15 JAN 2020 · A tribute to Dr Andrea Zerbini (1984-2019)    Archaeologists thrive on discovering places, objects or stories about the past, especially when they give us a sense of identity and meaning in our modern lives. Archaeologists also love to travel but also want to understand their roots and where they came from too. This talk will explore these aspects in terms of what it means to be an archaeologist working in the twenty-first century as well the challenges of working in the Middle East and North Africa. These include harnessing the latest technology, to help preserve the ever-threatened cultural heritage. The talk will be a tribute to the life and work of Dr Andrea Zerbini.

15 FEB 2020 · President Donald Trump’s proposal for peace between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples under the spotlight at an event hosted by King’s Decolonising Working Group at King’s College London. Trump’s Peace Plan: A First Reading, a seminar led by Dr Toufic Haddad.

28 FEB 2020 · The Survey of Western Palestine (SWP), conducted between 1871 and 1878 and first published in 1880, was considered the first scientifically based comprehensive survey of Palestine and it was unequalled for its time. It remained the most comprehensive survey until the end of the 19th century and even later for some purposes. However, its aims were not fully achieved. In survey terms there have been errors of accuracy, mis-spelt names and significant loss of data that was collected but not used. Its aim of describing the population of the country were particularly lacking. Military objectives became apparent towards the end of the survey and served the British army well until the First World War. Dr Salman Abu Sitta’s new revised atlas is compiled over 500 pages and corrects location errors, the spelling of names, it documents missing names and lists place names in both Arabic and English. In this lecture Dr Salman Abu Sitta will explore the significance of the SWP through the documentation of Palestine in the following 150 years.

20 MAY 2020 · 20 May 2020 The twentieth century for Palestine and the Palestinians has been a century of denial: denial of statehood, denial of nationhood and denial of history. This book is Rashid Khalidi’s powerful response. Drawing on his family archives, he reclaims the fundamental right of any people: to narrate their history on their own terms. In this book launch, Prof. Khalidi (Columbia University) discusses his book with Rana Barakat (Birzeit University). This was an online webinar held in partnership with the Educational Bookshop (Jerusalem) and the Khalidi Library (Jerusalem).

28 MAY 2020 · 28 May 2020 This event will explore the implications of the global Covid-19 crisis on the future of neoliberalism, and the ongoing struggles across the Middle East and North Africa, informally referred to as the 'Arab Spring'. This event will take the format of a conversation with Prof. Achcar, led by Dr. Toufic Haddad, Director of CBRL-Jerusalem's Kenyon Institute, and will include the chance for webinar audience members to pose questions.

3 JUN 2020 · 3 June 2020 This talk surveys the first two decades of British rule in Palestine through the eyes of its intelligence services. Who were Britain’s spymasters in Palestine? How did they try to reconcile Britain’s conflicting promises to Zionists and Palestinians? Did they understand the country and its people, or did they get it wrong? This talk shows the moments where intelligence officers influenced British policy in Palestine, but also, how the now-declassified records they left behind help us understand the early years of the conflict.

18 JUN 2020 · 18 June 2020 In this seminar we invite discussion on the nature of partnership building in and around the museum and heritage sector in Jordan. We reflect on our own experiences of trying to develop successful partnerships, gained during the first year of our AHRC Newton-Khalidi funded research-and-development project on ‘Learning from Multicultural Amman: Engaging Jordan’s Youth’. Here, as well as thinking critically about the challenges surrounding partnership working, we have sought to identify and experiment with new forms of partnership working: between museums; between museums and education providers; between government agencies and museums; and between Jordanian museum professionals and international experts.

2 JUL 2020 · 2 July 2020 As the discourse of “Countering Violent Extremism” has become more prominent both within the Middle East and in talk about the Middle East, so too has the concept of moderation emerged as an apparent interpretive key to understanding the region and its most pressing political and theological debates. Yet if the definition of ‘extremism’ remains controversial, the concept of moderation is all too often taken to be self-evident—even as those with disparate political and religious convictions seek to lay claim to it. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Jordan, I trace the history and contemporary social lives of Arabic-language notions of moderation like ‘itidal and wasitiyya. I seek to map out how these terms have helped foster new forms of dispute and social control even as they have been taken up by secular and religious commentators drawing on a vibrant pre-existing textual tradition.

16 JUL 2020 · 16 July 2020 This talk will look at how Arabs established a democratic government at Damascus in 1919-20 by forging a compromise between secular liberals, conservative Muslims, and leaders of non-Muslim communities as described in How the West Stole Democracy from the Arabs. However, the Paris Peace Conference refused to recognize Arab democracy because it threatened British and French colonial rule in other Muslim countries. By authorizing the French army to occupy Damascus, the Conference destroyed not only the Syrian government, but also future prospects for Arab democracy. The book challenges previous understandings of the impact of World War I on the Middle East that focus on nationalism as the primary outcome. Not only did Arabs seek to revive liberal constitutionalism, but they also demonstrated a political sophistication that has been erased by colonizers. The events of 1920 tainted the new regime of international law under the League of Nations with racism and sparked the rise of anti-liberal Islamism.

22 JUL 2020 · 22 July 2020 This webinar explores the roots and implications of Israel’s plans to annex up to a third of West Bank territory – a manoeuvre seen by many to represent a paradigmatic shift in the character of how the ‘Israel-Palestine’ conflict hereafter unfolds. Professor Shlaim - a leading scholar of Israel’s relations with the Arab world - will be interviewed by CBRL Kenyon Institute, Jerusalem Director Dr Toufic Haddad before opening up to questions from the audience.