In view of “the current tragic situation” – in reference to the Hamas attack against Israel on October 7 – the Arab World Institute (IMA) in Paris is canceling a series of conferences and events planned as part of its programming What Palestine brings to the world. “Out of respect for the victims and for logistical reasons, we are postponing these events until the end of the “Palestine season”, that is to say November 19,” reports the Institute. Among the difficulties encountered, the IMA explains in particular that expected artists are today unable to leave Palestine.
This current “Palestine season” consists of three exhibitions and is organized around cultural events. As specified during its opening in June, this program marks the 75th anniversary of the “Nakba”. This term, meaning “catastrophe” in Arabic, refers to the expression used by Palestinians to designate the creation of the State of Israel in 1948.
A political choice on the part of the IMA? “The objective was to question the meaning of this word, to compare its various interpretations with different Palestinian and Israeli intellectuals,” explains the Institute today. Since Saturday, however, something has become clear. It is impossible to debate the possibility – or not – of coexistence between the two peoples on the same land, seventy-five years after the creation of Israel. A debate organized on this theme on October 12, in the presence of Elias Sanbar, diplomat and Palestinian ambassador to UNESCO, was postponed, as was the conference on “the relationship between the writer Jean Genet and the Palestinian people” and the evening dedicated to the Palestinian electronic scene this weekend.
The IMA, a private law foundation chaired by Jack Lang, aims to “promote dialogue between the Arab world and the West” and receives funding from the countries of the Arab League (which includes Palestine, Kuwait, Qatar and even Saudi Arabia). It is placed under the supervision of the Quai d’Orsay.
Since its inauguration in 1987, the Institute has already found itself at the center of controversy. In 2021, the Jews of the Orients exhibition sparked strong reactions in the Arab world. In an open letter to the institution, nearly 200 intellectuals from the Maghreb and Mashreq, including the Tunisian musician Anouar Brahem and the Palestinian filmmaker Elia Suleiman, criticized the Institute for representing Israel “as a normal state”.
At a time of Hamas’s attack on Israel and Israeli reprisals, the IMA is playing a balancing act: “We are often criticized by both parties and this shows that we are in a form of balance,” says Jack Lang’s entourage.
Also read: Europeans are divided on maintaining aid to Palestine
Since October 9, the European Union has suspended all payments of its development aid – amounting to 691 million euros – to the Palestinians and has decided to reevaluate all of its current programs. For its part, France, which supported the Palestinian cause with 95 million euros in 2022, is not in favor of suspending this aid.
