Israeli-American Dr. Jeffrey Halper, the coordinating director
of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), will
lead several activities at Reinhardt College in Waleska, Ga., on
Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2006. As part of the College’s year-long
emphasis on the Middle East, Halper will speak on "In Search of
a Just Peace in Israel-Palestine: A View from the Ground," from
11 a.m. to noon in the Falany Performing Arts Center. He will
also lead a workshop, "Reframe the Conflict: Change the
Discourse," from 2:30 – 4 p.m. in the Hill Freeman Library and
Spruill Learning Center. Both are open to the public at no
charge.Halper and Palestinian intellectual and
activist Ghassan Andoni have been nominated by the American
Friends Service Committee for the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize. An
internationally acclaimed speaker, author and activist, Halper
also serves on the steering committee of the UN Conference on
the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.
Dr. Curtis G. Lindquist, chair of Reinhardt’s Year of Middle
East steering committee, is looking forward to Halper’s visit.
“As a committee, we are seeking to bring a diverse array of
perspectives and topics to our campus and community through the
Year of the Middle East. This region is such a rich and
amazingly complex area of the world, and Dr. Jeffrey Halper will
complement the other programs we have scheduled. He has worked
closely with both Israelis and Palestinians, and he has
thought-provoking viewpoints and experiences to share with us,”
Lindquist said.
In Halper’s roles with ICAHD and as an anthropology professor
at Haifa and Ben Gurion universities, he has forged a new mode
of Israeli peace activity based on nonviolent direct action and
civil disobedience to the Israeli Occupation. Describing himself
as an “engaged anthropologist,” Halper believes that a
combination of resistance on the ground, a grounded analysis of
the conflict, advocacy among the Israeli public, campaigns to
mobilize international public opinion and joint efforts with
solidarity groups throughout the world will bring an end to the
Occupation and bring a just and sustainable peace to the region.
Through its resistance to the demolition of Palestinian homes
and other manifestations of the Occupation, ICAHD has developed
a relationship of trust and close cooperation with Palestinian
organizations. Even in the darkest days of conflict, ICAHD has
maintained a relationship of trust, solidarity and close
cooperation with its Palestinian counterparts.
In addition to his three decades of involvement with the
Israeli peace movement, Halper has been active on issues of
social justice within Israel and has written extensively on
Israeli society. His book Obstacles to Peace will be the focus
of a reading circle later this fall at Reinhardt. His next book
will be An Israeli in Palestine: Reframing the Israel-Palestine
Conflict (Pluto Press). He also wrote Between Redemption and
Revival: The Jewish Yishuv in Jerusalem in the Nineteenth
Century (Westview, 1991). For ten years, he worked in
Jerusalem’s inner-city neighborhoods where he helped initiate
the Ohel social protest movement of working-class Mizrahi Jews.
He has also served as the Chairman of the Israeli Committee for
Ethiopian Jews.
Reinhardt has one remaining major YOME event planned for the
fall. On Nov. 9, 2006, Jay Hakes, the director of the Carter
Center Library in Atlanta, Ga., and a former Assistant Secretary
of Energy, will speak on "Reliance on Persian Gulf Oil and the
Challenges of Modern Energy Policy” at 4 p.m. in the Fincher
Visual Arts Center. The public is invited to attend free of
charge.
For more information on the Year of Middle East at Reinhardt
College, please see the college web site: www.reinhardt.edu/YOME/
.
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