Time: Saturday 22 November, 2025 at 09:30 a.m. (Tunis time)
Venue: El-Messaadi Room, the Faculty of Letters and Humanities of Sfax

The Program

Session 1: 09:30-10:15 am:

Prof. Mounir Triki, Faculty of Letters and Humanities of Sfax

Title: Belligerent Zionist Strategies in the Face of Rising Geopolitical, Economic and Cultural Challenges

Session 2: 10:15-11:00 am:

Dr. Dorra Moalla Masmoudi, Faculty of Letters and Humanities of fax

Title: Semiosis in Action: The Role of Lexicography and Cartooning in the Semiotic Construction of Gazan Icons

11:00-11:30 am: Coffee Break

11:30-12:30 am:

SYFLAT’s Annual General Assembly

Abstracts

Prof. Mounir Triki: Belligerent Zionist Strategies in the Face of Rising Geopolitical, Economic and Cultural Challenges
The central problematic i s the search for a connecting thread qualifying the various fronts which form the basis for Zionist belligerence, namely: genocide, excessive use o f force, assassinations, torture of prisoners, terrorizing neighboring Arab and Moslem countries, bragging about violence, and spreading defeatism posing as pragmatism among the general public i n the Arabo-Islamic world. In addition, it involves ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and o f fellow Jews, as well as blockade, famine, and economic pressure. I t also includes settlers, annexation of Palestinian land, and fait accompli laws and policies. Moreover, it covers financial war, controlling the world economies, and reliance on the financial support of multi-national corporations. It extends to political lobbying, ruling the world, free masonry, and pressure on politicians (incentives vs extortion). It further encompasses legal wars (International Criminal Court, The U N Security Council), and religious activism/symbolism (Zionist Judeo-Christian Appeal). I t likewise includes media wars (propaganda, influencers, media control), manipulation, lying, and misrepresentation of reality. I t also touches the cultural front (using music, cultural imperialism, entertainment, cinema, sports), and academic scholarship, educational programs, and archeology. The paper ends with an exploration o f future challenges and directions.

Dr. Dorra Moalla Masmoudi: Semiosis in Action: The Role of Lexicography and Cartooning in the Semiotic Construction of Gazan Icons
The resistance o f Gazans has been widely recontextualized o n social media through memorable videos capturing emotionally-charged moments often associated with distinctive expressions. As these recontextualizations went viral, they were resemiotised into various mediated forms such a s cartooning, freeze images, and short reels. These processes o f resemiotisation have contributed t o imbuing the transformed signs with specific values, ultimately leading to the iconisation o f certain people, ideas and events through the accumulation o f affect and amassing attitudes toward them (Stenglin, 2022). This paper proposes t o explore two major forms of resemiotisation: cartooning and the coinage o f new lexical entries. Using semiotic and social semiotic frameworks, the analysis seeks t o model the iconisation o f resistance (Halliday and Matthiessen, 2014; Kress and van Leeuwen, 1996/2021; Peirce, 1931). I t aims t o demonstrate that the orchestration o f interpersonal, ideational, and textual resources in acts o f resemiotisation functions t o charge individuals and ideas with values such as courage, devotion, and love, thereby consolidating collective attitudes o f netizens around them as bonding icons.