ECFR Discussion with HR/VP Josep Borrell: How can the EU support a sustained ceasefire in Gaza and a renewed Israeli-Palestinian political track?

Josep Borrell Fontelles is the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission. He was President of the European Parliament from 2004-2007 and Spain’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation from 2018-2019.

Abraham “Avrum” Burg is a former Knesset Speaker, author, peace activist and founder of the “All its Citizens” party. He is the author of numerous books, including “The Holocaust Is Over: We Must Rise from its Ashes.” Burg was born in Jerusalem to one of the most prominent families in Israel. His father was a Holocaust survivor who escaped from Germany to Palestine in September 1939 and went on to lead the National Religious Party and serve as a minister in the Israeli government from 1948 to 1988. His mother Rivka was a seventh-generation resident of Hebron and the daughter of the local community rabbi.

Aida Touma-Sliman has been serving in the Israeli Knesset since 2015 as a representative of Hadash and chaired the Committee on the Status of Women and Gender Equality in the Knesset for 7 years. She was born in Nazareth and is a prominent activist fighting violence against women. She was previously a founder and director-general of the Association for Women Against Violence, the largest Palestinian women’s association in Israel. Her efforts for women’s rights and peace led to her being a candidate for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. Before entering the Knesset, Touma-Sliman was editor-in-chief of Al Itihad newspaper, one of the oldest Arabic-language newspapers in Israel.

Daniel Levy is the President of the U.S./Middle East Project (USMEP), which advances an Israeli-Palestinian peace in which international legality and equality is upheld, respecting the rights of all people. From 2012 to 2016, Levy was Director for the Middle East and North Africa at the European Council on Foreign Relations. Prior to that he was a senior Fellow and Director of the New America Foundation’s Middle East Taskforce in Washington D.C. Levy was a Senior Advisor in the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office and to Justice Minister Yossi Beilin during the Government of Ehud Barak; and a member of the official Israeli delegation to the Israel/Palestine peace talks.

Jamal Nusseibeh is a Palestinian-American-British lawyer and scholar, and a member of the Board of the Middle East Policy Council in Washington, DC. He has a M.A. from Sciences Po in Paris, a law degree from City University in London, and a LL.M. and JSD from Columbia University. He is a barrister-at-law in the U.K., taught law at Al-Quds University in Jerusalem, and has been involved in Palestinian affairs since the 1990’s, including in peace negotiations. He is currently CEO of an investment firm. 

Kalypso Nicolaidis is Chair in Global Affairs at the School of Transnational Governance (EUI), where inter alia she convenes the EUI Democracy Forum. She taught at Oxford University, Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and at Ecole Nationale d’Admistration. She has worked with numerous EU institutions, including as a member of the European Council’s reflection group on the future of Europe chaired by Felipe González (2008-10), and is a Council member of ECFR. She also served as advisor on European affairs to George Papandreou in the 90s and early 2000s, the Dutch and UK governments, the European Parliament, the European Commission, OECD and UNCTAD.

Hugh Lovatt is a senior policy fellow with the Middle East and North Africa Programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations. Since joining ECFR in 2012, he has provided analysis on regional geopolitics and advised European policymakers on the conflicts in Israel-Palestine and Western Sahara. He previously worked as a researcher for International Crisis Group and as a Schuman Fellow in the European Parliament focusing on Middle-East policy.

Agenda

• 13.45-14.00: Arrival and Welcome
• 14.00-15.30: On-the-record panel discussion with HR/VP Borrell: How can the EU support a sustained ceasefire in Gaza and renewed Israeli-Palestinian political track?
  With Avraham Burg, Aida Touma-Sliman, Daniel Levy, Jamal Nusseibeh, Kalypso Nicolaidis and Hugh Lovatt
• 15.30-16.00: Reception