Portland State University special screening of THE PALESTINE EXCEPTION, a documentary film directed by Jan Haaken and Jennifer Ruth and produced through J Haaken Productions.

After years of right-wing assaults on higher education, attacks took a new form in 2023 and 2024 that has been described as the new McCarthyism. As students across the country organize protests against Israel’s war on Gaza, decades-long taboos in academia around criticism of Israel–the “Palestine exception”–are shattered. This film features professors and students as they join calls for a ceasefire and divestment from companies that do business with Israel and face waves of crackdown from administrators, the media, the police and politicians. Scholars from diverse disciplines explain what is at stake in these protests and why so many young people identify with the Palestinian cause. The documentary unfolds as a story of college campuses as sites of both rebellion and repression, places where personal and collective histories converge in unexpected ways.

Followed by a panel including directors Jan Haaken and Jennifer Ruth; PSU Professor Theodore Khoury (featured in the film); and Senna, a Portland State University Alum (featured in the film).
Moderated by Stephanie Wahab, Professor of Social Work ,PSU

Doors open at 6:30 pm. Enter through the SW Broadway entrance to Lincoln Hall.