Gaza: The Origins of the Current Crisis and where next? Caabu and Amnesty International book launch with academic, Jean-Pierre Filiu

Gaza: The Origins of the Current Crisis and where next? Caabu and Amnesty International book launch with academic, Jean-Pierre Filiu

Please join Caabu and Amnesty International UK (AIUK) for a briefing with Jean Pierre-Filiu, author of Gaza: A History. Jean-Pierre will speak about the origins of the current crisis, and where we go next.

If you would like to attend this briefing, please RSVP to Joseph Willits at Caabu ([email protected]). It is ESSENTIAL that you RSVP otherwise you may be unable to attend the event.

You can read Caabu's update on the situation in Gaza here, and see our appeal here. You can also see AIUK's work on Gaza here.

When: Tuesday, 2 September, 6:30pm

Where: The Auditorium, Amnesty International UK, Human Rights Action Centre, 17-25 New Inn Yard, London, EC2A 3EA

Click here for directions.

About the book: 

Through its millennium-long existence, Gaza has often been bitterly disputed while simultaneously and paradoxically enduring prolonged neglect. Jean-Pierre Filiu's book is the first comprehensive history of Gaza in any language.

In 1948, 200,000 Palestinians sought refuge in Gaza, a marginal area neither Israel nor Egypt wanted. Palestinian nationalism grew there, and Gaza has since found itself at the heart of Palestinian history. It is in Gaza that the fedayeen movement arose from the ruins of Arab nationalism. It is in Gaza that the 1967 Israeli occupation was repeatedly challenged, until the outbreak of the 1987 intifada. And it is in Gaza, in 2007, that the dream of Palestinian statehood appeared to have been shattered by the split between Fatah and Hamas. The endurance of Gaza and the Palestinians make the publication of this history both timely and significant.

If you wish to purchase the book, you can do so here.

About the speaker:

Jean-Pierre Filiu, a historian and an arabist, is professor of Middle East studies at Sciences Po. He teaches at Sciences Po since 2006 and has been an associate to the CERI since 2009.He has held visiting professorships both at Columbia School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) and at Georgetown School of Foreign Service (SFS). 

He served also as an adviser to the Prime minister (2000-2002), to the Minister of Defense (1991-93), and to the Minister of Interior (1990-91). Prof. Filiu was a career diplomat from 1988 to 2006, following humanitarian missions in Afghanistan (1986) and Lebanon (1983-84). He was assigned to Amman, before becoming Deputy Chief of mission in Damascus and Tunis. 

Prof. Filiu's Apocalypse in Islam (University of California Press, 2011) was awarded the main prize by the French History Convention. His works and articles about contemporary Islam and the Arab world have been published in a dozen languages. Prof. Filiu also wrote the script of Best of Enemies, a graphic novel about US in the Middle East (the first of three volumes is already out with Self Made Hero). His Arab Revolution, ten lessons from the democratic uprising was published in 2011 by Hurst (London) and Oxford University Press (New-York). 

President François Hollande appointed Prof. Filiu in July 2012 as one of the members of the draft committee that releases the White Book for Defense and National Security.

You can read more here.

If you would like to come along to this briefing, please RSVP to Joseph Willits ([email protected]).