The Palestine Statehood Bid in Context

The Palestine Statehood Bid in Context
A Panel Discussion featuring Richard Falk (via Skype), Mojtaba Mahdavi and Ghada Ageel
Tuesday, November 8 (7:00 – 9:00 pm)
Telus Building Room 217
Corner of 111 Street & 87 Avenue, University of Alberta Campus
(Click here for map)

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In September, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas filed an application with the United Nations asking for official recognition of a Palestinian state within the internationally recognized 1967 borders. While many countries have supported Palestinian statehood, the Canadian government has joined Israel and the United States in rejecting the bid. Within Palestinian civil society, there are diverse opinions about the effectiveness and consequences of a UN recognition of a Palestinian state. How does a UN recognition affect the prospects for ending the decades-old Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories? What does it mean for the Palestinian people (in Palestine, in Israeli, and in diaspora), and for the grassroots anti-apartheid movement? Join us for a panel discussion to discuss these and other related questions.

Free and open to all. Co-sponsored by the University of Alberta Department of Political Science.

About the panelists

Richard Falk has since 2008 served as the United Nations Special Human Right Rapporteur in Palestinian Territories. He is Albert G. Milbank Professor Emeritus of International Law at Princeton University and Visiting Distinguished Professor in Global and International Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. In 2001 he served on a three-person Human Rights Inquiry Commission for the Palestine Territories that was appointed by the United Nations, and previously, on the Independent International Commission on Kosovo. He is the author or coauthor of numerous books, including Religion and Humane Global Governance, Human Rights Horizons, On Humane Governance: Toward a New Global Politics, and Human Rights and State Sovereignty. He serves as Chair of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation’s Board of Directors and as honorary vice president of the American Society of International Law. Falk also acted as counsel to Ethiopia and Liberia in the Southwest Africa Case before the International Court of Justice.

Dr. Mojtaba Mahdavi is an assistant Professor of Political Science and Middle East & African Studies at University of Alberta, Canada. His research interests include post-Islamist Islam, Islamism and democratization, new theories of secularism and modern Islamic political thought. His writing has appeared in the Canadian, U.S. and Iranian academic journals. He is currently working on a project on post-Islamism and democratization in the Muslim world. Dr. Mahdavi’s forthcoming book examines problems and prospects for democratization in the post-revolutionary Iran.

Dr. Ghada Ageel is a third generation Palestinian refugee. She was born and raised in the Khan Younis Refugee Camp in the Gaza Strip, were she attended high school and completed a BA in Education. In 1999, Ghada won the Jerusalem Studies’ Scholarship of the University of Exeter in Britain, where she completed her Master’s degree in Middle East Politics, and her PhD in Refugees Studies. Sine then, Ghada has worked with several organizations and institutions in Canada, UK and Palestine. She currently lives in Edmonton and works at the Canadian Red Cross.