Israel Beyond Apartheid: Susan Abulhawa

Susan Abulhawa presented this keynote speech at the sixth Israel Lobby & American Policy Conference at the National Press Club in Washington, DC on March 22, 2019. Her address was entitled “Israel Beyond Apartheid,” and examined the nature of Israel’s presence in the world, beginning with its claim to be the “only democracy in the Middle East“ vs its reality as an apartheid nation. What are the roles Israel has assumed beyond colonizing Palestine in terms of Israel’s relationships to other nations, to the natural world, and to history? As a highly regarded Palestinian author who has written internationally acclaimed bestsellers, Abulhawa is often invited to international poetry or literary festivals. Audiences in every country in the world can listen to her voice—except in her own homeland. In November 2018, Israeli authorities barred her entry at Tel Aviv’s Ben-Gurion Airport and prevented her from participating in panel discussions at a literature festival in Ramallah and Jerusalem. She