Please join us for a conversation with Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man and Sarah Leah Whitson regarding their new book, From Apartheid to Democracy: A Blueprint for Peace in Israel-Palestine.
With more than 50 years of combined experience in the region, input from nearly 100 Palestinian, Israeli, and international stakeholders, and extensive comparative research into other democratic transitions, the book has a singular focus: to provide a practical plan to end apartheid and occupation rule and lay the groundwork for democratic decision-making on the future governance of Israel-Palestine.
While many books have described the histories, problems, and challenges in Israel-Palestine, and while some have offered visions for what a future could look like, almost none answer the question of how to bridge two distinct moments: When the political will to change eventually appears, how would Israel actually go about dismantling its apartheid and occupation regimes?
In the wake of the failed Oslo Process, a human rights lawyer and a journalist set out to show that moving beyond the status quo is possible, and once it becomes possible, new possibilities begin to emerge, even in the wake of genocide.
The conversation will be moderated by Omar Safadi and will be followed by a Q&A with the authors.
Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man is an investigative researcher and policy analyst whose work focuses on accountability for crimes and human rights violations in Israel- Palestine. Michael is Israel-Palestine director DAWN, which he joined after working as a journalist for nearly two-decades including as editor-in-chief of +972 Magazine and as an editor at The Jerusalem Post. Michael is an expert on politics and society in the region, with a focus on Israel’s policies of occupation and annexation, its civil and human rights record, and the influence of the US-Israel relationship over those areas. Michael lives in Washington, DC.
Sarah Leah Whitson is the Executive Director of DAWN, an organization that seeks to support democracy and human rights in the Middle East, hold abusers accountable, and reform U.S. policy in the region. Previously, she served as executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa Division from 2004–2020, overseeing the work of the division in 19 countries, with staff located in 10 countries. Whitson has led dozens of advocacy and investigative missions throughout the region, focusing on issues of armed conflict, human rights, accountability, and legal and policy reform. She has published widely on human rights and foreign policy in the Middle East in international and regional media, including The New York Times, Foreign Affairs, The Washington Post, Foreign Policy, The Los Angeles Times, and CNN and appears regularly in global media, including Al-Jazeera, BBC, NPR, MSNBC, and CNN. Whitson graduated from the University of California, Berkeley and Harvard Law School and is fluent in English, Arabic and Armenian.
Omar Safadi is an academic, writer, and researcher and holds a Ph.D., MA, and BA from the University of Chicago’s Department of Political Science. His dissertation and first book project – “The Queer Enemy in the Sectarian Order: Homophobia, Religion, and Stalemate in Lebanon” – draws on more than two years of on-site ethnographic fieldwork and investigates how homophobia blocks democratization and reproduces sectarian rule in the wake of the 2019 Lebanon Revolution. Specializing in the modern Middle East, Omar’s research converges on the interdisciplinary study of sexuality, geopolitics, civil war, and political transition. He is currently a Social Sciences Teaching Fellow in the Department of Political Science and the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality at the University of Chicago.