terms. So, we need to change some of the semantics, where things should be described as they are."Dr Ben Labidi who discussed "Unchilding Palestine: Media Representation and the Limits of Civilizational Discourse,” during the the first session of the forum, said: "A conflict in my opinion is confusing, it does not describe the real conditions on the ground. So, what we are doing in this event, is going to approach some of these problems, either on the linguistic level, or in terms of representation, in terms of images. Also, in terms of textuality and how many of the images and the narratives that are kept produced and intersect to confuse the viewers, audiences, to confuse Americans in particular, most of whom do not really understand how long and how bloody this occupation has been."Settler colonialism is probably one of the longest and the bloodiest experience in human history as we see it in occupied Palestine. What it tries to do, is really completely uproot the indigenous population and replace them with settlers and entities that do not really belong in Palestine.”With relevance to the impact of the intended approach, Dr Ben Labidi added: "We have been trying constantly to influence the western narrative more, educate them about certain aspects that do not seem to be clearly understood. Or challenge this discourse that is completely confusing about the reality of settler colonialism, in a way that it does not really try to include the native. That does not try to live with the native, but it tries to completely eliminate the native.”Dr Ben Labidi's most recent film, 'Alma Under the Rubble' (2024) received the Best Short Animation Award in the Hollywood Golden Age Film Festival.