Register now: Decolonizing Peace Work in Palestine-Israel

Sumud – The Finnish Palestine Network, the University of Helsinki and Tampere University invite you to a seminar entitled Decolonizing peace work in Palestine-Israel, taking place at the University of Helsinki on January 22, 2026.

Register by January 19: https://forms.gle/JyCY1qS8gUm2Vgie8

Program

8:30–9:00 Registration

9:00–10:00 Opening 

Opening words by Jasmin Paananen (Sumud)

Keynote by Wassim Ghantous (University of Tampere): Rethinking the globality of Palestine: On homologies, frontiers, and other destinies

10:00–10:30 Break

10:30–11:30 Panel discussion I: How can the Finnish defence sector detach itself from colonial power structures?

Moderator: Linda Nyholm

Speakers: Kari Paasonen (Doctoral Researcher at Tampere Peace Research Institute), Frank Slijper (​​Project Leader of the Arms Trade project at PAX)

Organised by Sumud’s Justice Not Arms campaign, this panel examines Finland’s role in the global arms trade amid Israel’s ongoing military occupation of Palestine and the genocide in Gaza. Focusing on the F-35 fighter jet programme and Finland’s military cooperation with Israel, the discussion critically explores how arms trade sustains colonial power asymmetries, violates international law, and contradicts Finland’s human rights commitments. Bringing together academic, civil society, and campaigning perspectives, the panel asks what responsibility Finland carries, and how civil society, students, and researchers can push for accountability, arms embargoes, and decolonized approaches to peace and justice.

11:30–12:00 Break

12:00–13:30 Session I: International actors, civil society and Palestine

Moderator: Koko Hubara

Kris Clarke: Social work, genocide and the coloniality of silence

Anne Heikkinen: Decolonizing the Ecumenical Movement? The WCC, GETI 2025, and the Question of Palestine

Iris Pajunen: Decolonial Solidarity Collection for Palestine: mixing research, art, and activism

13:30–14:30 Lunch break

14:30–15:30 Panel discussion II: Towards decolonizing international peace-based volunteerism in Palestine and beyond

Moderator: Suvi Baloch

Speakers: Sara Tabrizizadeh (Programme Coordinator & Human Rights Expert, Deaconess Foundation), Hanna Sainio (Chairman of Maailmanvaihto ry), Renaz Ebrahimi (Crew Member of Global Sumud Flotilla), Evgeni Jokiniemi (Chairman of Kansainvälinen vapaaehtoistyö ry)

Several non-profit organizations have been facilitating international volunteerism (and voluntourism) for decades in Finland. While there are differences in focus (human rights/ youth work/ cultural exchange), the NGOs are all more or less committed to advancing peace and solidarity through individual, practical and non-remunerated involvement in local communities. International volunteerism has been criticized for being constrained by colonial continuities, such as enabling mainly those based in the global North to ‘explore’ the global South. Such questions have been addressed in recent years in some of the organiza ons under official programmes and unofficial proceedings in the name of decolonizing volunteerism. Yet these experiences have not been shared to the wider public.

This discussion brings together representatives from organizations enabling peace-based

voluntary work in the Palestinian territories and global South and former volunteers involved in these programmes. 

15:30–16:00 Break

16:00–17:00 Session II: Forms of colonial violence

Moderator: TBA

Falk-Andersson, J., Bueno, M.M, Karasik, R., and Pecuchet, L.: How can the marine management sciences contribute to understanding the impact of the conflict and war on Gaza and support blue justice in re-building?

Alex Oksanen: They’re the same as animals. If it’s dead, it’s okay”: Dehumanization as justification for genocide.”

Jasmin Paananen: Violence beyond the Battlefield: Refugee Perceptions of UNRWA amid Increased Uncertainty

17:00–17:30 Break

17:30–18:30 Panel discussion III: The role of universities and academia in Palestine-Israel – the case for an academic boycott of Israel

Moderator: Lili De Paola (Sumud)

Speakers: Eugenie Touma van der Meulen (Students for Palestine), Syksy Räsänen (Researchers for Palestine)

How are Israeli academic institutions complicit in apartheid, genocide and colonization of Palestinian lands? What kinds of ties does the University of Helsinki have to Israeli institutions? What does the academic boycott of Israel mean and why would it be effective? The discussion offers an opportunity for members of the academic community to learn about the role of academia in upholding and dismantling the status quo in Palestine-Israel. 

18:30–19:00 Closing

Closing words by Hannu Juusola (University of Helsinki)

Arrival instructions

The seminar takes place in the Porthania building (Yliopistonkatu 3) of the University of Helsinki. 

Background

The seminar brings together scholars working on Palestine-Israel, decolonization, and peace and conflict studies as well as civil society actors and grassroots community organizers.

As the international community has failed to prevent and halt the on-going genocide in Gaza, discussions surrounding post-conflict recovery and governance strategies in the area are increasingly gaining prominence on the global agenda – risking, however, the reinforcement of historical and colonial asymmetries of power. Widely circulated “day after” reconstruction plans for Gaza produced by Israeli and US actors deny Palestinian agency and treat the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip as a means to further economic interests and accelerate the accumulation of capital in the global West. In this context, those engaged in peace work in the region must pose the critical question of whose visions, interests, and conditions prominent peace plans ultimately reflect. What kinds of strategies can truly deconstruct the entrenched hierarchies of power at the root of the colonial violence in Palestine-Israel?

Against this backdrop, the decolonization of peacebuilding and a shift toward a rights-based approach to the Palestinian-Israeli peace process is a pressing matter with far-reaching implications for both the region and the broader international community.

The Decolonising Peace Work in Palestine-Israel seminar centers the themes of sustainable peace, building a just, rights-based society and dismantling settler colonial power structures, such as illegal occupation, apartheid, forced displacement, demographic engineering, surveillance infrastructures, and environmental violence. The seminar focuses on discussing the role of Finland, Finnish actors and the international community in promoting an open, just, and pluralistic peace process in Palestine-Israel. The seminar discusses concrete ways to decolonize peace processes and dismantle and problematize the Western-centric peace mediation model.

Additional information: [email protected]