HURNDALL MEMORIAL LECTURE

Tom Hurndall was a student at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU). He was fatally wounded by the Israeli Defence Force whilst protecting Palestinian children in Gaza. He was shot on 11 April 2003, and died on January 13th 2004. Since 2005 a Memorial Lecture has taken place in MMU which has attracted prestigious figures willing to speak out against what was done in 2004 and what is still being done now by the Israeli State.

This site has details of the lectures

The Nineteenth Tom Hurndall Memorial Lecture took place on 17 October at the University of Manchester as the the closing session of the GDI Student Conference on ‘Palestine & Social Justice: Decolonisation and Development Studies’. (Manchester Metropolitan University, the university where Tom Hurndall studied, has shamefully, for the second year running, refused to allow this year’s lecture to take place on its premises.) The guest speaker was Joseph Daher, speaking on ‘Gaza: A Class Understanding of the Genocide’. The PowerPoint for his lecture is here.

For Palestine Book

The open-access book, For Palestine: Essays from the Tom Hurndall Memorial Lecture Group, is available for free download in different formats here: https://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0345, and for purchase as paperback and hardback. It brings together contributions from the sixteen lectures held between 2005 and 2021 with an incredible range of interventions remembering Tom and in solidarity with Palestine.

PREVIOUS HURNDALL MEMORIAL LECTURES

The Eighteenth Tom Hurndall Memorial Lecture took place at Cross Street Chapel in Manchester on Tuesday 19 March 2024, with Professor Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, Global Chair in Law at Queen Mary University of London, the lecture was chaired by Dr Steven Hurst from Manchester Metropolitan University. (Manchester Metropolitan University refused to allow the lecture, which has been hosted by the university up until now, on its premises.) Professor Shalhoub-Kevorkian’s lecture “‘Ashlaa’ and the Genocide in Gaza: Livability against Fragmented Flesh” focused on the centrality of death and the flesh in comprehending the barbarities of unchilding, arguing that the unchilded flesh in Gaza points to the failure of the discourse of humanism and children’s rights. A video of Professor Shalhoub-Kevorkian’s lecture is available here, and a written version of the lecture is available here. The lecture was followed by a panel discussion: ‘Remembering Tom Hurndall 20 Years On’. This commemorative meeting, about the life, work and memory of Tom Hurndall, was to mobilise and take forward the struggle he gave his life for. Guest speakers were Ghassan Abu-Sittah (Palestinian surgeon), Izzat Darwazeh (British Palestinian academic – UCL), Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian (Tom Hurndall Memorial Lecture speaker 2024), Lara Sheehi (Doha Institute) and Stephen Sheehi (William & Mary), and it was chaired by Waleed Shrouji.

The Seventeenth Tom Hurndall Memorial Lecture was in June 2023, with Rabab Abdulhadi (San Francisco State University) speaking on ’75 Years of Nakba, Sumoud and Solidarity: Honoring Tom Hurndall – Palestinian Martyr’

The Sixteenth Tom Hurndall Memorial Lecture was in December 2021, with Lara Sheehi (clinical psychologist, secretary of SPPP) speaking on ‘Psychoanalysis Under Occupation’.

The Fifteenth Tom Hurndall Memorial Lecture was in November 2020, with Tim Llewellyn (a former BBC Middle East correspondent) speaking on ‘How Britain’s Mainstream Media Bends to the Winds’

the Fourteenth Lecture was in March 2019, with Salma Karmi-Ayyoub (Criminal Barrister) speaking on ‘Israel’s Nation State Law and its consequences for Palestinians’;

the Thirteenth Lecture was in March 2018, with Miriyam Aouragh (Senior Lecturer and Leverhulme Fellow at CAMRI, University of Westminster) speaking on ‘Resisting Cybercide, Strengthening Solidarity: standing up to Israel’s digital occupation’

the Twelfth Lecture was in March 2017, with Penny Green (Professor of Law and Globalisation, Queen Mary University of London) speaking on ‘Evicting Palestine: Israel’s criminal urban planning programme’

the Eleventh Lecture was in March 2016, with Adam Hanieh (Senior Lecturer in Development Studies at SOAS, University of London) who spoke on the title ‘Palestine in the shadow of regional turmoil’

the Tenth Lecture was in March 2015, with Rania Masri (Associate Director of the Asfari Institute for Civil Society and Citizenship, American University of Beirut) on ‘Dismantling Racism and Colonialism: Challenges for the BDS Movement’

the Ninth Lecture was in April 2014, with Daniel Machover (Head of Civil Litigation, Hickman & Rose Solicitors, London) on ‘Are some or all Palestinians victims of Israeli apartheid?’

the Eighth Lecture was in April 2013, with Eyal Weizman (Professor of Visual Cultures and director of the Centre for Research Architecture at Goldsmiths, University of London) on ‘The fields and forums of political action’;

the Seventh Lecture was in October 2011, with Haneen Maikey (Director of alQaws Centre for Sexual and Gender Diversity in Palestinian Society, Jerusalem) on ‘Queer politics and the Palestinian struggle: Ten years of activism’;

the Sixth Lecture was in November 2010, with Karma Nabulsi (Oxford University) on ‘Overcoming Fragmentation: Palestinian Refugees and the Right of Return’;

the Fifth Lecture was in November 2009, with Avi Shlaim (Professor of International Relations, University of Oxford) on ‘Israel’s Offensive in Gaza: Rhetoric and Reality’, and included a contribution from Jocelyn Hurndall (Tom’s mother);

the Fourth Lecture was in December 2008, with Kamel Hawwash (Chair of the Britain-Palestine Twinning Network, the Birmingham-Ramallah Twinning initiative and the Midlands Palestinian community Association) on ‘Can Palestinians Regain the Initiative For Ending the Occupation?’;

the Third Lecture was in January 2008 with Ilan Pappe (University of Exeter) on ‘The Dispossession of Palestine: Sixty Years On’;

the Second Lecture was in November 2006 with Richard Kuper (Jews for Justice for Palestinians, London) on ‘Human Rights and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict’; and

the First Lecture was in November 2005, with Dr Salman Abu-Sitta (founder of the Palestine Land Society) on ‘Prospects for Peace in Palestine’.

We have no institutional funding. We work with colleagues from local organisations, including Manchester PSC to get out the publicity for the event. The organising group brings together colleagues from universities in Manchester and the North West. There is a Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/113162458703983