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MELBOURNE
BRUNSWICK
BUNDOORA
FISHERMANS BEND
POINT COOK
HAMILTON
HO CHI MINH CITY
HANOI
Towards global reconciliation – Middle East summit
An international summit bringing together more than 300 reconciliation experts
from around the world to tackle global cultural, racial, religious and political
difference will be held in Amman, Jordan, from Monday.
Professor Paul James, Pathways to Reconciliation Summit co-convenor and
Director of RMIT University Global Cities Research Institute, says in a forthcoming
book: “The Jews and Arabs of Israel-Palestine have been bound up with each in
the past, are mutually constituting in the present, and – whatever the political
decision about state sovereignty – will be interconnected in the future.
“A simple and ‘ordinary’ act of reconciliation to counter the ‘ordinary’ acts of
displacement might involve some Arabs, Jews, Christians and others working
together across the Middle East, the Balkans and beyond to reopen a mosque, a
church and a synagogue that have been over the years submerged in the rubbish
of continuing violence,” Professor James said.
The Pathways to Reconciliation Summit is supported by HRH Prince Hassan of
Jordan, RMIT and Monash University. Summit themes include health and
medicine, arts and culture, money and livelihoods, spirituality and celebration,
education and learning and sport and recreation. The summit will introduce the
Living Archive, a resource for learning about exemplary grass-roots reconciliation.
Pathways to Reconciliation Summit patrons include the Reverend Desmond Tutu,
Aung San Suu Kyi, President Jose Ramos-Horta, Sir William Deane, Dr Lowitja
O’Donaghue, Professor Bernard Lown, and Professor Amartya Sen.
The Summit will also launch “Being Arab: Arabism and the Politics of Recognition”,
Christopher Wise and Paul James, eds, Arena Publications, Melbourne.
“Being Arab” appears at a time of unprecedented historical crisis for non-sectarian
Arabist thought and social movements. Events of the last decade, especially the
US-led occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq, have drawn many analysts to
conclude that the era of Arab identity politics has passed.
The theme of the historical meaning of Arab identity is pursued in “Being Arab” in
the hope of strengthening viable, non-sectarian and democratic alternatives to
Islamist fundamentalism in the Arab world.
The Pathways to Reconciliation Summit will be held in Amman from 14 to 17
December. More info: www.global-cities.info/amman09
Interviews: Professor Paul James, paul.james@rmit.edu.au (generally
responds to emails within 10 minutes).
For general media enquiries: RMIT University Communications, Paul
Noonan, 0409 239 021, paul.noonan@rmit.edu.au.
10 December, 2009
NEWS 
