Peace in the Middle East: What Role for Europe?

Analysing the political role of the European Union in the Middle East, the discussion will focus on the Arab-Israeli conflict and the responsibilities and opportunities for the EU to revive the peace process and carry out the two-State solution.

Peace in the Middle East: What Role for Europe?

Tuesday 10 November 2020 | 5:00pm - 6:15pm CET

Watch the video replay of the event.

A discussion chaired by Miguel Ángel Moratinos, UN High Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations, Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Spain, Former EU Special Representative for the Middle East Peace Process.

>With:

Élie Barnavi, Former Israeli Ambassador to France, Professor, Tel Aviv University

Elias Sanbar, Palestinian Ambassador to UNESCO, Writer and Translator

Deborah Wheeler, Associate Professor at the United States Naval Academy, former Visiting Professor at Sciences Po Paris School of International Affairs.

Miguel Angel Moratinos is the UN High Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations since January 2019. Prior to this appointment, Mr Moratinos devoted his career to international relations and held several high-level positions, including EU Special Representative for the Middle East Peace Process (1996-2003) and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Spain (2004-2010). In addition, Mr. Moratinos served at the national level in Spain as General Deputy Director for Northern Africa (1987-1991), Director of the Institute of Cooperation with the Arab World (1991-1993) and General Director of Foreign Policy for Africa and the Middle East (1993-1996), taking part in the organisation of the Middle East Peace Conference in Madrid in 1992. Mr Moratinos is the author of "Ma Mission de Paix au Proche-Orient (L'Harmattan, 2019). Mr Moratinos has also been teaching at PSIA since 2011.

Eli Barnavi is Professor of European Early Modern History at Tel Aviv University (emeritus) and Scientific Advisor to the Museum of Europe in Brussels. From 2000 to 2002 he served as the Ambassador of Israel to France. Eli Barnavi wrote some twenty books on France and Europe in the turmoil of the 16th century Religious Wars and on the contemporary history of Israel and of the Jewish people. He published numerous studies in professional journals in Europe, the US and Canada, as well as political articles in the Israeli and European press. 

Elias Sanbar is the Ambassador and Permanent Delegate of Palestine to UNESCO since 2011. Previously, he was Head of the Palestinian Delegation for the multilateral peace negotiations on refugees (1993-1997). In addition, Mr Sanbar is a writer and the author of numerous books, as well as the translator of works by Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwich. He is also the founder and editor-in-chief of the Revue d’Etudes Palestiniennes.

Prof. Deborah L. Wheeler teaches political science and Middle East studies at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis.  She is the author of Digital Resistance in the Middle East (Edinburgh, 2018) and Internet in the Middle East (SUNY, 2006).  She has conducted fieldwork on gender, resistance, food security, and digital politics in Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel/Palestine, Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco.  For her doctorate (Univ. of Chicago) she wrote on the diplomacy of popular culture in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.  She has held visiting positions at Oxford University, Sciences Po, University of Bergen, American University in Cairo, The King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies, Kuwait University and American University in Kuwait.