The Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP) invites you to attend 

The View from Europe: Israel, Palestine, Biden, & Antisemitism

Thursday, December 10th

As the United States prepares for the end of one presidential administration and the beginning of another, FMEP is taking stock of the opportunities, burdens, and dynamics facing the European Union as it engages with Israel and Palestine. As the EU looks to the new Biden Administration, what are its expectations around cooperation with the United States and the EU’s roles in the region? How does the EU assess and address Israel’s new alliances in the Gulf or internal Palestinian and Israeli politics? And what are the impacts of the redefinition of antisemitism to include criticism of Israel and anti-Zionism? To discuss these issues, FMEP is proud to host a panel of European experts and advocates in conversation with FMEP President Lara Friedman. 

featuring 

Dr. Muriel Asseburg (Senior Fellow in the Middle East and Africa Division of Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, the German Institute for International and Security Affairs in Berlin) 

Dr. Dimitris Bouris (Assistant Professor/Senior Lecturer of EU Security/European External Relations at the Department of Political Science at the University of Amsterdam)

Alexandra Gerasimčiková (Policy advisor for ACT Alliance EU, Brussels) and 

Dr. Anders Persson (Senior Lecturer, Department of Political Science, Linnaeus University)

In conversation with 

Lara Friedman (President of FMEP)

Panelists 

Dr. Muriel Asseburg is Senior Fellow in the Middle East and Africa Division of the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP), the German Institute for International and Security Affairs in Berlin. Her current research is focused on conflict dynamics and peace-making in the Levant (Israel/Palestine and Syria, in particular); German, European and US Middle East policies; as well as questions of state building, political reform and security in the Eastern Mediterranean.  Asseburg studied political science, international law and economics at Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich where in 2000 she obtained a Ph.D. with a thesis on “Palestinian State and Nation Building in the Interim Period”. She has also lived, studied, and worked in the USA, Israel/Palestine, Syria, and Lebanon. For more on Dr. Asseburg’s work, visit her webpage.

Dr. Dimitris Bouris is Assistant Professor (Senior Lecturer) of EU Security/European External Relations at the Department of Political Science at the University of Amsterdam and also a Visiting Professor at the College of Europe (Natolin). He is also the leader and coordinator of EUMENIA – a Jean Monnet Network on EU-Middle East relations. Dr. Bouris is the author of “The European Union and Occupied Palestinian Territories: State-building without a state” (Routledge 2014), the co-editor (with Tobias Schumacher) of the “Revised European Neighbourhood Policy: Continuity and Change in EU Foreign Policy” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017) and also the co-editor (with Daniela Huber and Michelle Pace) of the “Routledge Handbook on EU-Middle East Relations” (forthcoming 2021). He has published a number of scholarly articles in peer-reviewed academic journals as well as policy briefs and op-eds for major news and policy outlets such as Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Al Jazeera and EU Observer. His research focus lies at the intersection of International Relations (IR theory, peacebuilding, state-building, security sector reform, conflict resolution), EU Studies (EU External Relations, EU Common Security and Defence Policy) and Middle East and North Africa Studies (with a particular focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict).

Alexandra Gerasimčiková is a Brussels-based policy advisor for ACT Alliance EU, an advocacy network of European development agencies supporting over 100 local partners in the West Bank and Gaza. She is advising the agencies on EU policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and leading their European advocacy cooperation. Alexandra also contributes to publications on EU foreign policy in its neighbourhood. Her most recent analysis for Responsible Statecraft covered the EU’s sanctions policy. Alexandra holds a Master’s degree in Middle East, Caucasus and Central Asia Security from University of St Andrews. Twitter: @alexandra_grsm. For more on Alexandra Gerasimčiková’s work, go to this link.

Anders Persson is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Political Science at Linnaeus University. He researches the role of the European Union in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and has written four books about this topic, including EU Diplomacy and the Israeli-Arab Conflict, 1967–2019 (Edinburgh University Press, Aug 2020) and The EU and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict 1971-2013: In Pursuit of a Just Peace (Lanham, Lexington Books: 2015). He has published peer-reviewed articles in journals such as Journal of Common Market Studies, Mediterranean Politics, Journal of European Integration, Middle East Critique, Journal of Conflict Transformation and Security and New Middle Eastern Studies. He serves as expert commentator for Swedish TV/radio/press on Israel-Palestine and contributes regularly to Haaretz, The Jerusalem Post, Al Jazeera English, Politico EU and EU Observer.

Moderator

Lara Friedman is the President of the Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP) and 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. In addition to her work at FMEP, Lara is a Contributing Writer at Jewish Currents and a non-resident fellow at the U.S./Middle East Project (USMEP).