event
Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center

After Recognition: Next Steps for Palestine

Mon. September 29th, 20254:00 PM - 5:00 PM (EEST)
Virtual

The recent decision by 159 countries including the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Australia, to recognize the State of Palestine marks a historic moment in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Coming amid the ongoing war in Gaza, Jewish settlement expansion in the Occupied West Bank, and mounting Palestinian civilian suffering, recognition is being cited by European and other leaders as necessary for reviving the moribund “two-state solution.”

Welcomed by Palestinians and supported by influential regional actors such as Saudi Arabia and the Arab League, the move has provoked fierce opposition from Israel and a sharp rebuke from the United States. This raises urgent questions: Will growing European and international recognition shift realities on the ground, or is it purely symbolic? Given U.S. opposition, what role—if any—can Arab, Islamic and European countries play in shaping prospective Palestinian statehood? And how might Palestinian lives be affected in the short and medium term?

To examine these questions, the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center will host a panel discussion on Monday, September 29, at 4:00 PM EEST (UTC+3). The panel will consist of Yezid Sayigh, senior fellow at the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center; Rym Momtaz, editor-in-chief of Carnegie Europe’s blog Strategic Europe; Hasan Alhasan, senior fellow for Middle East Policy at the International Institute for Strategic Studies; and Zaha Hassan, human rights lawyer and senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The event will be in English and moderated by Maha Yahya, director of the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center.

Viewers are invited to submit questions via the live chat feature on Facebook and YouTube. For more information, please contact Najwa Yassine at najwa.yassine@carnegie-mec.org.

Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.
event speakers

Maha Yahya

Director, Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center

Yahya is director of the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center, where her research focuses on citizenship, pluralism, and social justice in the aftermath of the Arab uprisings.

Yezid Sayigh

Senior Fellow, Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center

Yezid Sayigh is a senior fellow at the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, where he leads the program on Civil-Military Relations in Arab States (CMRAS). His work focuses on the comparative political and economic roles of Arab armed forces, the impact of war on states and societies, the politics of postconflict reconstruction and security sector transformation in Arab transitions, and authoritarian resurgence.

Zaha Hassan

Senior Fellow, Middle East Program

Zaha Hassan is a human rights lawyer and a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Hasan Alhasan

Senior Fellow for Middle East Policy at the IISS.

Hasan Alhasan is a Senior Fellow for Middle East Policy at the IISS. He has over a decade of experience as a scholar and practitioner of foreign policy in the Gulf region. He specializes in the Arab Gulf states’ grand strategies, economic statecraft, and relations with the Asian powers.

Rym Momtaz

Rym Momtaz

Editor in Chief, Strategic Europe

Rym Momtaz is the editor in chief of Carnegie Europe’s blog Strategic Europe. A multiple Emmy award-winning journalist-turned-analyst, she specializes in Europe and the Middle East and the interplay between those two spaces.