Israel Studies Roundtable Lunch: "On the Great Privilege of Saying No": Hebrew Protest Poetry and Its Absence

Dr. Reut Ben Yaakov (Asian & Middle Eastern Studies, Duke University) is visiting to lead a roundtable on Hebrew protest poetry.

This talk examines the near-silence of Hebrew protest poetry in response to the destruction in Gaza. While the events of October 7 quickly generated a large body of poetic responses—published in anthologies, journal issues, and digital platforms—poetic responses to Gaza have been comparatively scarce. This silence is particularly striking given the long-standing perception of Hebrew poetry as a literary space that historically maintained a critical or dissenting stance in the face of political reality. Through a meditation on disappointment and the role of literary criticism, Ben Yaakov reflects on the expectations placed on poetry in times of political violence and on the task of criticism in confronting poetic silence. The talk asks what this absence reveals about the current landscape of Hebrew poetry and about the expectations placed on poetry in moments of political crisis.

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