Miscellaneous
Zaha Hassan and Nicolas Blarel join Carnegie India's Shibani Mehta to discuss the Israel-Palestine conflict. On May 10th, a raid on the Al Aqsa mosque by the Israeli police left hundreds of Palestinians injured. This cascaded into a war between Israel and Hamas. The ensuing violence has led to hundreds of casualties. A tenuous ceasefire has for now halted the violence, but it is likely that it will significantly change the dynamics of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Already, several analysts have alleged that the violence marks the death knell for the already fragile peace process and the two-state solution. Other scholars point to the growing embrace of more radical solutions to the conflict in both the Israeli and the Palestinian side. This episode of Interpreting India assesses some of the broader effects of the present conflict. What does it mean for the two-state solution and the peace process? How has the international society and India reacted to the crisis? And finally, what shall be its likely impact on the future of the Arab-Israeli conflict? Zaha Hassan is a human rights lawyer and visiting fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Her research focus is on Palestine-Israel peace, the use of international legal mechanisms by political movements, and U.S. foreign policy in the region. Previously, she was the coordinator and senior legal advisor to the Palestinian negotiating team during Palestine’s bid for UN membership, and was a member of the Palestinian delegation to Quartet-sponsored exploratory talks between 2011 and 2012. She regularly participates in track II peace efforts.Nicolas Blarel is Associate Professor of International Relations at Leiden University in The Netherlands. He studies foreign and security policy-making, the politics of power transition in global politics, the politics of migration governance, and the international politics of South Asia. He has previously worked with the French Foreign Ministry’s policy planning staff (Centre d’Analyses, de Prévision, et de Stratégie) and has been a visiting fellow at various research institutions.Shibani Mehta is a Research Analyst at Carnegie India.Further Reading:Bringing Assistance to Israel in Line With Rights and U.S. Laws by Zaha Hassan, Salih Booker, and Josh RuebnerModi looks West? Assessing change and continuity in India’s Middle East policy since 2014 by Nicolas BlarelBreaking the Israel-Palestine Status Quo by Zaha Hassan, Daniel Levy, Hallaamal Keir, and Marwan MuasherAn Indian return to the Gaza strip? New Delhi has unique legitimacy to mediate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by Nicolas Blarel and Sumit Ganguly