The Middle East Institute (MEI) and the Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP) invite you to join a 3-part webinar series: COVID-19 and the Healthcare Systems in Israel/Palestine.

For nations around the globe, the COVID-19 crisis is both creating new challenges and exacerbating existing ones. This is especially true in Israel-Palestine, where Israelis and Palestinians live in close proximity, all under overarching Israeli authority but under regimes that afford them separate and grossly unequal access to health services.

In this context, the webinar series, moderated by MEI’s Khaled Elgindy and FMEP’s Lara Friedman, will examine how the COVID-19 crisis is impacting the very different and yet highly interconnected environments in Israel-Palestine, highlighting expert voices on the ground.

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Part 1: The Gaza Strip
Tuesday, March 31 (11am-12pm ET)
Register for Part 1 here.

Featuring:

Tania Hary, Gisha – Legal Center for Freedom of Movement
Tania Hary is the executive director of Gisha – Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, an Israeli human rights organization which promotes the right to movement in the Palestinian territory, especially Gaza. Leading Israel’s only organization focused on Gaza, Hary is relied upon as a source of information and analysis on the situation in the Gaza Strip both at home and abroad. She briefed the United Nations Security Council in 2015 in an Arria formula meeting on the crisis in the Strip following the 2014 military operation Protective Edge. She also briefed the Council in 2019 at the invitation of the United Kingdom. Prior to joining Gisha in 2007, Tania worked on advocacy and fundraising initiatives for not-for-profit organizations promoting human rights and development.

Dr. Ghada Al Jadba, UNRWA
Dr. Ghada Al Jadba is the chief of the UNRWA Health Programme in the Gaza Strip (since April 2015). As such, she is responsible for managing a workforce of some 900 staff and all of the health operations and services provided by 22 UNRWA health centers across the Gaza Strip to about 1.4 million Palestine refugees, including during times of emergencies. She has previously worked as Area Health Officer and Senior Medical Officer for UNRWA from 2003 to 2015. She holds a Masters degree in Public Health from Al Quds University, Gaza (2006), and a Bachelor degree in medicine and general surgery from Al Fateh University, Tripoli, Libya (1995).

Omar Shaban, PalThink for Strategic Studies
Omar Shaban is the founder and director of the Gaza-based PalThink for Strategic Studies, an independent think tank with no political affiliation. He is an analyst of the political-economy of the Middle East and is a regular writer and commentator for the Arab and international media. Shaban is a founder of Palestinian groups for Amnesty International, the deputy head of the board of Asala, an association promoting microfinance for women, and a member of the Institute of Good Governance.

Lara Friedman (co-host), Foundation for Middle East Peace
Lara Friedman is the president of FMEP and a former U.S. Foreign Service Officer. With more than 25 years working in the Middle East foreign policy arena, Friedman is a leading authority on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, with particular expertise on the Israeli-Arab conflict, Israeli settlements, Jerusalem, and the role of the U.S. Congress. She is published widely in the U.S. and international press and is regularly consulted by members of Congress and their staffs, by Washington-based diplomats, by policy-makers in capitals around the world, and by journalists in the U.S. and abroad.

Khaled Elgindy, (co-host), the Middle East Institute
Khaled Elgindy is senior fellow and director of the Program on Palestine and Palestinian-Israeli Affairs at MEI. He is the author of the newly released book, Blind Spot: America and the Palestinians, from Balfour to Trump (Brookings Institution Press, 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.

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Details and registration links for the rest of the series:

Part 2 – The West Bank and East Jerusalem (April 1, 11am-12pm ET)
Part 3 – Israel (April 3, 11am-12pm ET)