First International Conference on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Newswise — After Dr. Moisés Salinas, returned from a sabbatical leave in the Middle East last year, he wanted to do more than just research the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Salinas, an associate professor of psychology at Central Connecticut State University, and member of the Executive Board of the Jewish Academic Network for Israeli-Palestinian Peace (JANIP), was in Israel working on his book, "Planting Hatred, Sowing Pain" on the psychology of the Israeli Palestinian Conflict in the 2005 - 2006, when in the summer a flurry of bombings, kidnappings, and a war in Lebanon reignited conflagration.

Upon his return to the U.S., Salinas decided to spearhead an effort to go a step beyond: "We academics can not just stay on the sidelines and look at all the pain, the human suffering while we just retroactively study the conflict as if it were another theoretical problem. There had to be something more we can do," he said.

He proposed that JANIP take the initiative to call for an academic conference "to highlight the contribution that social scientific and humanistic research and scholarship can bring towards peace and reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians."

JANIP then contacted the American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP), the foremost organization in the U.S. that advocates the establishment of a democratic state of Palestine living in peace and security alongside Israel, and the Geneva Initiative, a joint group of Israelis and Palestinians who have drafted a model for a future peace agreement that has been informally endorsed by several prominent political leaders on both sides. Together they decided to co-sponsor the First International Academic Conference on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Pathways to Peace, which will be held at Central Connecticut State University from March 28 to 30, 2008.

Conference organizer Salinas says the event "will highlight research regarding obstacles and opportunities to the achievement of peace between Israelis and Palestinians." The conference has already confirmed some renowned keynote speakers, such as Dr. Herbert Kelman, Professor of Psychology and Social Ethics at Harvard University; Dr. Khalil Shikaki, Director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research; Dr. Naomi Hazan, Professor of Political Sciences and former member of the Israeli Knesset; and Gaith al-Omari, Senior Research Fellow at the New America Foundation and former Senior Advisor to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Topics include, but are not limited to, research in: social and psychological factors in the conflict; historical, philosophical, and theological issues; economic factors and cooperation; demographic realities and solutions; geographic obstacles to peace; and negotiations models, perceptions and strategies.

"This conferences does not have the status or the influence that the recent Annapolis conference had," Salinas said, "but we hope that, in our own way, we can make through scholarship a small contribution to solve this, the longest conflict of modern times."

Further information is available at the website http://www.pathways2peace.org