Israel: State and Society one year after October 7
The lecture examines developments in Israel one year after the events of 7 October and analyses their impact on the state and society. Cyrus Schayegh offers in-depth insights and invites the interested public to deepen their knowledge and discuss current issues.
Speaker's abstract:
Hamas’ massacre of 7 October 2023 and Israel’s ensuing Gaza War has not “only” cost, to date, the lives of around 1,700 Israelis and more than twenty-five times as many Palestinians. It also is massively impacting Palestinian and Israeli politics and societies. This talk will discuss Israel, which I know better than Palestine. It will cover three interlinked developments. One is Israeli society and government’s accelerating extreme-rightwing drift (including the fact that few Jewish Israelis protest Palestinian suffering, and some celebrate it); the hothouse in which that apathy and hatred grew, i.e. the Occupation; and ongoing attempts, also by some government ministers, to change the demographic balance in Israel/Palestine. Second is ongoing tacit but extant Jewish-Palestinian grassroot activism for co-existence. Last, many self-identified Israeli leftists or centrists, now anyway a minority, feel politically emasculated and literally sense they have lost “their” country. The most immediate, though not only, reason is a gaping democracy deficit, i.e. the fact that demonstrators are simply unable to force Netanyahu’s government to make hostage release—once a holy cause—a priority; growing police brutality (also against Jews) makes matters worse. For now, a main effect is apathy and some fear, but emigration, also by Palestinian Israelis, is growing, too.
- Speaker:
Cyrus Schayegh, Professor of International History & Politics at the Geneva Graduate Institute - Moderation:
Dr Daniel Hedinger, Research Fellow Research Center Global Dynamics, Leipzig University - Language of presentation:
English
You can follow the event live on site or via ZOOM.
- The event is part of the series The Middle East conflict in the context of changing global dynamics.
This lecture series analyzes the historical contexts of October 7, sheds light on the complexity as well as contrasting perspectives on the roots and causes of the conflict, and places developments in the Middle East in larger regional contexts.