Lecture Series at NTNU – Fall 2009
The Israel-Palestine conflict:
What can the research tell us?
 		  
 
   
The conflict between Israel and Palestine has been ongoing for more than half a century, with still no end in sight. Violence begets further violence. Attacks and reprisals continue relentlessly. Complaints and recriminations echo through the media. The conflict is, perhaps unfortunately, the most “high profile” in current global political reality.

NTNU has a role to play in this conflict. The propaganda machinery of the involved parties has been running at high gear for years. “Facts” have been killed off by counter-“facts”. It is difficult to assemble a consistent, well-reasoned and cohesive understanding of the situation. Mass media will never be the forum for long thoughts and research-based consideration. That sort of thorough analysis must be the responsibility of the universities. This lecture series is a contribution from NTNU to such an academic discourse.

Torbjørn Digernes, rektor at NTNU


How can we meaningfully interpret this conflict, based on research findings? By organizing this lecture series in the Fall of 2009, NTNU has shouldered its natural responsibility to the community to address this question. The aim of the series is to open up for a broad debate on the Middle East conflict. The series addresses a broad spectrum of aspects of the conflict. The basic starting point is the question of how the parties in the conflict position themselves with regard to human rights and the Geneva conventions on warfare. We then address the question of the interplay of Israeli policies and USA’s foreign policies, where the hypothesis is that Israel’s policies do not necessarily serve USA’s interests. The third lecture focuses on how anti-Semitism is used to legitimate Israeli national policies. Ethnic cleansing can be seen as a basic condition for realisation of the state of Israel. This is the theme of the fourth lecture. The fifth lecture addresses Norway’s role in the conflict. The series concludes with a reflection on what future nation-state formations might offer a solution to the conflict.

Morten Levin, Rune Skarstein, Ann Rudinow Sætnan (Program committee)

 

Program:

 Seminar 1: 

Brudd på folkerett, menneskerett og Genevekonvensjonen i Midt-Østens kriger? [Breaches of international law, human rights and the Geneva convention in Middle-East wars? Lecture held in Norwegian.]

Seniorforsker Cecilie Hellestveit, Norsk senter for menneskerettigheter, Universitetet i Oslo

Cecilie Hellestveit er stipendiat ved Norsk senter for menneskerettigheter, Universitetet i Oslo, der hun er i ferd med å sluttføre sin doktoravhandling om ”Humanitarian Law and Non-international Armed Conflict”. Hellestveit har studert jus ved Universitetet i Bergen og ved Sorbonne-universitetet, samt statsvitenskap og diverse områdestudier. Tyngdepunktene i hennes forskning er internasjonal rett, væpnede konflikter, fredsprosesser, islam og menneskeretter, samt geopolitikk i Midt-Østen. Hun har bred studie- og arbeidserfaring frå Midtøsten, er arabisktalende, og har hospitert ved universiteter både på Vestbredden og i Israel.






 Seminar 2: 

The Israel lobby and US foreign policy

Professor Stephen Walt, Harvard University

Stephen M. Walt is the Robert and Rene Belfer Professsor of International Relations. He previously taught at Princeton University and the University of Chicago, where he served as Master of the Social Science Collegiate Division and Deputy Dean of Social Sciences. He has been a Resident Associate of the Carnegie Endowment for Peace and a Guest Scholar at the Brookings Institution, and he has also served as a consultant for the Institute of Defense Analyses, the Center for Naval Analyses, and the National Defense University. He presently serves on the editorial boards of Foreign Policy, Security Studies, International Relations, and Journal of Cold War Studies, and he also serves as Co-Editor of the Cornell Studies in Security Affairs, published by Cornell University Press. Additionally, he was elected as a Fellow in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in May 2005.

Professor Walt is the author of The Origins of Alliances (1987), which received the 1988 Edgar S. Furniss National Security Book Award. He is also the author of Revolution and War (1996), Taming American Power: The Global Response to U.S. Primacy (2005), and, with co-author J.J. Mearsheimer, The Israel Lobby (2007).



Streaming video from seminar 2



Seminar 3: 

Anti-Semitism and the state of Israel as a political actor

Professor Moshe Zuckermann, Tel Aviv University

Moshe Zuckermann emigrerte fra Tyskland til Israel i 1970. Han er professor i historie ved Universitetet i Tel Aviv. Foruten historiske studier, spesielt moderne tysk historie, har han skrevet et stort antall kritiske bøker og artikler om Israel-Palestina konflikten og publisert kunstkritiske og kulturkritiske arbeider. De aller fleste av Zuckermanns omfattende publikasjoner er skrevet på tysk eller hebraisk, selv om han også behersker engelsk ypperlig både i skrift og tale. Hans siste bok er: Sechzig Jahre Israel – Die Genesis einer politischen Krise des Zionismus (2009).

Streaming video from seminar 3



Seminar 4:

Ethnic cleansing of Palestine - a premise for the construction of Israel?

Professor Ilan Pappé, University of Exeter.

Professor Ilan Pappé is one of the world's leading historians of the Middle East, with a distinctive view of Arab-Israeli relations. Among the publications relating to these themes are: Britain and the Arab-Israeli Conflict (1988), The Making of the Arab-Israeli Conflict (1992), The Modern History of Palestine: One Land Two Peoples (2003) and The Modern Middle East (2005). He is the fulcrum of a group of historians and political scientists at the Cornwall Campus working on 20th century ethno-politics. He has published extensively on the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict and his experiences have resulted in some very incisive thought on what it is to be a historian and the methodology of historical enquiry.

Streaming video from seminar 4



Seminar 5:

Norges rolle i Israel-Palestina-konflikten [Norway’s role in the Israel-Palestine conflict. Lecture held in Norwegian.]

Professor Hilde Henriksen Waage, Universitetet i Oslo

Hilde Henriksen Waage er professor i historie ved Universitetet i Oslo, med Midt-Østen som spesialfelt. Under sine mange opphold i Midt-Østen har hun forsket på Israel-Palestina konflikten og de forskjellige fredsinitiativene. For tiden arbeider hun på prosjektet ”The Missing Peace”, som er et såkalt strategisk instituttprogram finansiert av NFR. Et sentralt tema i dette prosjektet er hvilke betingelser for en løsning av Israel-Palestina konflikten som kan aksepteres av begge parter. Henriksen Waage har skrevet et stort antall artikler og bøker om Norges og andre lands rolle i fredsforhandlingene mellom Israel og Palestina, blant annet bøkene Norge – Israels beste venn (1996) og Peacemaking is a risky business (2004)

Streaming video from seminar 5



Seminar 6:

En stat, to stater eller føderasjon – løsninger på konflikten i Midt-Østen? [One state, two states, or federation – solutions to the conflict in the Middle East? Lecture held in Norwegian.]

Direktør Nils Butenschøn, Norsk senter for menneskerettigheter, Universitetet i Oslo

Nils Butenschøn er professor i statsvitenskap og direktør ved Norsk senter for menneskerettigheter ved Universitetet i Oslo. Han har Midtøstens moderne politiske utvikling som et sentralt forskningsfelt. I 2006 kom ny utgave av boka "Drømmen om Israel. Historiske og ideologiske forutsetninger for staten Israel", i 2008 kom "Midtøsten. Imperiefall, statsutvikling, kriger".

Streaming video from seminar 6