The UCLA Center for Middle East Development hosted the event, "What is Possible When Israelis and Palestinians Work Together?" on April 25, 2024.

The Hamas surprise attack on Israel last October 7 and Israel's subsequent military response have caused enormous upheaval and tragedy in the region. Hamas acted in part to stop ongoing US-brokered negotiations for Saudi Arabia to normalize relations with Israel in exchange for American defense guarantees and Israeli commitments toward Palestinian statehood. Now, more than six months later, a veteran Israeli journalist and a prominent young Palestinian leader will engage in a frank discussion regarding the eventual post-war future. Is the two-state solution still possible? What might a revitalized and reformed Palestinian authority look like? What kind of relationship will the future State of Palestine have with the State of Israel? How will Israel be able to move forward given its current domestic polarization? And how do the Palestinians and the Israelis view the impact of Iran's destabilizing presence on the two-state solution?

 MEET THE SPEAKERS

Mr.  Ehud Yaari has been a Middle East commentator for Israel’s Channel Two Television (now Channel 12) since 1975. He is also a Lafer international fellow at The Washington Institute and a former associate editor of The Jerusalem Report. Among his numerous awards for journalism are the Israeli press editors-in-chief prize for coverage of the peace process with Egypt, the Sokolov Prize for coverage of the Lebanon War, and the Israel broadcasting award for coverage of the Gulf War. Mr. Yaari’s articles have appeared in respected newspapers and journals such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Foreign Affairs, and Atlantic Monthly. He is also the author of eight books on the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Mr. Samer Abdelrazzak Sinijlawi is chairman of the Jerusalem Development Fund and a Fatah political activist from Jerusalem. An opponent to President Abbass, he recently published an op-ed in the New York Times titled, “Mahmoud Abbas Must Go.” Mr. Sinijlawali belongs to a young Palestinian leadership generation that believes in the need to focus on intensive dialogue and bridge building with Israelis. To that end, he invests extensive time in discussion with Israelis from the left, center, and right. He is the most invited Palestinian to the Israeli media. Recently, Israeli TV Channel 13 interviewed him together with Ehud Barak, Boggi Aylaon, and Dennis Ross on the “Day After.”

MEET THE MODERATOR

Professor Steve Zipperstein is associate director of the UCLA Center for Middle East Development. He is also an adjunct assistant professor at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. Professor Zipperstein is a former US federal prosecutor and the former chief legal officer of Verizon Wireless and BlackBerry Ltd. He is the author of The Legal Case for Palestine: A Critical Assessment (forthcoming) (Routledge, 2024), Zionism, Palestinian Nationalism and the Law: 1939-1948 (Routledge, 2022), and Law and the Arab-Israeli Conflict: The Trials of Palestine (Routledge 2020).