participating: Samar Zughool (Reka Si), Etaf Abdelrahman (Reka Si), Abeer Kopty (journalist, author),
Ivona Grgurinović (Initiative for Academic Solidarity and Epistemic Justice), Zrinka Golubić (Free Palestine Initiative)
moderated by: Emina Bužinkić
The global movements to end Israel’s genocide and occupation of Palestine have long challenged the oppressive geopolitical matrix of deliberate killing, destruction, and debilitation of Palestinian peoples and lands. These cross-fertilizing actions have expanded the meaning of civil disobedience in the face of brutal repression, offering inspiration and collective power—even as they are marked by unbearable grief. Yet the disciplining and punishment of freedom fighters by Western security and military apparatuses has dominated the news cycle more than the mass starvation and systematic erasure of Palestinians from the face of the Earth. The defense of freedom of speech has been prioritized over the liberation of Palestine, precisely because it touches the sensitive tissue of liberal-democratic structures that sustain privileges many cling to with desperation. How do movements reflect on this particular dynamic—along with the ailments within their own struggles, including internalized racisms, nationalisms, misogyny, and queerphobia that have siphoned energies away from Palestine and the broader struggle for collective liberation?
Etaf Abdelrahman worked as a social worker at a high school in the Gaza Strip until she was forced to leave due to the ongoing genocide against the Palestinians by the Zionist occupation. She now lives in Slovenia and collaborates with various civil society organizations . For example, she co-leads the Womxn to Womxn initiative for intercultural advocacy at the Reka Si Research and Art Institute (an intersectional feminist organization founded and led by migrant and refugee womxn in Slovenia). As an activist, Etaf champions a free Palestine as part of the broader struggle for universal liberation. Drawing on both her professional background and personal journey, she will speak about the vital roles Palestinian women play in movements for freedom and dignity
Samar Zughool is the director of the Reka Si Research and Art Institute in Slovenia, where she works as a community arts creator, intercultural trainer, and researcher. She employs community art to deconstruct political, cultural, and artistic narratives through an intersectional feminist lens. For her master’s thesis, Samar explored the role of women’s rights movements in reforming public policies after the Arab Spring, which received the Prešeren Award from the Faculty of Social Sciences in Ljubljana. She is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Ljubljana’s Faculty of Social Work, researching queer community work and arts in the diaspora and their implications for decolonial social work theory and practice. At the upcoming event, Samar will serve as Itaf’s interpreter between Arabic and English, and she will offer her insights on Free Palestine as a crucial queer, decolonial, and intersectional feminist issue.
Abeer Kopty is a Palestinian journalist and writer based in Berlin. She has worked as a communication officer/ spokesperson for Palestinian human rights organizations in Haifa and Ramallah. Her political analysis and reporting appeared in several media outlets including Middle East Eye, TRT, Mondoweiss and The Nation. She has also produced podcasts with Sowt podcasting.
Ivona Grgurinović is a cultural anthropologist employed at the Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb. Her teaching and research focus on the history and present forms of violence, the conditions of its emergence, and its consequences.
Zrinka Golubić is an attorney with over two decades of experience, specializing in commercial law. Since founding her practice in 2002, she has worked across sectors including construction, real estate, finance, and the non-profit field. Zrinka was one of the attorneys involved in defending the right to protest against the genocide in Gaza, in a landmark case concerning freedom of assembly. She is also an active member of the Free Palestine initiative in Croatia.
