Revolutions 2011: the foundation of the moment and the continuation

On the occasion of the beginning of the year 2011 from Tunisia to Egypt in Syria, the Society of Arab Culture in Haifa held last Wednesday a seminar entitled "Eight Years Later" in the part of his monthly intellectual seminars.

The seminar was opened and facilitated by journalist Rabee Eid, who stated that after decades of claiming freedom, social justice and democracy in accordance with the rules of Isthidha, the upheavals experienced by various Arab cities in 2011 were a key event in our contemporary history. Arab.

He pointed out that the Arab revolutions were moving away from several factors, including internal and external, including the success of the counter-revolutions in the elimination of the revolutionary movement and the entry of several countries in the midst of the civil war .

Under the title "The people's revolutions want to overthrow the regime, have you overthrown or overthrown?" The first intervention of this symposium, presented by the Tunisian researcher and activist Amin Bouazizi, was produced via the skype of Sidi Bouzid, in Tunisia.

"People ended up thinking that they were relying on themselves to change what should be changed," Bouazizi said, "the Ben Ali regime has tried to prevent all the tools of the revolution, to prevent parties and associations, and to control human rights organizations, without preventing the revolution. "The Tunisian Revolution was launched without the tools of revolution and without the perspectives of the revolution. "

"What did the Tunisians fill up?", He asked, "to answer that they had made it like a historic mass gathering all the victims of the regime who were coasting. next to the streets around the slogans ". Months and stood up against the Ben Ali regime, and this is the strength of the month of the revolution in Tunisia. "

Mr. Bouazizi addressed the challenges facing the Tunisian revolution, particularly the economic and social challenges, pointing out that many progress has been made by Tunisians, especially in the area of ​​political freedoms.

At the end of his speech, Bouazizi emphasized the central role of the Palestinian cause for the Tunisian people and the continuation of the movement to criminalize normalization with Israel.

For her part, Sudanese political activist Walaa al-Bouchi, through Khartoum Skype, presented an intervention entitled "What Happened in Sudan Two Months Ago?", Who spoke about 39, the acceleration of the events of the ongoing protest movement in Sudan.

Al-Bouchi said the popular momentum about the size and shape of popular participation in Sudan's cities and rural areas is unprecedented in Sudan. She pointed out that the demands of protesters who go to daily life are Omar al-Bashir, who took power during a coup in 1989.

Al-Boushi discussed the shape of the movement and its prospects in the face of the regime's intransigence not to respond to the people and explained the forms of repression against the Sudanese. "Regarding mobility, we will continue, because the regime in place for 30 years will not fall in ten days.Release the ideas advanced by the regime, especially the separation of women and men Today , the Sudanese people began to celebrate the presence of women in the foreground.

"The movement is effective and, otherwise, it would not have declared the state of emergency and the government has dissolved and Bashir has abandoned the ruling party, the seeds of disintegration begin to appear and for us, the way is free to bring down the regime.

The Palestinian writer Joan Renawi, speaking in the third intervention, was on the theme of "The past and the narrative of the past, the question of the Syrian identity on both sides of a revolution" of the last quarter of the twentieth century and the main failures policies in which the attention given to the past by Syria and the ancient Middle East among the Syrian elites Unprecedented.

Renawi said that the semi-contemporary Arab national identity was imposed on the past, the history, the people and entities in which she lived. The cultural movement, sponsored by the state itself , by its weapons, its forums and its media, remained virtually identical until the time of the "Big Bang" of 2011.

In addition, Palestinian researcher Malihah Musallamani presented a lecture entitled "The Graphite of the Egyptian Revolution and the Art of Protest", in which she described this art as a major instrument of protest and expression national culture in the Arab revolutions, after being banned and repressed for decades by Arab dictatorships.

She explained: "This art in much of the Arab countries, it was sometimes accompanied by his death, as in Iraq, where he executed those who put slogans against the Baath", adding: "With the outbreak of the Arab revolutions , a graphite revolution also broke out I changed the visual scene. "

Muslimani presented her personal experience by documenting the Egyptian revolution and publishing a book in which she tackles the subjects and events that were painted on the walls, prompted, criticized, discussed and constituted a new public space before being swept by the counter-revolutionary system.

The "Wednesday Hadith" program, which includes a monthly intellectual symposium, said that before the symposium, Rola Khoury, director of the Society of Arab Culture, sought to raise various cultural, political and intellectual issues and to "re-establish the status of cultural seminars in our society ". Shaping the public space, in addition to contributing to the production of Palestinian knowledge by encouraging writers, academics and activists to do so. "