Please join us for a book talk and discussion of Gates of Gaza: Critical Voices from Israel on October 7 and the War with Hamas, featuring Lihi Ben Shitrit, the book’s editor and Director of the NYU Taub Center for Israeli Studies.
Following the horrific attack on October 7, support for a devastating military retaliation and resolution has taken center stage. Nevertheless, within Israel, numerous critical voices cast doubt on the sustainability of such approaches. They champion the principles of morality, legality, and common sense as the true keys to a lasting solution. The Gates of Gaza focuses on these voices which are critical of Israeli government policies. They are deeply grieving and affected by the October 7 attack, while also able to hold both Palestinian and Israeli pain and aspirations not as mutually exclusive, but as an impetus for creating a better and more equitable future for all who inhabit the land. It chronicles the reactions of intellectuals and scholars to unfolding events. All the pieces in this volume were written within a few days to a few months of October 7 and comprise an archive of a particular discourse taking shape in Israel at this historical juncture.
Lunch will be provided.
This event is sponsored by the Program on Law and Society in the Muslim World, the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School, HLS Advocates for Human Rights, and the Religion, Peace, and Conflict Initiative at the Harvard Divinity School.
About the speaker:
Lihi Ben Shitrit is the Director of the Taub Center for Israel Studies and the Henry Taub Associate Professor of Israel Studies at the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at NYU. She is also an Associate Professor at the School of Public and International Affairs, University of Georgia. She is the author of Righteous Transgressions: Women’s Activism on the Israeli and Palestinian Religious Right (Princeton University Press, 2015) and Women and the Holy City: The Struggle over Jerusalem’s Sacred Space (Cambridge University Press, 2020).
