invite you to a discussion with

Berlanty Azzam*
Student, Bethlehem University

Brother Jack Curran
Vice President for Development, Bethlehem University

Tania Hary
Director of International Relations, GISHA


The Right of Palestinians to Study and Travel

Wednesday February 3, 2010, 1:00-3:00pm
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1st Floor
1779 Massachusetts Avenue, NW | Washington, DC

Berlanty Azzam, a Palestinian from Gaza and a candidate for a business degree at the University of Bethlehem in the West Bank, was arrested and forcibly returned to Gaza by Israeli authorities in October 2009, two months before her graduation, on the grounds that Israel had banned travel of Gazans to the West Bank. With assistance from GISHA (Legal Center for Freedom of Movement), Ms. Azzam appealed to the Israeli High Court, explaining that she had received an Israeli permit to travel to the West Bank in 2005.  The Court rejected her appeal, while stating that Ms. Azzam presented no security risk.

In December, 33 members of Congress wrote to Secretary of State Clinton, urging that the U.S. press Israel to stop denying access for Gazan students to the West Bank, noting limited opportunities in Gaza and U.S. support for higher education opportunities for Palestinians.

Sandwiches will be served.

To RSVP send an email to: info@fmep.org or call 202-835-3650.

 

invite you to a presentation and discussion with

 

Professor, University of Haifa

 

Professor, University of Haifa

 

Wednesday January 27, 1:00 - 3:00pm

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1st floor

1779 Massachusetts Ave., NW

Washington, DC

 

 

Sammy Smooha and As'ad Ghanem, both professors at the University of Haifa, have been polling Israel's Arab citizens for years, examining their opinions of their current status and future in Israel. Mr. Ghanem and Mr. Smooha's views diverge but they agree that Israel is a deeply divided society and the status of the Palestinian-Arab minority is one of the gravest problems facing Israel. Mr. Ghanem and  Mr. Smooha will discuss the relationship between Israel's Arabs and the Israeli state and the prospect for their future.

Sammy Smooha is a professor of sociology at the University of Haifa. Mr. Smooha specializes in ethnic relations in Israel and elsewhere and in the social dynamics of Israeli society.  He has published widely on the internal divisions and conflicts in Israeli society, especially on the relations between Mizrahim and Ashkenazim, and between Arab and Jewish citizens. He has authored several books including, Israel: Pluralism and Conflict and Arabs and Jews in Israel.  He is currently a senior research fellow at the United States Institute of Peace; he is working on a comparative study of Israel's treatment of its Arab minority to the treatment of minority populations in N. Ireland, Estonia, Slovakia and Macedonia.

As'ad Ghanem is a researcher and lecturer at the School of Political Sciences, University of Haifa.  Mr. Ghanem's theoretical work has explored the legal, institutional and political conditions in ethnic states. He is an expert on Palestinian political orientations, the political structure of the Palestinian Authority, and majority-minority politics.  He has initiated and designed several policy schemes and empowerment programs for Palestinian-Arabs in Israel. He has authored and edited numerous articles and books including Palestinian Politics After Arafat: A failed National Movement, and the forthcoming Ethnic Politics in Israel - The Margins and the Ashkenazi Centre.

 

To RSVP send and email to: info@fmep.org

invite you to a discussion on

with Danny Seidemann and Gregory Khalil

Thursday, January 28, 2010

11:00 am- 12:30 pm

2255 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington DC

Danny Seidemann is an Israeli attorney, founder and director of the Israeli NGO Terrestrial Jerusalem, and a senior advisor with The Kairos Project. After litigating a variety of cases in Israeli courts and working more than 20 years on the most sensitive issues related to the disposition of Jerusalem, Danny has come to be regarded as the world's leading expert on geopolitical Jerusalem. His analysis is relied upon by negotiators and the international community.  Danny is frequently cited in top Israeli, Arab and international media. He lives with his wife and three daughters in Jerusalem and is a retired Reserve Major in Israel's Defence Forces. 

  

Gregory Khalil is an American attorney and the President and Co-Founder of The Kairos Project, a new not-for-profit initiative in Washington D.C. that seeks to educate mainstream faith-based America and its leaders about the causes of---and solutions to---the conflict that currently ravages the Holy Land.  Previously, Greg served as a legal advisor to the Palestinian leadership on peace negotiations with Israel. Much of his extended family still lives in Beit Sahour, a Christian Palestinian town near Bethlehem. He has lectured widely on the conflict and is published in The New York Times and The Review of Faith & International Affairs. Greg is a graduate of UCLA and Yale Law School and currently lives in Washington, D.C.

Please RSVP to spistritto@peacenow.org or 202-408-9898.

Go HERE to see the full invitation