An Historical Overview of the Palestinian/Israeli Conflict

Date
12th August 2002

Objective
The lecture aimed to provide an historical overview of the complex history behind the middle-eastern conflict. Whilst the Palestinian/Israeli issue can evoke very extreme emotions, not everyone is aware of the historical context of the conflict. The 1967 war, the birth of the PLO, the Oslo Accords and the establishment of the Palestinian Authority are all key events which have greatly impacted the conflict. The event aimed to educate all those who have an interest in topic but were not fully aware of its complicated past.
 
Speaker
Matthew Jackson: an Information Officer for the Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding (CAABU). CAABU was formed after the 1967 Middle East war, when a questionnaire revealed that 98 per cent of the British public had no knowledge of the Arab world. There was clear need to present the Arab perspective and thus advance understanding between the Arab and British peoples.
CAABU has sympathy for the aspirations, achievements and rights of the Arab peoples, especially for the Arabs of Palestine. The Council believes that a just settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict would open the way to rapid development and social progress for all countries in the Middle East.
Matthew Jackson has lived for two years in a Palestinian refugee camp and can give first hand accounts of his time there.
 
Content
The lecture set out the chronology of events beginning with the fall of the Ottoman Empire to the present day. The historical overview highlighted the peace accords and the UN resolutions which have been passed – essential to understanding the issues behind the present day conflict.

Venue
The lecture was held at the University of Reading.

Event Review
This very informative account of the history behind the Palestinian/Israeli conflict was given by Matthew Jackson, an Information Officer for the Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding (CAABU).The presentation was followed by a Q&A session in which the audience participated with a great deal of interest and enthusiasm. Imaad’s aim is to attract an audience of varied culture and background in order to integrate and encourage participation of the entire community, and this was certainly achieved at this event.

Useful Links
- More information about CAABU can be found on their website: www.caabu.org
- The material discussed in the lecture can be found through the following link: www.caabu.org/press/documents/arab-israeli-documents.html
- Information about further CAABU campaigns can be found at: www.caabu.org/campaigns/index.html
- A list of interesting books focusing on CAABU's area of concern can be found at: www.caabu.org/education/usefulbooks.html

IMAAD accepts no liability for information contained on external websites or for literature coming from third parties. Neither does a link to site imply IMAAD's support for the content of the site, the organisation associated with the site or any third parties the site's content pertains to.