MEPEACE Chat - Dec 12

Event link: http://www.mepeace.org/events/mepeace-chat-dec-12



We're proud to invite you to the third and last chat workshop of our current series on 'The Jewish State - Concept and Conceptions'.

When it comes to debating Israel, it's hard to find common ground. No other state of that size attracts so much attention on a global basis, no other state is that heavily criticized for its actions - and, sometimes unfortunately, even for its mere existence. In 2010, we're looking back at 62 years of the Jewish State - 62 years of the establishment of a stable democracy in a region shaped by authoritarian regimes, on the one hand, but, too, 62 years of non-existing peace with Israel's neighbours, on the other. We have witnessed an often brutal and unjust occupation of Palestinian territories for more than 40 years now, but must also take into account that current and past Israeli policy is partly due to the Israelis' fear of losing their tiny strip of land, of losing what they had strived for so long.

Talking about Israel is not like talking about Holland or Switzerland. We on mepeace.org, as peacemakers, aim for peace in a war-torn region, for normality in places shaped by fear and mistrust. Peace also means living a normal life - but life is far from normal neither in Israel nor in the occupied territories.

As you can tell from the series title, it makes sense to make a distinction between 'concept' and 'conception' (a legal distinction, but also applicable to non-legal situations), when talking about the Jewish State. While the concept is the basic idea of establishing a Jewish State, the conceptions are the different ways of interpreting Israel, the different views on how the concept be best transformed into reality.

The idea behind introducing this distinction is based on the fact that a large majority doesn't oppose the idea of a Jewish State itself, but the ways in which the state of Israel is actually conducted (current example: loyalty oath).

In the first two workshops we discussed Israel's history and present, respectively. We made up our minds on how the history of the state of Israel has influenced the way in which Israel is seen now and how the Israelis (and Palestinians) themselves perceive it.

This time, let's pretend we were fortune tellers. Let's have a look at the future of both Israel - as the Jewish State - and the whole region. If we knew what the future looked like, what would we have to do now to prevent situations we don't want. Let's take a look at possible future scenarios and how each scenario would affect the Israeli and Palestinian populations, and the whole world.

Our workshop will be called 'The Future of the Jewish State' and the leading questions are:

How do you envision the future of Israel and the Middle East?

If you knew what the future looked like, what would you be able to do now in order to prevent a scenario you don't like?

What future scenarios (one state, two states, third intifada, 'big war' etc.) seem the most realistic?


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Please note that the event will start on Sunday, 12 December at 20.00 Jerusalem time, in the MEPEACE Chat.

If you have any questions regarding the event, please don't hesitate to contact us at mepeace.dialogue@gmail.com.

We are looking forward to your participation!

mepeace.org Dialogue Team
Çiğdem Yılmazer, Clara Singer, Tanya Kasim, Rachel Abramovitz & Oliver Haack