12 – 14 April 2010, Colosseum Hotel, Pretoria, South Africa
Monday, 12th April:
09:00 Opening Session: Nationalisms and Ethnicisms
Chair: Garth Le Pere
Welcome, Opening Comments – Garth Le Pere, Na’eem Jeenah
Opening Address – Deputy Minister Ebrahim Ebrahim
Nationalism, Colonialism and the Ethnic State – Achille Mbembe
10:30 Tea
Zionism and the dilemmas of settler democracy – Daryl Glaser
Jewish and Arab nationalisms – the Zionist reality and counterfactual historical perspectives – Ilan Pappe
Discussant: Aziz Pahad
12:30 Lunch
14:00 Israel and its mythologies
Chair: Shannon Field
When and how was the ‘Jewish people’ invented? – Shlomo Sand
‘No such thing as a Palestinian people’ – Fouad Moughrabi
Zionism, the Founding Fathers and the Palestine Arabs – Avi Shlaim
Israel: ‘Jewish Democracy’ or a unique colonial state? – Ronnie Kasrils
Discussant: Heidi Grunebaum
17:00 Tea
Tuesday, 13th April:
09:00 Rapporteur’s summation of previous day
09:15 Is Israel an “unworkable fallacy”?
Chair:
A Jewish State – An Anachronistic Idea? – Ali Abunimah
Israel’s Palestinians: unravelling the fallacy – Jamal Zahalka
Possibilities for a Jewish minority in a reconfigured state – Steven Friedman
Discussant: Hanif Vally
11:15 Tea
11:30 Comparative ethnic nationalisms – Israel and South Africa
Chair:
The unresolved national question in South Africa: Lessons for Palestine-Israel – Neville Alexander
Nation and ethnicity in South Africa and Palestine-Israel – Ran Greenstein
Comparing Afrikaner and Jewish nationalisms – Andre Zaaiman
Comparative ethnic nationalisms: apartheid and Zionism – Amneh Badran
Zionism from the Standpoint of its Jewish Victims – Heidi Grunebaum
Discussant: Na’eem Jeenah
14:00 Lunch
14:45 The Jewish state, Africa, and the World
Chair: Hanif Vally
Israeli ethnic nationalism and its impact on Africa and the world – Achille Mbembe
Israel through the prism of International Law – Max du Plessis
Discussant: Shannon Field
16:45 Tea
Wednesday, 14th April:
09:00 Rapporteur’s summation of previous day
09:15 Beyond ethnic nationalism: what possibilities for Israel?
Chair: Aziz Pahad
From ethnocracy to confederation? Colonial and postcolonial options for
Israel/Palestine – Oren Yiftache
Alternatives to ethnic nationalism and an ethnic state in Israel: Lessons from South Africa – Salim Vally
The future between ideals and realities: A Palestinian perspective – Azzam Tamimi
Discussant: Fouad Moughrabi
11:30 Tea
11:45 Group Discussions: Envisioning the future
13:30 Lunch
14:30 Reports from group discussions
Discussant: Adam Habib
15:30 Tea
16:00 Roundtable: Ethnic nationalism and the cosmopolitan challenge
Moderator: Na’eem Jeenah
Azzam Tamimi
Fouad Moughrabi
Oren Yiftachel
Ran Greenstein
Closing comments – Na’eem Jeenah
