91亚色 President and Vice Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri (right) signs a memorandum of understanding with Tel Aviv University President Joseph Klafter, while Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne looks on

91亚色 President and Vice Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri and Robert Hach茅, 91亚色 vice-president research and innovation, have completed a successful mission to the Middle East.

The mission took place from May 15 to 20 and was led by Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne. More than 120 representatives from postsecondary institutions, public and private sector organizations accompanied the premier on the mission, which was organized to promote the exchange of information and knowledge, seek opportunities for collaboration and sign new business agreements.

During the mission, 91亚色鈥檚 president signed a number of important memoranda of understanding (MOUs) with leading postsecondary institutions in Israel and the West Bank.

On May 16, the president signed a renewed MOU with . The five-year agreement will provide students with educational opportunities, promote interest in the teaching and research activities of each institution, and engage in faculty and student exchanges. The agreement will see the two institutions collaborate on seminars, research projects and conferences.

President Shoukri signs an agreement with Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish. Looking on are Prof. Peter Mascher, associate vice-president international affairs at McMaster University and the delegation from the Province of Ontario.

On May 19, Shoukri took part in a Scholarship Awards Ceremony and signed an agreement with (LLD [Hon.] '15), the founder and president of the charity and a professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. The agreement was also signed by McMaster University, and will provide 10 young women currently living in Egypt, Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria, as well as most other countries located in the Middle East region, with the opportunity to study in Ontario. One scholarship per year at each institution will be awarded for five years. The scholarships reflect the mandate of the Daughters for Life Foundation that lasting peace in the Middle East depends on empowering girls and young women through education.

91亚色 entered into an MOU with Bethlehem University on May 20. Pictured signing the MOU are Bethlehem University Vice-Chancellor Brother Peter Bray, FSC (left) and 91亚色 President Mamdouh Shoukri.

91亚色 entered into an MOU with on May 20. The MOU outlines the cooperation between the two institutions in the areas of education, research and community service, including developing training and internship programs, exchanging faculty members and working together on research projects.

鈥淲orking with world-class institutions such as Bethlehem University allows 91亚色 to continue to expand our outlook and deepen our global impact,鈥� said Shoukri during the signing ceremony. 鈥淭hanks to this agreement, we will be able to provide students in the humanities, business, social sciences, science and health with valuable experiential learning opportunities at an excellent university.鈥�

91亚色's president shakes hands with Peretz Lavie, president of Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, following the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the two institutions. Looking on, from left are MPPs Monte Kwinter and Dr. Eric Hoskins, Premier Kathleen Wynne and MPP Reza Moridi.

The MOU with the is a five-year agreement to collaborate on student and faculty exchanges, study abroad opportunities, joint research projects and initiatives and the staging of joint seminars, conferences and academic meetings.

鈥淭hanks to this partnership, students and researchers from 91亚色 and Technion will be able to engage in mutually beneficial international research partnerships, student learning experiences, faculty exchanges and international recruitment,鈥� said Shoukri.

As part of the mission, Shoukri and Hach茅 met with researchers in life sciences and technology and representatives at universities in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa in Israel, and Ramallah and Bethlehem in the West Bank.

Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and 91亚色 U students gather for a cameo with the president and vice-president research and innovation

The mission was organized by the Province of Ontario to build on existing relationships, create new partnerships and attract investment to the province. Several leaders from Ontario institutions accompanied the Premier to the West Bank, where they sought opportunities to collaborate with Palestinian partners on innovation and education initiatives.

Mission delegates were joined by Dr. Eric Hoskins, minister of health and long-term care, Reza Moridi, minister of research and innovation, and Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and International Trade Monte Kwinter.

What would a trip be without a "selfie" with students, provincial ministers and the premier?

91亚色 has numerous existing agreements with postsecondary institutions in the Middle East, including Al-Quds University, Bar-Ilan University, Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv University. In addition, the University is home to the , Canada鈥檚 first interdisciplinary research centre in Jewish Studies. The 91亚色 Visiting Professorship in Israel Studies was inaugurated in 2008 through the Israel and Golda Koschitzky Centre for Jewish Studies.

91亚色 offers a Bachelor of Arts in Jewish Studies, a 91亚色-Hebrew U Graduate Diploma in Jewish Studies for Educators, a Graduate Diploma in Advanced Hebrew and Jewish Studies, a Graduate Diploma in Jewish Studies, and an advanced undergraduate certificate in Advanced Hebrew and Jewish Studies.

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The Environmental Cooperation and Israel-Palestinian Peace event will take place March 15 at 1pm at 280A 91亚色 Lanes, Keele campus.

