Scientific event

As Algeria commemorates a day of glorious remembrance, marking the anniversary of the December 11, 1960 demonstrations, during which Algerians expressed their attachment to their land and their commitment to the principle of self-determination, and as the world commemorates the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 10, 1948, the current situation and the brutal war in Gaza present us with renewed questions. These questions are fundamentally linked to a set of concepts enshrined in political discourse, media writings, and even academic works, such as: human rights, the right of peoples to self-determination, freedom of expression, equality, and justice. For a considerable period, these concepts seemed to be unquestionable axioms.

The genocidal war waged by the Israeli occupation against the Palestinian people, and all the crimes against humanity committed against children, women, and the elderly, reveal once again, in a blatant and egregious manner, the double standards in the discourse of the international community. This forces all those fragile "axioms" to re-examine their meanings and applications.

Those countries that have long appointed themselves guardians of democracy and freedom of expression not only praised the media coverage of these horrific crimes, but also employed the most extreme forms of repression and silencing of activists and free citizens who expressed their opinions and stances on the massacres that have become unbearable even for those who initially expressed sympathy for the Israeli entity in the early days of the war.

The entire world has witnessed the impotence of international institutions, from the United Nations to the International Court of Justice, and including some non-governmental organizations, in playing any meaningful role that undermines the logic of war and genocide in favor of peace, security, and justice. The reclassification by some political and media voices of "resistance fighters" striving to liberate their homeland as "terrorists" and "outlaws" brings to mind the colonial discourse that sought to entrench this label in Algeria and other colonies in order to gain international legitimacy. This legitimacy aims to strip resistance of its legitimate and internationally recognized character and place it in a different category, distorting the nature of the cause at hand.

We hope that by formulating these initial ideas, we can stimulate discussion about the horrific events taking place today. In such contexts, discourses and readings are often produced that deal with the "circumstantial" and the "event-based," while researchers in this discussion seminar are expected to direct their contributions towards questioning the "structural" in the systems of discourse production prevalent today, and in the context of accumulated knowledge that calls for returning to it with new and different questions.