Brendan Ciarán Browne is an assistant professor of conflict resolution and a fellow at Trinity College Dublin. He has held academic and research positions at Queen’s University Belfast and Al-Quds University in Jerusalem.
Across 15 years of working in academia, it is hard to recall a more precarious or hostile academic environment regarding teaching on Palestine. Nor can I recall a more aggressive, coordinated effort to suppress spaces of learning and organizing in support of Palestinian liberation.
Despite an unprecedented global awakening in support of Palestine, Western governments—accused of aiding and abetting genocide—have instead engaged in gaslighting their populations, effectively enforcing academic silence. Now more than ever, educators have a responsibility to interrogate what we are being asked to accept as the "new normal."
We must resist normalization of the immoral, the illegal, the unjust and the abhorrent.
Like so many, I owe an immense debt of gratitude to Palestine. It helped awaken in me the need to remove any sense of compromise regarding the pursuit of justice in the face of the present day and the historical colonial violence and suppression. Moreover, Palestine has reaffirmed my understanding of the impact of language and framing when it comes to educating.
In recent months, I have given numerous talks about how we, as educators, can bring Palestine and resistance into our classrooms. In doing so, I have arrived at three core principles. Urgency dictates that pedagogues move beyond the mere rehashing of facts and figures—beyond simply teaching students the existence of "rights."
Instead, it is our duty to shift the focus of our discourse to the language of responsibility.
Core Principle One: Speaking Plainly
Educators speaking of peacebuilding and justice in and for Palestine must be clear about what obstructs both. The root cause is not conflict per se, nor is it some tragic misunderstanding between two sides. Palestine is colonized land—the only way to frame this reality is through the language of opposition to Israel's violent settler-colonial project.
Too often, educators present colonization as a mere historical process. But Palestine's colonization never ended. Rather, it is still unfolding before our eyes. As such, it is necessary that we refer to the Palestinian reactions and responses to colonization as unashamedly anti-colonial resistance—legitimate and grounded in international law. United Nations Resolution 37/43 is crucial to this dynamic, as it affirms the right of colonized peoples to resist, including through armed struggle.
Discussing armed resistance can be uncomfortable. It may polarize a classroom. However, if we soften our language to appease liberal sensitivities, we betray both our students and the Palestinian people.
We have a duty to speak plainly: what is happening in Gaza and the West Bank is more than a conflict—it is erasure. Those resisting it have every right to do so, by any means necessary with the backing of international law.
Core Principle Two: Looking Outward and Inward
When we teach about justice and interventions for peace, the frameworks for attaining these elusive concepts in and for Palestine are already enshrined within international law. The International Court of Justice (ICJ), the International Criminal Court (ICC), numerous UN human rights bodies and many human rights organizations have repeatedly found Israel in violation of international law.
These bodies accuse Israel of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity. So, if we maintain a belief in international law—dubious for many, including myself—we do not need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to realizing avenues for justice. Rather, what is required is the confidence to speak the truth to the future generations who will hold power.
The problem is not a lack of legal clarity but a lack of political will. Western governments, including Ireland—a purportedly pro-Palestine state doing almost nothing materially to hold Israel accountable for their genocide—have a duty and an obligation to enforce international law.
We have a duty to speak plainly: what is happening in Gaza and the West Bank is more than a conflict—it is erasure.
- Brendan Ciarán Browne
This legal reality is not a negotiable position. States cannot pick and choose certain aspects for political expediency.
If educators teach international law, they must clearly demonstrate that it is not optional. It cannot be selectively applied based on geopolitical convenience or on the maxim that "might is right." Our anger, therefore, while certainly directed at the genocidaires and the colonial, ultranationalist Israeli militias rampaging across Gaza and the West Bank, must also be directed inward at our governments and their complicity.
Core Principle Three: Rejecting Hate and False Objectivity
A persistent failure among educators on Palestine is the need to platform all sides of the argument to create a façade of objectivity—namely by platforming opposing views amid a genocide.
Should we give space to white supremacists when teaching the U.S. civil rights movement? Should defenders of South African apartheid have been given equal time during anti-apartheid education?
Of course not.
So why do some educators—particularly those wedded to the liberal peacebuilding enterprise—feel compelled to present the views of those advancing and justifying a genocidal project in Palestine?
Global human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have documented Israel's apartheid regime and its illegal occupation. There is no pedagogical requirement to give credence to racist ideologies simply because they make the most noise or appear politically powerful—all in the name of false objectivity.
In our classrooms, we must de-platform hate and racist ideology—not legitimize it. We must reject the notion that a commitment to justice requires equal airtime for oppressor and oppressed.
Teaching Principles in an Era of Erasure
Beyond these core principles, there are additional responsibilities that must be embraced if we are to stand for real, sustainable and justice-oriented peace.
First, we must commit to self-education. Scholarship on Palestine is vast and rapidly growing. Understanding and truly committing to the cause of Palestinian liberation requires staying informed, not only on the foundational texts but on urgent, evolving analyses produced by our colleagues today.
Second, we must accept that we will be targeted, smeared, accused and defamed. We must have the courage to clearly state our commitments: against anti-Palestinian racism and for Palestinian self-determination and resistance. Those unwilling to do so should reflect on whether they are prepared to teach on this or similar topics.
Finally, in borrowing from the powerful and eloquent Palestinian poet Mohammad El Kurd, "We must raise the ceiling of what is permissible." That means rejecting respectability politics and reclaiming the language of struggle. We must be bold in calling Zionism what it is: a racist political ideology responsible for dispossession, displacement, genocide and erasure. We must assert that Palestinian resistance is not only justified but necessary.
Should we follow these principles, we do more than inform our students. Rather, we empower them to see the world clearly, allowing them to act within it ethically. And in doing so, we honor the Palestinian struggle—not just as observers but as participants in a growing global movement for decolonization and liberation, unapologetically and without question.