Environmental cooperation has been much-lauded as a force of peace in the Middle East and has been leveraged in support of Track I peacemaking processes between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. It has been pursued as a practice of peace-building, valued for its ability to foster partnership-building, cooperation, identity change and sustainability. Still, the Israel-Palestinian conflict persists, even manifesting through cooperative environmental relations.

笔补苍别濒濒颈蝉迟蝉听 (right), an international development, peace-building and dialogue researcher-practitioner, and聽Stuart Schoenfeld (left), chair of the Department of Sociology聽at 91亚色鈥檚 Glendon College, will present and discuss the issue. Drawing on their direct experience of working with practitioners, governments and stakeholders in the Middle East, they will critically examine assumptions and practices of environmental cooperation between Israel and the Palestinians. Abitbol and Schoenfeld co-chaired the AVOW initiative (Adaptive Visions of Water in the Middle East), hosted at IRIS from聽2007-2009.

Abitbol specializes in hydropolitical issues, with a particular interest in Israeli-Palestinian relations. A Chevening Scholar and associate Fellow at IRIS, he is pursuing a PhD in peace studies at the University of Bradford in the United Kingdom, while teaching university courses at the nexus of environment and peace. As a consultant, he recently conducted the Conflict and Peace Effects Study of the Israel-Palestinian Authority-Jordan-World Bank "Red Sea Dead Sea Conveyance" initiative.

Schoenfeld's research on regional environmentalism in the Middle East began in the late 1990s. A network of Israelis, Palestinians and Jordanians began to work towards a common understanding of issues of water, energy, waste, transportation, consumption, biodiversity and sustainable development, and to fashion a way of turning that common understanding into one of the elements for peace and human security in the region.

The project continues to investigate this network and other regional frameworks. The project has produced publications on transboundary environmental networks, environmental peace building, approaches to regional environmental governance and the role of empathy in environmental peace-building.

For more information, visit the website.

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Although environmental protection is considered a strategic issue in China today, how it is discussed and perceived can vary from one ethnic minority to another. Nimrod Baranovitch, a lecturer in Chinese culture and society in the Department of East Asian Studies at Haifa University in Israel, will discuss what environmental protection means in China at his upcoming talk at 91亚色.

His talk, 鈥淔ear of Extinction: Environmental Protection as Political Metaphor among China's Ethnic Minorities鈥�, will take place Wednesday, Sept. 21, from 1 to 3pm, at 626 91亚色 Research Tower, Keele campus.

Right: Nimrod Baranovitch

鈥淢y talk will focus on the discourse and meanings of environmental protection among several ethnic minorities in China, particularly the Tibetans, the Uyghurs and the Mongols,鈥� says , also a聽research Fellow at the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. 鈥淎mong these minorities, the topic is heavily politicized and often also loaded with metaphoric meanings.鈥�

Ethnic minorities in China often see themselves as an integral part of the natural environment, whereas environmental destruction is associated with the Han majority. 鈥淚n this context, the environment is perceived as a very specific territory, and environmental protection is not just in the narrow sense of maintaining clean water and air, but as the right of the minority group to control its territory and to maintain its traditional way of life and distinctive identity,鈥� says Baranovitch.

He will show how the legitimate discourse of environmental protection is used by ethnic minorities to express illegitimate sentiments that cannot be expressed in public otherwise.
To illustrate his points, he will also present and analyze several video clips of rock songs by Tibetan, Mongol and Uyghur musicians, who live, create and perform in China.

The talk is sponsored by the 91亚色 Centre for Asian Research (YCAR) and is presented by the Literatures & Human Rights in Asia and Asian Diaspora project, as well as the Critical China Studies Group.

For more information, visit the YCAR website.

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Considered one of the most vulnerable Liberal incumbents heading into the federal election, Dryden was defeated by Conservative challenger Mark Adler in the north Toronto riding. He becomes the first Tory to win the 91亚色 Centre seat since Fred C. Stinson occupied it from 1957 to 鈥�62.

. . .

But the Conservative government鈥檚 support for Israel was a key factor among Jewish voters in the riding, pundits said.

Adler is an active member of the Bathurst Jewish Community Centre and well known in the riding鈥檚 large Jewish community.

鈥淜aplan held the riding for years and he was a member of the Jewish community and the Liberal party tended to take a kind of centrist position on Israel,鈥� said 91亚色 political science professor Robert MacDermid. 鈥�(Prime Minister Stephen Harper) and the Conservatives have taken a much more pro-Israel stance on many issues and attracted many Jewish voters in that and surrounding ridings.鈥�

Fellow 91亚色 professor agreed. 鈥淣obody is unsupportive of Israel,鈥� said Drummond. 鈥淏ut I think some voters have found the Harper government rather less critical of Israel than perhaps some of the Liberals have been willing to be and that may have shifted some people鈥檚 support.鈥�

Adler founded and is president and CEO of The Economic Club of Canada which has drawn such speakers as Harper, Canadian premiers, former U.S. president Bill Clinton and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

91亚色 Centre is a diverse riding that includes low-income residents and a fair number of immigrants, said MacDermid.

