Published 10/21/2024 15:56 | Edited 10/21/2024 16:00
The Faculty of Philosophy, Letters and Human Sciences (FFLCH) of the University of São Paulo (USP) inaugurated the Center for Palestine Studies (CEPal) last Wednesday (16). The new research center seeks to bring together productions in different areas of humanities that focus on the Palestinian issue and the culture of the people of the region.
The initiative for the new center began at the Faculty Congregation meeting, in June, and aims to promote greater contact between researchers in the area of Palestinian studies.
Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, former minister of the Human Rights Secretariat, and former chancellor Francisco Rezek, as well as Palestinian writer Atef Abu Saif, were present at the event. The current Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mauro Vieira, and the Brazilian ambassador to Palestine for the last four years, Alessandro Candeas, sent videos for the ceremony. The event was coordinated by FFLCH professors Arlene Clemescha and Adma Fadul, who organized the creation of CEPal.
“The creation of this important nucleus comes at a particularly opportune moment. The Palestinian cause, a topic that has always been dear to Brazilian foreign policy, once again assumes centrality on the international scene, with the attention of the entire world directed to the tragic reality of the Israel and Palestine conflict over the last 12 months”, stated the chancellor Brazilian, by video.
“We witnessed with amazement a brutal disproportionate Israeli military reaction in the Gaza Strip through indiscriminate air strikes, military reoccupation, forced displacement of almost two million people, widespread destruction of civil infrastructure and severe restrictions on the entry of basic products”, criticized Mauro Vieira.
Arlene Clemesha, professor of Arab history at USP who takes over the direction of ECLAC, states that its foundation is a recognition of the extent of the crises that have been plaguing the Middle East since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, on October 7, 2023. Cepal “is the result of the historical moment we are living in”, she said.
One of ECLAC’s main objectives is to form a network of academics who are interested in the topic of Palestine. The center is interdisciplinary and brings together all 11 departments of the FFLCH (Faculty of Philosophy, Letters and Human Sciences). It also seeks to encourage exchanges with Palestinian academia, encouraging the mobility of students and teachers.
To implement these projects, the center entered into a collaboration with the Institute of Palestinian Studies (IPS), home to the largest Palestinian documentary collection in the world, based in Beirut, Lebanon. It also makes use of a previous cooperation agreement that USP signed with Birzeit University, in the West Bank.
Source: vermelho.org.br
