The
International Politics Working Group of AEGEE-Europe together with Israeli and Palestinian students and in collaboration with AEGEE-Hamburg
organised the conference : The European Role in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict A conference for European, Israeli and Palestinian students 12 - 15 August 2002 in Hamburg, Germany
Post-Event: 15 - 18 August
Patron: German Institute for Middle East Studies Report about the conference In December 2001 the members of the
International Politics Working Group came up with the idea of organizing an event
focusing not on an internal European issue but on a conflict which had been lasting for a long time and was in the media almost every day – the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The objective was to find out how young
people from Israel and the Palestinian Territories look at the conflict, what main problems they see and how they might solve them. Moreover, students from both parties were to have the possibility to not only get in
touch with one another but also with the ‘outside’, to become aware of the European perspective. It was the long-term goal that
the conference should give the different participating organisations from the region the possibility to meet, to get to know each other and, by this, establish a basis for possible common projects in the future. All in all, 35 European students attended the conference and 12 students from Israel and the Palestinian Territories were invited. Due to technical problems, two Palestinian students were not able to
participate. Schedule The conference was divided into two parts: “The Importance of an Intercultural Dialogue” (Part I) dealing with the different perceptions of the ‘other’ and
“The European Role” (Part II). Both issues where introduced by a lecture of an expert. Additionally, in the second part two experts presented the difficulties of an active European engagement in the Israeli and
Palestinian view, respectively. The invited experts were: PD Dr. Kai Hafez, German Institute for Middle East Studies, Hamburg
Mrs Dr. rer. pol. Asseburg, German Institute for International and
Security Affairs, Berlin
Idan Levi, Doctorand
Mr Zimmer-Winkel, German-Palestinian Association, reg. soc. During the workshop sessions, it was very important that all of the four workshop groups were
composed of students from each side. In the first part, the focus was on the different perceptions of the others, which is one of the major problems towards the resolution of the conflict. During the second part
each workshop discussed a certain aspect of the European role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict:
Barcelona Process)
2. Progress in the cultural field as a prerequisite for a successful EU-policy in the Middle East
3. The EU-US Relationship in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
4. The EU´s active involvement
The task of the workshops was to agree upon a common position paper. The results were presented at the final public panel discussion in the
evening of the last conference day: Moderator: Mr Cichowicz, Head of the Foreign Desk at the Northern German TV-station and Anchorman of the TV-program “Weltspiegel” which presents weekly reports of Channel One correspondents
Guests:
Prof. Dr. Steinbach, Director of the German Institute for
Middle East Studies, Hamburg
Mr Sterzing, Member of the German Parliament, Spokesperson for European Affairs
Mr Herbert, Deputy Head of Near East Division in the German Foreign Ministry
For the detailed schedule please download the documentation. Results In each workshop an agreement upon a position paper was reached. (See “ Results”) Another important result of this week is that this conference will not
remain the only one: AEGEE is already planning further meetings of Israeli and Palestinian and European students for February and August of next year. Moreover, a project team will be founded in order to co-ordinate the
different activities and guarantee further continuous work . AEGEE is among the
first organisations to support the integration of the Eastern and the Southeast European regions. This opening of AEGEE towards the Middle East – to our Southern neighbours – is therefore an important step and a necessary one if we don’t want to ignore what happens outside of “Fortress Europe”.
Post-Event: Already during the days of
the conference an Evening Program was organised by AEGEE-Hamburg. Nevertheless, an additional Post-Event consisting of a leisure and cultural program gave the participants the possibility to get to know each other in a
better way and to have time to discuss further co-operations between the organisations as well as projects within the framework of AEGEE. Support: We want to thank the Robert Bosch Foundation for
mainly supporting this project as well as the City of Hamburg, DAAD and EED for financing travel expenses of the invited Israeli and Palestinian students. For more information please contact:
Christine.Binzel@gmx.de
Main co-ordinator – president of AEGEE-Hamburg, secretary of the International Politics Working Group Phone: +45-86138010
+45-61335749 (m) |
