Ethnomusicology conference is hijacked by Palestine

There are several versions as to what really happened at the Society for Ethnomusicology’s conference last weekend in Ottawa, Canada, but all seem to agree that the intended agenda was taken over by pro-Palestine activists.

Here’s the basic version:

On Saturday, Indigenous scholars, including graduate students, gave the keynote lecture called “Listen, Watch Your Step” at the society’s annual meeting in Ottawa. It was a “performative” lecture, including sound, images and movement, rather than a speech from a podium. The scholars and students centered Indigenous North American academics’ experiences. “This performative lecture explores the range of experiences Indigenous and racialized scholars have when we walk into rooms not made to hold or support our epistemologies,” read a description in the program book.

But according to two professors who attended the event, the lecture included a brief display of a controversial slogan in the Middle East conflict: “From the river to the sea.”

According to one eyewitness account, the presentation screen went black and displayed the controversial slogan for less than five seconds, then transitioned to similarly brief slides reading “Free Palestine” and “End Israeli Apartheid.”

The society president issued a statement saying, in part, A significant number of our membership, have expressed tremendous outrage that the event’s presumed focal point was blurred by an unexpected interpolation of visual and sonic references to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and by what came across as a facile conflation of two distinct geopolitical and historical phenomena.’

Some Jewish participants said they felt threatened.

Responses and counter-responses are still coming in.

This article seems to be the best source, although several of the sloganising academic warriors opted to maintain anonymity.