BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.2.3.1//EN TZID:America/Detroit X-WR-TIMEZONE:America/Detroit BEGIN:VEVENT UID:32110@arabamerica.com DTSTART;TZID=America/Detroit:20240129T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Detroit:20240129T130000 DTSTAMP:20240123T030619Z URL:https://www.arabamerica.com/events/how-to-discuss-the-difficult-histor y-of-the-middle-east/ SUMMARY:How to Discuss the Difficult History of the Middle East DESCRIPTION:Philadelphia\, PA.\n\n\nA discussion with Omar Dajani and Mira Sucharov about Middle East history\, and how differences do not need to di vide people.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAbout this event\n\n\n 1 hour\n Mobile eTicket\n\n\n\n\n\nOver the last several months\, the peo ples of Israel-Palestine have suffered trauma on a scale that is unprecede nted even for two nations painfully familiar with tragedy. The terrorist a ttack launched by Hamas on October 7 resulted in the greatest loss of civi lian life of any day in Israel’s history. And Israel’s subsequent mili tary assault on the Gaza Strip has led to more civilian deaths than twenty years of war in Afghanistan. Across the country and around the world\, de bates about the causes of these horrific developments and the best way for ward have been intense and polarizing. Tensions remain high\, and people a re struggling to have civil discussions with those who have different pers pectives.\n\nThis session will bring together two experts who have been wo rking across the ethnic divide to explore the most difficult dimensions of the situation in Israel-Palestine and help others find ways to have produ ctive discussions about it. For the last two years\, Omar Dajani\, a Pales tinian-American professor of law\, and Mira Sucharov\, a Canadian-Jewish p rofessor of political science\, have been traveling together across Israel -Palestine as they write a book and develop a podcast about their experien ces. Over the course of building a professional partnership and friendship \, they have learned many things about themselves and each other\, but one stands out: overcoming differences in views is easier when you start by c ommunicating about values.\n\nAnd that is the point at which their lecture s begin. Examining the region’s history from two distinct backgrounds\, they contend with the markedly different ways in which their own communiti es—and the people they encounter—see and talk about occupation\, resis tance\, legitimacy\, freedom\, security\, self-determination\, and even wh at it means to be Jewish and Palestinian. They grapple with the distinctio n between justifying and understanding actions and the tension that someti mes arises between attachment to community and attachment to values. And t hey consider whether Israelis and Palestinians can envision a shared futur e without facing the past.\n\nJoin Perry World House for what promises to be an enriching\, enlightening\, and informative conversation with two Mid dle East experts who strive to show their students and broader communities that different experiences and different perspectives do not have to divi de people\, even when the subject is a complex region with a painful histo ry. Dajani and Sucharov will discuss the history of the region\, the trage dy of October 7 and beyond\, and how to have difficult conversations about both.\n\n\n\n\n\nSPEAKERS\nOmar M. Dajani is professor of law at the McG eorge School of Law\, University of the Pacific\, in Sacramento\, Californ ia\, where he teaches Contracts\, Public International Law and U.S. Consti tutional Law\, among other subjects. He formerly served as a legal advisor to the Palestinian negotiating team in peace talks with Israel\, particip ating in the summits at Camp David and Taba\, before joining the office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO). He has since consulted on a variety of legal infrastructure devel opment and conflict resolution projects in the Middle East and elsewhere —for institutions including the U.S. Department of State\, the Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Center (NOREF)\, the Center for Humanitarian Dialo gue\, and the European Council on Foreign Relations\, and he currently ser ves on the board of A Land for All\, an Israeli-Palestinian peace movement . His book\, Federalism and Decentralization in the Contemporary Middle E ast and North Africa (co-edited with Aslı Bâli) was published by Cambri dge University Press in 2023.\n\nMira Sucharov is professor of political science at Carleton University in Ottawa\, Canada. She is the author or ed itor of five books\, including\, most recently\, Borders and Belonging: A Memoir (Palgrave Macmillan\, 2021)\, and Social Justice and Israel/Pale stine: Foundational &\; Contemporary Debates (University of Toronto Pr ess\, 2019\, co-edited with Aaron J. Hahn Tapper). She has published over thirty-five scholarly articles and book chapters and is a ten-time teachin g award winner\, including having received the top university teaching awa rd in Ontario. Her many op-eds and articles have appeared in the Globe an d Mail\, Haaretz\, the Forward\, the Daily Beast\, the Toronto Star\, the Jerusalem Post\, the Huffington Post\, JTA\, and Jewish Currents. She has appeared on CBC\, CTV\, Global News\, Agence-France Press\, and N PR affiliate KDNK\; and has been quoted in Vox\, the New York Times\, Bu zzfeed\, the Globe and Mail\, the National Post\, and Al Jazeera. She is currently working with Omar Dajani on a podcast about Palestinian and Jew ish life in Jaffa called “The Vacant Lot\,” and\, also with Omar Dajan i\, a book (under contract with Prometheus) about emotions and attachment in Israel-Palestine.\nMODERATOR\nZeid Ra'ad Al Hussein served as the Unit ed Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2014 to 2018. He was aw arded the Stockholm Prize for human rights in 2015 and the Tulip Prize in 2018. He is currently the President and CEO of the International Peace Ins titute and Perry World House Professor of the Practice of Law and Human Ri ghts at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2019\, Al Hussein was appointed a member of The Elders\, an independent group of global leaders working f or peace\, justice\, and human rights\, founded by Nelson Mandela. He serv ed twice as Jordan’s ambassador to the United Nations (in New York) and once as Jordan’s ambassador to the United States. In January 2014\, he s erved as president of the UN Security Council and earlier\, in 2002\, was elected the first president of the governing body of the International Cri minal Court (ICC) -- guiding the court's growth in its first three years f rom 2002 to 2005. He also represented Jordan twice before the Internationa l Court of Justice (ICJ). From 1994 to 1996\, he served as a UN civilian p eacekeeper with UNPROFOR. Al Hussein holds degrees from Johns Hopkins Univ ersity and the University of Cambridge.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.arabamerica.com/wp-content/uploads/2 024/01/https___cdn.evbuc_.com_images_671813849_131991110165_1_original.jpe g CATEGORIES:Arab,Arab Ameircan Event,Community,culture,Discussion LOCATION:PERRY WORLD HOUSE\, 3803 Locust Walk\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States GEO:39.952839;-75.199292 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=3803 Locust Walk\, Philadel phia\, PA\, 19104\, United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=100;X-TITLE=PERRY WORLD H OUSE:geo:39.952839,-75.199292 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Detroit X-LIC-LOCATION:America/Detroit BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20231105T010000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR