Bigger Than Just A Sport: FIFA is the New Politics
Over the past four years of my Northwestern journey, I have been privileged to attend several lectures about Palestine. Despite the different years they took place, they all shared a common theme: the Zionist state is above the law. This paper will summarize three lectures and their relevance to my minor.
In 2021, I had the privilege of attending a panel discussion, “We Are Not Leaving,” about the events in the Sheikh Jarrah Neighborhood. One of the main speakers on this panel was the courageous Muna el-Kurd, who shared her personal experiences. El-Kurd encapsulated the entire issue with a powerful statement: “Imagine you wake up and go about your day like any other. Come back to your house and find someone claiming it’s their house too. They also have the right to live in it; if they don’t take it, someone else will.” She also expressed her desire for a revolution, an end to the displacements, and the reclamation of what is rightfully theirs.
In 2023, I attended a discussion panel about the ongoing war that started after the 7th of October. Even though the war had just begun, disinformation, misinformation, and online bots were at an all-time high. Professor Mark Owen-Jones was one of the speakers on this panel. He pointed out that many Zionists would claim many severe accusations with no evidence and share false information. Not only that, but many accounts were bots, some traced back to the Zionist state. “One can assume that they are doing all of this because they are losing their public narrative,” stated Owen-Jones.
In 2025, I attended a talk for Motaz Azaiza, where he shared his first-hand experience in the war and the aftermath of leaving. Azaiza risked his life to show the reality of being a Palestinian, and he got displaced many times due to this war. When he decided to show the world, he became a walking target to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). What added to his suffering was people kicking him out of apartment complexes as they feared getting bombed. Not only that, but Azaiza stated how he felt that he had created a new ‘intifada’ by filming this war, yet he was surprised by the reality. Once he left Palestine, he saw how the sleepless days without food, not knowing whether he would survive or not, were not met with the uprisings they deserved. Furthermore, he found it hypocritical that he was among the 100 most influential people in 2024, yet he could not say anything during the event. However, during that event he met a person who told him he was a Zionist, but because of Azaiza’s documentation they became pro-Palestine.
These different lectures have deepened my understanding of how media and politics intertwine. From Muna el-Kurd’s call for justice to Mark Owen-Jones’s exposing of disinformation campaigns and Motaz Azaiza’s courageous documentation of war, I witnessed how the media shaped, challenged and resisted political narratives. These experiences highlighted the power media holds in shaping public opinion and political accountability on a global scale.
E-Portfolio:
https://sites.google.com/u.northwestern.edu/m-and-p-e-portfolio/home
Video Presentation:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1j26NGyuM2PVkz8Bb5neQoE1PASE9r4p8/view
