Congrès Mondial des Études sur le Moyen-Orient et l'Afrique du Nord

Barcelone, du 19 au 24 julliet 2010

· Langue: English

· Description: Chair: Amjad Banishamsa (PhD student -Durham University, UK)

Paper presenter: Amjad Banishamsa (PhD student, Durham University –UK), “Palestinian perception of the EU's in the MEPP”
Palestinian perception of the EU’s in the MEPPMy paper will look at how the Palestinian beneficiaries perceive the EU’s role. The peace process, followed by the 1995 Barcelona process, has extended the EU role to cover not only the peace process, but also democratization, reform and financial and technical assistance. Therefore, this paper will look at the perception of the Palestinians towards these three issues, as well as to evaluate the EU’s relationships with the other main players on the issue, particularly the US and Israel. The extent of the EU’s ability to have a role independent of the US and the challenges currently facing the EU were directed to the Palestinian leadership. The paper will attempt to determine the level of congruency of Palestinian and European politicians concerning the three main trends of the EU or whether the views of both parties differ to the extent that mistrust and hostilities are being unintentionally bred. Peace Process With regard to the peace process, there are several issues that this chapter will evaluate, such as how the Palestinians perceive the EU’s role in the peace process and whether or not the pal’s think the EU has an independent role from the US. If so, it seeks to determine the conditions that the EU must have in order to pay this role. If not, what are the broad challenges that the EU faces in the middles east and the peace process. This section will also look a t how the Palestinians evaluate the EU’s role in the quartet and the impact of EU initiatives, such as the Barcelona process and the European neighbourhood policy. There will also be a look at how the Palestinians perceive the EU’s role in the Madrid conference. th In general there is dissatisfaction among the Palestinians with the EU’s role in the process. While it is gernerallly agreed upon that EU aid is a source of essential alleviation of suffering for the pal people, most concerned individuals also concur that it does not address the root cause of the suffering which is occupation. European aid This section will also look at how the Palestinians evaluate EU’s financial assistance towards the Palestinians. It will evaluate the aid in general and implementation on the ground. Democratization and reform also this paper will evaluate.

Paper presenter: Corinna Mullin-Lery (Research Fellow, School of Oriental and African Studies, UK), “Exploring the Islamist Challenge to the ‘Liberal Peace’ Discourse: The Case of Hamas and the Israel-Palestine Conflict”
This article will examine the reasons behind Israel’s and the international community’s refusal to engage Hamas in the internationally sanctioned ‘peace process’. It will be argued here that more important than the ‘strategic’ challenges Hamas is deemed to pose to this process, are the epistemological and ontological challenges the movement intrinsically poses to the dominant normative framework that underpins the process. In order to understand the roots of this challenge, I will employ the three-pronged approach of what Florian Hoffman refers to as ‘epistemological relativism’; this entails a ‘complexification’ of the normative framework on which the discourse of the peace process is based, a ‘de-exociticisation’ of the normative framework in which the Other, in this case Hamas, operates, and a ‘re-exoticisation’ of the normative framework on which the process is predicated, ‘showing its contingent and idiosyncratic nature’, and therefore creating a space in which the Other may be understood and engaged. The article will conclude by arguing that it is only once this process has been undertaken that we can begin to fathom the establishment of an enduring peace between Israel and Palestine, which is considered ‘just’ by all parties to the ‘conflict’.