With the world’s attention focused on the conflict in the Gaza Strip, the last six weeks have seen a dramatic escalation in Israeli settler and army violence across the West Bank and in East Jerusalem. Since then, Israeli army incursions and mass arrests have intensified in numerous West Bank cities, resulting in the deaths of 185 Palestinians and the detention of at least 2,200. Meanwhile, nine Palestinians have been killed and nearly 1,000 Palestinians have been forced to flee their homes in the West Bank due to attacks by Israeli settlers. In East Jerusalem, armed settlers, backed by Israeli security forces, are attempting to seize control of lands owned by the Armenian Patriarch in the Old City's Armenian Quarter.
Please join MEI for an expert panel examining the dramatic escalation in violence across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Speakers
Nour Odeh
Freelance Communications Consultant and Political Analyst
Daniel Seidemann
Jerusalem-based Attorney; Founder, Terrestrial Jerusalem
Yehuda Shaul
Founder, Ofek: The Israeli Center for Public Affairs
Khaled Elgindy, moderator
Senior Fellow, Director of Program on Palestine and Palestinian-Israeli Affairs, Middle East Institute
Detailed Speaker Biographies
Khaled Elgindy is a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute where he also directs MEI’s Program on Palestine and Israeli-Palestinian Affairs. He is the author of the newly-released book, Blind Spot: America and the Palestinians, from Balfour to Trump, published by Brookings Institution Press in April 2019. Elgindy previously served as a fellow in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution from 2010 through 2018. Prior to arriving at Brookings, he served as an adviser to the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah on permanent status negotiations with Israel from 2004 to 2009, and was a key participant in the Annapolis negotiations of 2007-08. Elgindy is also an adjunct instructor in Arab Studies at Georgetown University.
Nour Odeh is a media professional and communications consultant, specializing in public diplomacy. In 2014, Odeh founded Connect, a strategic communications consultancy firm. Odeh served as the Director of the Palestinian Media Centre and spokesperson of the Palestinian Government after having served as a senior communications advisor for the Palestinian leadership, ahead of Palestine's application for membership at the United Nations in 2011.Prior, Odeh was a career journalist, covering the Israel-Palestine conflict extensively for over 11 years in English, Arabic and Spanish for several Palestinian and international media organizations, including Al-Jazeera English. In 2006, she became the Al Jazeera English correspondent in Gaza. In 2008, Ms. Odeh’s reporting was recognized in the Monte Carlo Television Festival and won Al-Jazeera Network’s first Golden Nymph award. In 2003, Ms. Odeh set up and led Ramallah News Agency, Palestine's first video news agency, based in Gaza, serving clients worldwide.
Daniel (Danny) Seidemann has lived in Jerusalem since 1973. He has been a member of the Israeli Bar Association since 1987. Since 1991, he has specialized in the geopolitics of contemporary Jerusalem, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the city. Mr. Seidemann and his colleagues founded, Terrestrial Jerusalem, and are frequently consulted by senior decision-makers and governmental bodies on matters pertaining to both unfolding developments in Jerusalem and the broader issues relating to a permanent status agreement. He has also been conducting ongoing discussions on Jerusalem issues within the Arab world, and with Christian faith communities and diaspora Jewish communities. He has participated in numerous Jerusalem-related projects, colloquia and track-two deliberations. In 2010, Queen Elizabeth II awarded him the title of honorary Member of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of his work in Jerusalem, and in 2021 was awarded membership in the French Legion of Honour.
Yehuda Shaul was brought up in a Jewish Orthodox family in Jerusalem. As a teenager, Yehuda studied in a yeshiva based in the West Bank settlement of Ma'ale Mikhmash. He began his military service in March 2001 as an infantry combat soldier and later became commander during the second intifada until March 2004, with two years spent in the West Bank. Immediately after his service, Yehuda founded Breaking the Silence (BTS) together with other Israeli soldiers from his unit and served as co-director until 2019. In 2020, Yehuda left BTS and together with Dana Golan (co-director of BTS from 2009-2012) founded Ofek: The Israeli Center for Public Affairs, an independent Israeli think-tank committed to advocating for effective Israeli and international policies to bring about a just and equitable resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict via a two-state paradigm.
Photo by FADEL SENNA/AFP via Getty Images