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FB Kolloq SoSe2026: Slieman Halabi

„Negotiating Homeland Conflict Abroad: Identity Responsibility and Power in Israeli–Palestinian Diaspora Dialogue”

Veranstaltungsdaten

Dr. Slieman Halabi, Universität Wuppertal
„Negotiating Homeland Conflict Abroad: Identity Responsibility and Power in Israeli–Palestinian Diaspora Dialogue”

This talk offers insights into how Israelis and Palestinians living in Europe make sense of asymmetries in power through processes of (dis)identification with the homeland, constructions of moral responsibility, and orientations toward action. The analysis draws on a dialogue group that met over a period of five months, beginning one day after the October 7th attacks, and continuing through a combination of online and in-person meetings during the devastating war in Gaza. Diaspora identity plays a central role in shaping engagement with homeland politics. Social psychology has understood identification with groups and nations as a process of self-categorisation determined by individual’s choice to identify or not identify with the group. Nation-states actively sustain this process by shaping the extent to which national identities are kept alive through practices of banal nationalism. For stateless groups, sustaining national identity often requires more proactive engagement with collective memory and national narratives. How do these disparities manifest in dialogue encounters?