Dr Ghada Karmi

Author, academic and political commentator University of Exeter, UK presented a lecture at CAIS on 16 October, 2007.The lecture was entitled:

'Israel's Dilemma in Palestine: The Process, The Failures and The Prospect for a Just and Workable Solution.'

Dr Karmi's lecture highlights the myths surrounding the peace process and the twisted roadmap that caused its demise. It will examine the foundations of the current proposed two-state solution and will touch on the reasons for its failure to achieve lasting peace. Dr Karmi presents the bi-national state solution and discusses the sharp distinction between bi-nationalism and secular democracy. She will argues in secular democratic state citizens would have rights not derived from membership in an ethnic or religious group. Unlike the bi-nationalist state, a secular democracy is likely to be conducive towards helping its citizens develop a common national identity.

Dr Ghada Karmi is a Palestinian-British author, academic and political commentator and is an honorary research fellow and assistant lecturer at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom. Dr Karmi is in Australia to deliver the Edward Said Memorial Lecture at the University of Adelaide.

A well known international commentator on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Dr Karmi appears widely in the British and Arab media and frequently has articles on the Middle East published in The Guardian (UK), The Nation (US) and Journal of Palestine Studies. Her publications include:Married to Another Man: Israel’s dilemma and the one-state solution, London: Pluto Press, 2007; In Search of Fatima: a Palestinian story, London: Verso, 2002; The Egyptians of Britain: a migrant community in transition, Centre for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies: University of Durham Occasional Paper, 1997; The Palestinian exodus, 1948-1998, Ithaca Press, 1999.(editor); Jerusalem today: what future for the peace process? Ithaca Press, 1996 (editor).