PRIO welcomes you to a seminar with Menachem Klein of the Bar-Ilan University in Israel. The seminar will be chaired by Hilde Henriksen Waage.



Please register with seminar@prio.no if you want to take part.

 

Since 2000, the Israeli – Palestinian conflict has shifted to a new stage. Unfortunately and regretfully, in part due to regime changes in USA, Israel and the Palestinian National Authority, the current situation is very different from that of ‘the Oslo period’. In order to heal the Israeli – Palestinian, it is important to understand the ways in which the conflict arena has changed.


One important implication is that due to this shift, the assumption that better negotiation techniques could make up for what was missed in Camp David 2000 is no longer valid.


In the current stage of the conflict, beginning with the collapse of Camp David 2 and the outbreak of the second Intifada in 2000, Israel is the main actor. Therefore, in describing the shift, Klein will relate mainly to Israeli strategies and operations. In particular he will discuss the expansion of the settlements, the social and institutional profile of the settlers and their collaboration with governmental agencies. He will also cover the dual loyalty of the religious army officers that worries the Israeli Army General Staff.


In the second part of his presentation, Klein will analyze the structure of the Israeli system of control over the Palestinians, both in the territory occupied in 1967 and within the 1948 borders. In this part of the lecture, Klein will argue that unlike previous periods, Israeli–Palestinians (Israeli citizens of Palestinian origin who live in Israeli sovereign area) are now part of the conflict with the Palestinians in the 1967 occupied territory. In other words, the division between the 1948 area and 1967 land has become irrelevant, except in textbooks of international law.
 
Finally, Klein will relate to two hot topics in the present debates on the Israeli – Palestinian conflict:
• Is the two-state solution impossible?
• Is Israel an Apartheid state?