鈥淭hey have all been hotly contested by the Conservatives鈥� attempt to win over new Canadian groupings,鈥� MacDermid said.

MacDermid didn鈥檛 think the fact that Toronto voters had elected right-leaning mayor Rob Ford was a major factor in swinging 91亚色 Centre to the Tories. Ford endorsed Harper last week.

Some voters routinely shift between the Liberals and Conservatives, and they may have been more willing to vote Conservative this time, said Drummond.

鈥淭here鈥檚 been a bit of a shift towards the Conservatives in the last few elections of voters who may have been willing to go back and forth between the Liberals and Conservatives and decided they鈥檙e more supportive of the Conservatives,鈥� he said.

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Non-violent revolutions don't happen overnight. It is only in the last stage 鈥� as we saw in Egypt, or in the peaceful overthrow of many governments in Eastern Europe 鈥� that they seem spontaneous 鈥� maybe even inevitable.

One place where the revolution is still very much in the making is along the fault lines between Israelis and Palestinians, where many individuals and groups, in their own way, are committed to non-violence in many different forms.

It includes a very quiet initiative by a group of Canadians. CISEPO, founded by Mount Sinai's Dr. Arnie Noyek, is now headed by Dr. Harvey Skinner, dean of health at 91亚色. Call them the Quiet Canadians.

The (CISEPO) doesn't hold rallies, or put up posters. Instead the group holds academic meetings and publishes papers in academic journals, like The Lancet. They've built cooperation between these very different groups through projects with universal appeal, like an infant heath screening program.

"A lot of cooperation occurs," says Skinner. "But it occurs very quietly. If we can, as Canadians, create an umbrella for (Israeli and Palestinian) colleagues to meet and then do this again and again, it's doing a little a lot. If you sit across a table, you find out we have more in common, especially those of us who are in health, and it can build over time, respect, trust, co-operation. And we keep doing this again and again."

"We're building what we call a network of co-operation. Doing it quietly. Not front page in the media. Nothing's bleeding here, right? You get a terrorist attack in the region, instantly you get press. We hold a meeting like this 鈥� quite remarkable. Not even that much interest in the press."

罢丑别听 of the full report聽runs 6 minutes 27 seconds.

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This afternoon, from 2 to 4pm at the at the Munk School at the University of Toronto, 91亚色 political science Professor (right) will be among a select group of panellists addressing these political shifts and the implications of the "Arab spring" from regional perspectives. Themes for discussion include, humanitarian intervention, nuclear weapons, non-violence and democracy. The panellists:

Emanuel Adler will speak on "The Israeli perspective on Transformation in the Middle East". Adler is professor of International Relations in the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto, Andrea & Charles Bronfman Chair of Israeli Studies, and editor of International Organization.

Adler's interests include the international politics of identity and peace, rationality and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a constructivist reconsideration of strategic logic, including deterrence in post-Cold War international security, the role of practice in international relations, European security institutions, and international relations theory in particular, constructivism, epistemic communities and security communities.

Ramin Jahanbegloo will talk about "Civil Society and the Transformation in the Middle East". Jahanbegloo is an聽Iranian-Canadian philosopher.聽He taught in the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto from 1997-2001 and聽later served as the head of the Department of Contemporary Studies of the Cultural Research Centre in Tehran.聽In聽2006-2007, Jahanbegloo was the Rajni Kothari Professor of Democracy at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies in New Delhi, India. In April 2006, he was arrested in Tehran Airport charged with preparing a velvet revolution in Iran. He was placed in solitary confinement for four months and released on bail. He is presently a professor of political science and a research fellow in the Centre for Ethics at University of Toronto and a board member of PEN Canada.

In October 2009, Jahanbegloo became the winner of the Peace Prize from the United Nations Association in Spain for his extensive academic works in promoting dialogue between cultures and his advocacy for non-violence.

Saeed Rahnema will present "The View from Iran towards Transformation in the Middle East". Rahnema is professor of political science at 91亚色. He has served as the director of the School of Public Policy聽& Administration and coordinator of the political science program聽in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies. Prior to joining 91亚色,聽he was a professor in the School of Policy Studies at Queen鈥檚 University. In his homeland of Iran, he taught and worked as a member of the executive of the Industrial Management Institute in Tehran. He is a frequent commentator on Canadian and international media on the issues of the Middle East and Islam, Human Rights, and Left and Labour Movement, and has published several books and numerous articles in English and Farsi (Persian).

