The Palestinian people are facing one of the greatest crossroads in their contemporary history. After its territory underwent a radical geopolitical and demographic transformation in the twentieth century, with the ethnic cleansing of three-quarters of its population between 1947 and 1948, it now faces the threat of massive forced displacement; in addition to being the target of a military campaign in which war crimes and crimes against humanity have been perpetrated, and possibly genocide according to the International Court of Justice. 

Israel’s behavior is more typical of a pariah state which, paradoxically, enjoys impunity within the international system due to the support of the major Western powers, led by the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany. In addition to the potential destabilization of the Middle East, everything appears to indicate that a turning point has been crossed which might definitively put an end to the two-state solution upheld by the majority of the international community as the way to resolve this prolonged colonial conflict. The Netanyahu government and its coalition allies intend to take advantage of this new point in time to impose their expansionist project, with the extension and normalization of Israeli sovereignty over the entire territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, under one single ethnocratic apartheid State. 

In any case, this is an essential work about the potential future scenarios for the Palestinian question by two of its greatest specialists in Spain: Álvarez-Ossorio and Abu Tarbush. The authors will be accompanied by Leila Nachawati, a professor of Communication at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Presenting the event is Karim Hauser, coordinator of Casa Árabe’s Cultural Programs. 

You can watch the event live on our YouTube channel. 

Ignacio Álvarez-Ossorio is a professor of Arab and Islamic Studies at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, where he is a co-director of the Complutense Research Group on the Maghreb and the Middle East (GICMOM). Prior to this, he was a professor at the University of Alicante (1999-2019), where he directed the Inter-University Institute for Social Development and Peace (IUDESP). He is a contributor to various media, including El País, El Periódico, RTVE and La Sexta. He has written and edited many different books on the contemporary Arab-Islamic world, including Qatar. La perla del Golfo (Qatar: Pearl of the Gulf, 2022), Siria. La década negra (Syria: The Black Decade, 2022), Geopolítica de las Primaveras Árabes (Geopolitics of the Arab Springs, 2022), Movilizaciones populares tras las Primaveras Árabes (Popular Uprisings After the Arab Springs, 2021), Entre España y Palestina. Revisión crítica de unas relaciones (Between Spain and Palestine: A critical review of relations, 2018), Siria. Revolución, sectarismo y yihad (Syria: Revolution, sectarianism and jihad, 2016), La Primavera Árabe revisitada (The Arab Spring Revisited, 2015), Sociedad civil y contestación en Oriente Medio y el Magreb (Civil Society and Protest in the Middle East and Maghreb, 2013), Informe sobre las revueltas árabes (Report on Arab Uprisings, 2011), Siria contemporánea (Contemporary Syria, 2009), ¿Por qué ha fracasado la paz? Claves para entender el conflicto palestino-israelí (Why Has Peace Failed: Keys to understanding the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, 2007), España y la cuestión palestina (Spain and the Palestinian Question, 2003), El miedo a la paz. De la guerra de los Seis Días a la segunda intifada (Fear of Peace: From the Six-day War to the second intifada, 2001) y El proceso de paz de Oriente Medio (1999). 

José Abu-Tarbush has a PhD in Political Science from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and is professor of International Relations Sociology at the Universidad de La Laguna. His field of interest has focused on the Middle East and North Africa region. In addition to different works published in specialized journals, most notable among the latest are “Construction of Authoritarianism in the Arab World: Towards an explanation of international dynamics (1945-2020),” in Historia Contemporánea (2023). He authored the book La cuestión palestina: identidad nacional y acción colectiva (The Palestinian Question: National identity and collective action, 1997) and he co-authored joint works such as Geopolítica de las Primaveras Árabes. Dimensión internacional y dinámicas locales (Geopolitics of the Arab Springs: International dimension and local dynamics, 2022), Entre España y Palestina. Revisión crítica de unas relaciones (Between Spain and Palestine: A critical review of relations, 2018), Sáhara Occidental 40 años después (The Western Sahara 40 Years Later, 2016), La Primavera Árabe revisitada. Reconfiguración del autoritarismo y recomposición del islamismo (The Arab Spring Revisited: Reconfiguring authoritarianism and rebuilding Islamism, 2015). Tres años de revoluciones árabes. Procesos de cambio: repercusiones internas y regionales (Three Years of Arab Revolutions. Processes of change: internal and regional repercussions, 2014) and España y la cuestión palestina(Spain and the Palestinian Question, 2003). His latest publication was co-authored with Isaías Barreñada, the book Palestina. e los Acuerdos de Oslo al apartheid (From the Oslo Accords to Apartheid, (2023). He is a member of the Complutense Research Group on the Maghreb and the Middle East (GICMOM).