Debate | Protest in the Middle East

As part of the opening event of the Barcelona Summer School of the Mediterranean and the Middle East, Professor Neil Ketchley, winner of The Fred Halliday Award 2024, will speak about the possibilities of protest in the Middle East and North Africa. This will be followed by a discussion with Yezid Sayigh, Monica Marks and Neil Ketchley about the future of the Middle East.

The event will open with remarks by Jaume Duch, Minister of European Union and Foreign Action of the Government of Catalonia.

Since the Hamas attacks of October 2023 and the subsequent genocide in Gaza, new forms of pro-Palestine collective action have appeared in various contexts of the Middle East and North Africa, among them boycotts against American and European companies and street demonstrations. In this session, Neil Ketchley, will speak about the difficulties presented by this activism, most of them resulting from the repressive power of authoritarian regimes in the region.

This talk will be followed by a discussion moderated by Umut Özkırımlı in which Neil Ketchley, Yezid Sayigh, Palestinian researcher, academic, and Middle East specialist, and Monica Marks, academic specialising in Islamist movements, gender, and politics in the Middle East and North Africa, will explore the complexities and uncertainties that lie ahead for the Middle East.

This is the inaugural event of the fourth edition of the Barcelona Summer School of the Mediterranean and the Middle East.