The Holy Land – A Real Place? Images of Palestine
A Lecture with Irit Neidhardt, author, curator and lecturer
| Please register https://forms.gle/QywK5Ma6FwLtV3wm8 or by email contact@ibn-rushd.org |
| Everyone has an image of Palestine, be it photographic, cinematic, political, religious or a very private memory. Images from or about Palestine appeal to many people emotionally. When Palestine is brought up at private or public gatherings, debates in Germany – if they are allowed to take place – are usually more heated than discussions about other countries, more so than ever in light of the current war of annihilation against Gaza. Where does this close connection come from, and what does it have to do with the images we grew up with and which continue to surround us today? But where is “the Holy Land” actually located? Holiness comes from within the believers, and a person, an object or a place only becomes sacred through the attribution of a religious meaning. How does this process affect those who actually live in a sacred place every day? Who perhaps do not share the religiosity ascribed to the place? And how does it affect those who do not live there and for whom sacredness is more important than the actual place and its inhabitants? For centuries, Christian travellers went to the Middle East under the most different historical and political conditions in search of the land as described in the book that is holy to them. This lecture will focus on the period from around 1830-1948, between the beginning of photography and the Nakba. How did their gaze and the resulting pictorial representation contribute to orientalising the Holy Land and shaping the image of Palestine in Europe today? How do their images of the Palestinians still influence prevailing representations and perceptions today? And how does this shape the way in which Europeans view, judge and treat the disputed land, once universally referred to as Palestine, today? Based on images, mostly taken before the Nakba, the expulsion and flight of the Palestinians that began in 1948 and is currently experiencing a new climax, this lecture deals with the question of who depicted Palestine, when and for what purpose. In addition to Christian religious photography, it will also look at British-colonial and Zionist images as well as Palestinian everyday and press photography. Different types of images will be analysed in terms of the political, cultural and economic interests and conditions for their production and distribution. On the basis of imagery politics, power relations, possession and appropriation, expulsion, displacement, denial and the presentation of evidence become visible in the literal sense of the word. After the lecture there will be an opportunity to ask questions and discuss. Lecture in German, questions and contributions to the discussion are also possible in Arabic and English, as always, we will translate as best we can. Curated and moderated by Cora Josting |
About the speakers
Irit Neidhardt
(born 1969) studied political science, Islamic studies and ethnology and has worked as an author, curator and freelance researcher in the field of cinema and the Middle East since graduating in 1995. In addition to her freelance work, she founded the international distribution and sales company mec film for films by Arab directors in 2002.
Irit Neidhardt is co-producer of several award-winning Arab documentaries and author of numerous articles on cinema and the Arab world, in which she focuses on questions of cooperation and co-production between Europe and the Middle East. From 2014 to 2016, she was an Honorary Fellow at the European Centre for Palestine Studies at at the University of Exeter in England with a research project on cinematic cooperation between the
PLO and both German states. She is a lecturer at the Konrad Wolf Film University in Babelsberg.
| 10. Juli 2025 – 19:00 Lettrétage , Veteranenstraße 21, 10119 Berlin Please register here for the event |
| We invite young researchers and/or artists and/or intellectuals who would like to discuss their findings, their work in progress, a current chapter of their thesis, dissertation, or an upcoming project, to take part and thus shape this interdisciplinary series with us. You are writing a book, an article, an essay, and/or are establishing a theory you would like to discuss with like-minded people in order to sharpen it a bit, or you have a project in mind but want to discuss it to get some help to speed up and move your thoughts faster – write to young@ibn-rushd.org and we will see if, how and when to fit it in. We are in this series aiming at a mix of events happening live in person in Berlin, or as online events/webinars. You want to join our organizing team, in person in Berlin or online? Ahlan wa sahlan – please get in touch! |