October 7, 2024, marks one year since Hamas launched its terror attack against Israel. We asked scholars at Freie Universität Berlin who teach and conduct research on the region and the conflict in the Middle East for their perspectives. What is their professional view of the situation? How has their work and their discipline changed over the past year? This series will be a recurring feature in campus.leben for the foreseeable future.

A commentary by Arabic studies expert Professor Isabel Toral

Since October 7, 2023, all eyes have been on Israel and Palestine. Here, topics such as violence, loss, and terror tend to dominate the discourse while the shared cultural history of the region is often overlooked. Since antiquity, this region has been shaped by many different groups and their struggle to coexist – both in times of peace and times of conflict. It is a place of religious, ethnic, and cultural diversity and exchange. As professor of Arabic studies at Freie Universität Berlin, I carry out research on this cultural space. 

It is the role of a university to make academically sound contributions to current debates and to expand upon the one-dimensional depictions we see all too often in the media in a more nuanced, balanced way. That is why it is such good news that the cultural history and diversity of the region will be showcased as part of Freie Universität’s “Open Lecture Halls” series during the winter semester, an important step in increasing its visibility. 

Universities also provide the opportunity to create safe spaces for self-critical reflection and for expanding and diversifying individual perspectives. For example, last semester doctoral students from the Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies organized a lecture series that featured contributions from international guests. A focus of this series was to create an open and secure space that allowed a discussion that included Palestinian voices – important perspectives that were often lost in the heated public debates that took place across Germany. The high attendance rates at these events have shown just how much demand for balanced academic exchange there truly is; and highlights the need for a discussion that combines historical knowledge, a sense of understanding for the current political situation, and feelings of empathy for all victims.

About the author
Prof. Dr. Isabel Toral teaches Arabic studies at the Seminar for Semitic and Arabic Studies at Freie Universität Berlin and is co-director of the Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies.