"The Israel Lobby and American Policy" conference keynoters are Hanan Ashrawi, John Mearsheimer and Ilan Pappé

WASHINGTON, Nov. 30, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The March 24, 2017 conference, "The Israel Lobby and American Policy," will feature three outstanding keynote speakers: Hanan Ashrawi, John Mearsheimer and Ilan Pappé.

"The Israel Lobby and American Policy" conference is solely sponsored by the American Educational Trust, publisher of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, and the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy (IRmep). Attendees receive lunch and an invitation to a special attendee-speaker reception. Through December 31, a limited quantity of partially tax-deductible $79 year-end discount tickets are available. View more information at the conference website and register online today at http://IsraelLobbyAndAmericanPolicy.org

Hanan Ashrawi was the first woman to be elected member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 2009. She served as the Official Spokesperson of the Palestinian Delegation to the Middle East peace process from 1991-1993 and participated in the 1991-1992 Madrid peace conference as a member of the Palestinian Leadership Committee delegation. In 1993 Dr. Ashrawi founded the Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens' Rights (PICCR) to investigate Israeli and Palestinian human rights violations. She chronicled her involvement in her book This Side of Peace: A Personal Account (1995). In 1996, Ashrawi was elected and subsequently reelected many times to the Palestinian Legislative Council. In 1996 she also accepted the post of Minister of Higher Education and Research. In 1998 Ashrawi founded and continues to serve in MIFTAH, the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy. At the conference, she will address the Israel Lobby and the "Peace Process."

John Mearsheimer is the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science and the co-director of the Program on International Security Policy at the University of Chicago. In 2007 Professor Mearsheimer coauthored The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy (with Stephen M. Walt), which made the New York Times best seller list and has been translated into 22 languages. Professor Mearsheimer will address what, if anything, has changed in the decade since The Israel Lobby was published, subsequent findings, foreign policy choices the U.S. makes that it otherwise would not—if not for Israel—and what the new administration could do differently in the future that would better serve broader American interests.

Ilan Pappé is Professor of History and Director of the European Centre for Palestine Studies at the University of Exeter in the UK. His research focuses on the modern Middle East, particularly on the history of Israel and Palestine. He is the author of the books The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (2007), Israel and South Africa: the Many Faces of Apartheid (2015) and The Idea of Israel: A History of Power and Knowledge (2016), among others. He will discuss the value of viewing Israel-Palestine through the lens of settler-colonialism, how Zionist myths have been shaped and/or perpetuated by the Israel lobby, and what framework is necessary to overcome these myths and ensure that efforts to resolve the "conflict" are grounded in reality.

SOURCE Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy