The Open University's Classical Studies academic, Marchella Ward is chairing an event co-organised by two research networks – Critical Ancient World Studies and Everyday Orientalism to discuss the destruction of ancient heritage in Palestine by Israel. The event is the second in a series, the first of which took place last year, and drew journalists, human rights organisations, archaeologists, museums and members of the public around the world into a conversation about history.

It is entitled: In Solidarity with Palestine II: In the Ruins of History, a reference to the fact that a year and a half of the most recent escalation of Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians has left history in ruins. Alongside the deliberate destruction of archaeological and heritage sites, many of them going back millennia, the event will also consider other forms of ruin – including the ruins of subject organisations that were unable to represent their members’ desire to condemn historicide, or to observe the boycott movements  aimed at Israel’s apartheid regime, just as they were once aimed at other regimes of apartheid

News articles after the first event spoke of it as a turning point, after which the destruction of heritage became difficult to ignore. This event will bring together archaeologists, historians, peace studies scholars, religious scholars (including Jewish studies and critical Muslim studies), museum professionals from Palestine, Israel and the world to ask: how do we oppose Israel’s attacks on heritage and stand in solidarity with the oppressed? And what does it mean to be a historian in the ruins of history? Speakers include Palestinian archaeologists Fadel Al Utol and Ali Marwan Shahwan, director of the Gaza Maritime Archaeology project Georgia Andreou, member of the Gaza Archaeological Museum project, Marc-Andre Haldimann, curator of the Almathaf Museum in Gaza, Yasmeen Elkhoudary, professor of Religion, Conflict and Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame, Atalia Omer and professor of Decolonial Thought S. Sayyid.