Depoliticizing decolonization:the silencing of Palestine in universities

This paper argues that since 7 October 2023, universities across the West have remained complicit in the silencing of Palestine. It argues that this silencing has functioned through three key registers: Firstly, through the censorship and suppression of pro-Palestine voices, secondly through the circulation of liberal discourse, and thirdly through the failure to address the scholasticide in Gaza. Using autobiography as a lens to examine these mechanisms, it argues that the silencing of Palestine has worked to both undermine and depoliticize university pledges around decolonizing the curriculum. The paper intertwines personal narrative with a broader Critical Muslim Studies framework as a means to expose and contest Islamophobic power structures that have historically and presently marginalized Muslim communities.