2023 Social Sciences Week | The Palestinian Catastrophe
Social Sciences Week 2023
Presented in collaboration with Conversation at the Crossroads and Social Sciences Week
The Palestinian Catastrophe
5 September, 6-8 pm
The Great Hall and Online
Registration is free but essential
The Palestinian catastrophe, known as the Nakba, refers to the devastation of the Palestinian homeland in 1948, and with it the displacement of the majority of Palestinian Arabs. The Catastrophe did not end in 1948. 75 years later Palestinian lands remain under occupation. As the dramatic use of military force in recent weeks shows, violence, discrimination and displacement remain the lot of the Palestinians.
What is a principled response? Which way for a just peace? What constructive initiatives can Australia and other governments take? What of the UN? Is civil society everywhere ready to assume its responsibilities?
The peace of the region and the world beyond hangs in the balance.
Keynote Speaker
The Hon Bob Carr, former Foreign Minister for Australia and NSW’s longest continuously serving premier, is Industry Professor (Business and Climate Change) at University of Technology Sydney (UTS). He previously headed the Australia-China Relations Institute at UTS as Director and Professor of International Relations.
Professor Carr is Honorary Professor at Beijing Foreign Studies University; recipient of the RSIS Distinguished Visiting Fellowship from Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University and the Fulbright Distinguished Fellow Award. He was Honorary Scholar of the Australian American Leadership Dialogue, and is the author of Thoughtlines (2002), What Australia Means to Me (2003), My Reading Life (2008), Diary of a Foreign Minister (2014) and Run for Your Life (2018).
Respondents
Sophie McNeill (pictured left) is the Australia researcher for Human Rights Watch. She was formerly an investigative reporter with ABC TV’s Four Corners program where she produced programs on the Hong Kong protest movement and the mass arbitrary detention of Xinjiang’s Muslims by the Chinese government. She was also a foreign correspondent for the ABC and SBS in the Middle East, including Israel/Palestine, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Egypt and Turkey.
Rawan Arraf (pictured right) is Executive Director & Principal Lawyer, Australian Centre for International Justice. She most recently worked as a refugee lawyer at Refugee Advice & Casework She is actively engaged with lawyers and organisations working in universal jurisdiction litigation abroad and in 2018 trained with the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) in Berlin.