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Convenor: Virginia Tilley, Chief Research Specialist, Democracy and Governance Programme of the HSRC
Administration: Tania Fraser, administrative assistant, Democracy and Governance
Contact: +27-(0)21-466-7924, mep@hsrc.ac.za This conference responds to growing international concern about the dangerous stagnation of the Israeli-Palestinian ‘peace process.' As present paradigms for the effective resolution of the conflict have proved inadequate, alternatives and new directions are urgently sought by diplomats, politicians, lawyers, and concerned professionals from both sides as well as the international community. This conference accordingly seeks to bring new thinking and academic analysis to the forefront that can illuminate strategies for a just and stable resolution of the conflict. The conference will especially seek to connect South African and Middle East scholars in order to foster new research linkages regarding democracy and identity in Africa and the Middle East. Theme 1: International Law of Occupation RevisitedChair: John Dugard, Extraordinary Professor, Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, and former Special Rapporteur on the Question of Palestine for the United Nations Commission on Human Rights The fortieth anniversary of Israel's 1967 occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, coupled with Israel`s continued failure to comply with international law, has suggested to some legal scholars that the fundamental character of the occupation may require re-assessment. This theme considers whether features of other international law regimes, such as apartheid and colonialism, are manifest in Israeli policy and what this analysis implies legally for the conflict and the international community and how frameworks of IHL and IHRL may evolve or co-exist are also welcome. Iain Scobbie, Director and Sir Joseph Hotung Research Professor in Law, British Institute of International and Comparative Law, School for Oriental & African Studies (London) Sahar Francis, Director, Addameer/Prisoners' Support and Human Rights Association (Jerusalem) John Reynolds, Researcher, Al-Haq (Ramallah) Bruce Ryder, Associate Professor of Law and Director of the Centre for Public Law & Public Policy, Osgoode Hall Law School, University of York (Toronto) - Elna Sondergaard, Director of the International Human Rights Law Programme, American University of Cairo
Stefan Lütgenau, Programme Director, Bruno Kreisky Foundation for Human Rights and convenor of the Working Group on Palestine/Israel for the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (Austria) Daniel Machover, head of civil litigation, Hickman & Rose Solicitors, and co-founder, Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights (London) Mazen Masri, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University (Toronto) Max du Plessis, Professor of Law, University of Kwa-Zulu Natal (Durban) Adrian Friedman, Advocate, Legal Resources Centre (Johannesburg) Outi Korhonen, Associate Professor of Law, American University of Cairo
Theme 2: Identity and Democracy in the Middle EastChair: Nadim Rouhana, Professor of International Negotiations and Conflict Studies at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, Boston, and Director of the Mada al-Carmel/Centre for Applied Social Science (Haifa) The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is commonly understood as steered by two duelling and immutable national identities-Palestinian-Arab and Jewish-Zionist. Yet, recent historical scholarship has helped clarify the origins of these identities and demonstrated the possibilities of major identity transformations in Mandate Palestine. But what do these studies signify for the conflict? Are present identities to be held as immutable in order to defend related exclusive privileges or struggle for rights, and in what ways is transforming the terms of the conflict inextricably related to transforming the identities themselves? This theme considers how past and possible constructions of identities relevant to the conflict -- such as identities based on nationalism, citizenship, religious affiliation, ideology, colonialism and culture, and victimhood -- inform or constrain viable solutions to the conflict in Mandate Palestine. Adi Ophir, Professor of Political Philosophy, Cohn Institute, University of Tel Aviv Fouad Moughrabi, Professor of Political Sciences, University of Tennessee-Chattanooga Steven Friedman, Director, Centre for the Study of Democracy, University of Johannesburg
Theme 3: Political Economy and the Politics of ConflictChair: Sara Roy, Professor of Political Science and Senior Research Fellow, Center for Middle East Studies, Harvard University (Boston) However preferable or inevitable any given solution in Israel-Palestine might seem, its viability inevitably rests on geographic and economic realities shaping the lives of people on the ground. Political leadership and diplomacy must appreciate and confront these hard realities or risk becoming irrelevant and futile. This theme engages in empirical analysis of economic and social factors that help clarify parameters for the conflict's potential solutions: e.g. nature of economic relations between Israel and the Palestinian territories and their likely prospects; poverty rates and trends; health trends; trade patterns; the labour market developments; water and other natural resources; population growth; and the geopolitics of borders. Samia al-Botmeh, Director, Centre for Development Studies, Birzeit University Jamil Hilal, sociologist, Bir Zeit Alain Gresh, Editor, Le Monde Diplomatique Jad Isaac, Director, Applied Research Institute of Jerusalem (ARIJ) (Bethlehem) Jamal Juma, Coordinator, Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign (Ramallah)
Theme 4: Arab-African Networks on Racial Conflict & DemocracyChair: Gerhard Maré, Professor of Sociology and Director, Centre for Critical Research on Race and Identity, University of Kwa-Zulu Natal (Durban) Africa and the Middle East share much in common regarding colonialism, decolonisation, struggles for democracy, Western intervention, and nation-building. Less commonly recognised is their shared heritage of Western discourse about race and ethnicity. This theme explores this comparison by encouraging shared research between African and Middle East scholars: e.g., in clarifying how concepts of race and ethnicity have fed into relevant national movements and strategies of mobilisation; how race, ethnicity and religion have operated as contested and multiple identities within South Africa, Israel, and Palestine; how such identities have articulated with issues of gender and class; and how regional identity discourses that have historically provided potent fuel for liberation movements (e.g., 'Arab' and 'African') have or should inform national identities today. Adam Habib, Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research, Innovation and Development, University of Johannesburg
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