Deadlock or Fresh Start?

Analysing the Latest Israeli Elections

With Sana Knaneh, Prof Oren Yiftachel and Lior Shalom

• Wednesday 25 September starting 7.30 pm
• Hashomer House, 37a Broadhurst Gardens NW6 3QT

For the first time in Israeli history the nation has experienced two elections in one year – yet after another inconclusive result on 17 September, many fear there could be another in a matter of months! So what do the results mean? Is this the end of the Netanyahu era, or merely “deja vu all over again”, as Woody Allen might have put it? Why is the left so weak? Does the revival of the United List signal new power for Palestinian citizens of Israel? Is Kahol Lavon now a permanent fixture? And might a potential Gantz premiership help repair rifts in civil society, close the wealth chasm, bring real security and encourage a true peace with justice between Israel and Palestine?

Happily Meretz has the privilege of hosting two bright young women,  Sana Knaneh and Lior Shalom, who are experts in Israeli politics and will answer at least some of these questions. They are joined by Oren Yiftachel, pioneering professor of geography at Ben Gurion University and UCL.

Together our trio will discuss this month’s historic vote – how we got here and what the future might hold. Citizens of Israel now based in London, each brings to the debate experience, perceptiveness and an openness to fresh ideas. In a time of conflict and frustration, we feel sure you will benefit from these compelling voices of the next generation.

• Refreshments served, suggested £5 contribution
• Email: meretzuk@yahoo.co.uk
• www.meretz.org.uk/events

• Tickets at the door or via Eventbrite
• Supported by Hashomer Hatzair Trust UK

Sana Knaneh (right in the photo above) is a Palestinian citizen of Israel, born in the Galilee, who currently works out of London. She holds an executive M.Sc in international strategy and diplomacy from the LSE and is a fully qualified pharmacologist. Sana took her first M.Sc in international relations at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. A researcher for Mitvim – The Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies – she now also conducts outreach to British Jews. Sana’s most recent Mitvim paper highlighted ties between Diaspora Jews and Israeli Palestinians. In addition she has spoken at conferences, universities, mosques, synagogues and churches; and last December gave Meretz UK a memorable talk over Hanukkah.

Prof Oren Yiftachel of Ben-Gurion University and UCL is an expert on the political geography of Israel/Palestine. Among his books are Ethnocracy: the politics of Land and Identity in Israel/Palestine (2006) and Emptied Lands: the Legal Geography of the Bedouins (2018). Yiftachel is a co-founder of the peace movement A Land for All: Two States, One Homeland.

Lior Shalom is currently a graduate student at LSE, working towards a masters in conflict studies. After taking her BA in international relations and Latin American studies at the Hebrew University she worked as a parliamentarian intern with Michal Rozin, a Meretz MK. She was also senior peace education programmes manager at the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation, Jaffa. In 2018 she led a delegation of Israeli and Palestinian girls to Moscow on behalf of the Center to play football together with other children from the Arab world.