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El-Kurd discusses Palestine in media
Journalist speaks about respectability politics, news bias
By KRISTEN AXTMAN daily senior staffer @kristenaxtman1
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Palestinian writer and poet Mohammed El-Kurd discussed respectability politics in front of about 100 students and community members at Lutkin Hall on Saturday.
In his remarks, El-Kurd argued activists should move beyond respectability politics to deliver honest messages about current events like the Palestine-Israel conflict.
“Respectability is when you have to heal a certain way, dress a certain way, say certain things, have a bunch of qualifiers before you move on to the important part,” El-Kurd said. “Tossing that out the window can be quite liberating for people.”
El-Kurd is the Palestine correspondent for The Nation and released his debut poetry collection, “RIFQA,” in 2021. He was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in 2021.
The event, titled “Beyond Respectability,” was co-hosted
Off-campus students offer ideas and advice for meals on a budget by Students for Justice in Palestine, the Middle Eastern North African Students Association, Northwestern’s Community for Human Rights, the Muslim-cultural Students Association and the MENA Studies Program.
El-Kurd said he decided to work in journalism because of misinformation about Palestine in the media. Poetry offers him a path to explore similar topics, but with more freedom. He uses poetry to approach subjects like stalking and cyber illusionary violence — a useful medium because discussing his feelings on those topics could otherwise place him under scrutiny, he said.
He also said many people believe the portrayal of Palestinians in the media comes from reporters’ ignorance, but he said large media outlets like Fox News and CNN have reporters on the ground in Palestine. Reporters tend to ignore Israeli state violence because the occupation often serves establishments’ strategic interests, he said.
“It’s time that we approach protection for our people with a little bit more compassion,” he said. “We should be
» See EL-KURD, page 6
