The Palestinian Refugees and Russia in the Middle East

The Middle East Mediterranean Platform series of lectures focused on political, social and religious issues in the Middle East Mediterranean region is drawing to an end. To conclude the programme, two lectures are taking place next week. 

Monday 14 May 2018, 6:30pm (room A-21) – prof. Riccardo Bocco, The Palestinian Refugees:  a seventy-year-old story.  Riccardo Bocco, professor of Political Sociology at the Graduate Institute of Geneva, will talk about The Palestinian Refugees: a seventy-year-old story. During the 1948 Palestinian-Israeli War, over 750,000 Palestinians had to leave their homes, in a forced exodus known in Arabic as al-Nakba (the ‘catastrophe’). This coincided with the loss of 78% of historic Palestine, by now territory integrated into the new Israeli State. As recent events on the Gaza border show, the refugee question remains unresolved, thus precluding the possibility to conceive a sustainable, long-lasting, equal solution to the conflict. After screening a short documentary, Professor Bocco will build his argument using as his prompt comments and reactions from the audience.

Thursday 18 May 2018, 6.30pm (room A-21) – Ambassador Cosimo Risi, Putin’s Russia in the Middle East and in the Gulf. Cosimo Risi, former Italian Ambassador in Berna and expert in International Relations, will lecture on Putin’s Russia in the Middle East and in the Gulf. Since 2012, Putin’s Russia has been playing an increasingly important political and diplomatic role in the Middle East and in the Gulf. The presence of Russia in the region is crucial, not only for the outcomes of the Syrian war, but also for the conflict between Sunni and Shia, and in terms of the diplomatic (sometimes unexpected) relations with the Gulf countries. These new geopolitical configurations will be at the core of Ambassador Risi’s analysis.