Distinguished Experts Panel (2023)

Crisis in the Middle East: Distinguished Experts Discuss Recent Events in Israel and Palestine

Gonzaga University hosts a virtual panel on November 1 focused on the unprecedented situation in Israel and Palestine, and its potential unfolding ramifications for the political stability in the Middle East.

As part of the Presidential Speakers Series, renowned scholars and experts discussed the tragic events of the October 7 attacks, the political and historical context of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian hostilities, the humanitarian implications of escalating mobilization and violence, as well as the role of the United States in this conflict.

The panel was moderated by GU political science lecturer Albana Dwonch and professor and founding chair, environmental studies and sciences, Jonathan Isacoff.

DATE: Wednesday, November 1, 2023
TIME: 8:00 – 9:30 p.m. PST
VENUE: Zoom Webinar

Panelists

Headshot of Huwaida Arraf   Huwaida Arraf Huwaida Arraf is a Palestinian-American civil/human rights attorney and social justice activist. She has been involved in legal and grassroots initiatives for Palestinian rights for the last two decades, including co-founding the Nobel Peace Prize-nominated International Solidarity Movement (ISM), and leading the Free Gaza Movement, which organized sea voyages to Gaza to confront and challenge Israel's illegal blockade on the two million Palestinians living there. Huwaida was a 2022 candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives for Michigan's 10th Congressional District.  
Headshot of Amal Jamal   Amal Jamal is full professor in the School of Political Science, Government and International Affairs at Tel Aviv University and served as the head of the Department in the years 2006-2009.  He is currently the head of the Walter Lebach Institute for the Study of Jewish-Arab Coexistence and editor-in-chief of the leading Hebrew political science journal, The Public Sphere. His research fields include political theory, political communication, civil society, democratization and civil liberalization, social movements, postcolonial studies, the cultural industries, and minority nationalism. Prof. Jamal has extensively published on these topics in four languages (English, German, Hebrew and Arabic). His recent publications include the books, Reconstructing the Civic: Palestinian Civil Activism in Israel (2020 – SUNY) and Between National Consciousness and Civil Experience: The Political Realism of Palestinians in Israel (2020 in Hebrew). Prof. Jamal is currently working on two book manuscripts. The first is on “The Dialectical Relationship Between Israel’s Jewish Politics and the Ethical Worldview of Jewish Philosophers in the Diaspora” and the second on “The Politics of Palestinian Culture in Israel” for Cambridge University Press.   
Headshot of Ian Lustick   Ian Lustick is the Bess W. Heyman Professor Emeritus in the political science department of the University of Pennsylvania. Professor Lustick received his BA from Brandeis University and his MA and Ph.D. from the University of California Berkeley.  Before coming to the University of Pennsylvania he taught for fifteen years at Dartmouth College.  His present research focuses on the implications of the one-state reality for the future of Israeli-Palestinian relations. He is the author or editor of twenty books and scores of articles in leading academic and policy journals.  He is the recipient of awards and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Social Science Research Council, the National Science Foundation, the Carnegie Endowment, and the United States Institute of Peace.  He is a founder and past President of the Association for Israel Studies and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.  He served in the State Department as an analyst responsible for Israel and Palestinian affairs and has been a consultant on American foreign and national security policy for both Democratic and Republican administrations. His most recent book is Paradigm Lost: From Two State Solution to One-State Reality.
Headshot of Joel Migdal   Joel Migdal is is Professor Emeritus at the University of Washington, Visiting Professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a Library Fellow at the Van Leer Institute in Jerusalem. At the University of Washington, he was the Robert F. Philip professor of International Studies and the founding chair of the International Studies Program. Migdal was formerly associate professor of Government at Harvard University and senior lecturer at Tel-Aviv University. Among his books are Strong Societies and Weak States; State in Society; Through the Lens of Israel; The Palestinian People: A History (with Baruch Kimmerling); and Shifting Sands: The United States in the Middle East. He was awarded the University of Washington’s Distinguished Teaching Award and Graduate Mentor Award, as well as the Washington State Governor’s Writers Award. He is past president of the Association for Israel Studies.
  • For many members of our Gonzaga community, the events unfolding in the Middle East at the time of this event are particularly personal and painful. We recognize these emotions and feelings of loss, and we encourage those in need to reach out to Gonzaga's care and support resources.
  • We did not take audience questions due to a full program and our desire to provide each expert adequate time to share their information.
  • This webinar was recorded for internal educational purposes only and not intended for sharing or rebroadcast.
  • If you have any feedback on the webinar, please email webinar.support@gonzaga.edu