Panel to discuss Arab/Palestinian-Israeli conflict March 24

A panel discussion about the Arab/Palestinian–Israeli Conflict will be held from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 24, in East Hall Little Theater on the Ripon College campus.

The event is co-sponsored by the Department of Religion and the Center for Politics and the People at Ripon College. The discussion fits well into a mission of the Department of Religion to “engage in a critical analysis of the interactions of religious and/or moral traditions with contemporary cultures,” and with one of the goals of the Center, to “create a forum for dialogue, research, analysis and dissemination of ideas about local, state, national and international issues.”

Rabbi David Brusin, who teaches a course on the Arab/Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the Department of Religion, will moderate the panel.

The four panelists will be Associate Professor of History Rebecca Matzke, who teaches courses in Middle Eastern history at Ripon; Doron Zehavi, a seventh-generation sabra (native-born Israeli), who lives in Kibbutz Tzora in central Israel and is residing in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, this year; Mohammad Hamad, a Palestinian-American born in Gaza who is a water and agriculture engineer, residing in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and Cassandra Dixon, director of Mary House, Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, a hospitality center for families visiting inmates in a federal prison, and who also makes trips to Hebron in Palestine with International Solidarity Movement, currently in Hebron until March 22.

Discussion topics will include the right of return of Palestinian refugees; security wall/barrier, travel to and from the West Bank, checkpoints, special roads and current living conditions in Gaza and the West Bank; the status of Jerusalem and holy sites; and Palestinian statehood, final borders, land swaps and settlements.

The discussion is free and open to the public.