He was cited in the 惭补肠濒别补苍鈥檚 Guide to Canadian Universities as a "most popular" professor in 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005. He聽won the 91亚色 Teaching Excellence Award in 2004. In 2007, he won the Government of Ontario鈥檚 Leadership in Faculty Teaching Award.

Janice Stein is the Belzberg Professor of Conflict Management in the Department of Political Science and the director of the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a member of the Order of Canada and the Order of Ontario. Her most recent publications include Networks of Knowledge: Innovation in International Learning (2000); The Cult of Efficiency (2001); and Street Protests and Fantasy Parks (2001). She is a contributor to Canada by Picasso (2006) and the co-author of The Unexpected War: Canada in Kandahar (2007).

Stein was the Massey Lecturer in 2001 and a Trudeau Fellow. She was awarded the Molson Prize by the Canada Council for an outstanding contribution by a social scientist to public debate. She is an Honorary Foreign Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Space is limited. Organizers ask that those interested in attending RSVP to rsvp@utapss.ca.

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The May business mission is a partnership between the Town of Markham, the Regional Municipality of 91亚色, 91亚色 and Miller Thomson LLP. It will focus on positioning the Markham Convergence Centre as the launching pad for graduates of Israel's technological incubators seeking to enter the North American market.

Strategically located in 91亚色 Region, (IY) is the between 91亚色 researchers and their applied research partners who will collaboratively grow their ideas and introduce new products and services to the marketplace.

Part of the Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation, IY is primarily based in the .

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She was recommended by Ruth Klein, national director of B鈥檔ai Brith Canada鈥檚 League for Human Rights and executive director of the National Task Force on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research (NTF), and Adam Fuerstenberg, Professor Emeritus at Ryerson University and former director of the Holocaust Centre of Toronto. Fuerstenberg is assisting Sapoznik with a book project, Holocaust by Bullets, which looks at the mass murder of Jews in Berezne during World War II. Sapoznik has been invited to make a presentation about her research to a coming meeting of the NTF in Toronto later this year.

鈥淚鈥檓 incredibly humbled and honoured and I look forward to the opportunity,鈥� said Sapoznik, who had just returned from an international conference in Sierra Leone, Africa, on forced marriage in conflict situations.

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Horvat Tsalit flourished during the turbulent years from King Herod to the violent Bar Kochba War (circa 30 BCE to 135 CE). According to ancient historian Flavius Josephus, it provided sanctuary to Judean militias fleeing inland after attacking聽coastal Ascalon (now Ashkelon)聽and being repulsed by the Roman garrison there in the winter of 66 to 67 CE. That is the only reference in Josephus鈥檚 writing to the village.

When you鈥檙e digging up shards聽strewn around stone foundations scoured by desert sands for almost two millennia, this kind of information can bring a site to life. That鈥檚 why two archeologists at Ben-Gurion University in Beer Sheva invited 91亚色聽Professor Steve Mason to be the excavation historian.

Right: Steve Mason at Masada

Mason holds the in Greco-Roman Cultural Interaction at 91亚色. He is an expert on Flavius Josephus, chronicler of turbulent first-century Jewish history, including the Judean-Roman War that featured the guerrilla attack on Ascalon and led to the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE.

鈥淚 will try to construct the big picture鈥� for Israeli and 91亚色 students participating in the dig, says Mason, one of whose聽current聽projects neatly dovetails with the dig. He is nearing completion of a book about the聽Judean-Roman War of 66 to 74聽CE聽for Cambridge University Press.

Archeologists and , experts in the Roman-Byzantine era, will lead daily excavations and offer lectures and workshops on field methods. Mason will lecture on the ancient context of the site.

Horvat Tsalit was an unwalled settlement of perhaps 1,000 to 2,000 inhabitants situated in the hills of ancient Judea. In the 1980s, archeologists excavated the watchtower that stood sentinel over the village through three Judean-Roman wars. 鈥淭he site has the potential of turning up valuable evidence of these wars,鈥� says Mason, who will do a little digging himself. 鈥淵ou never know what will turn up. It鈥檚 fascinating.鈥�

Above: The site of Horvat Tsalit, the ancient village where聽excavations begin this summer

The excavation at Horvat Tsalit will run for three seasons, beginning this summer from July 10 to Aug. 6. As many as 20 Israeli and up to 20 Canadian students could be wielding trowels on daily digs. Daytime temperatures typically spike at 33 degrees C at this time of year but canopies will shade the diggers from the intense sun.

91亚色 is co-sponsoring the dig with Ben-Gurion University. Funding for Mason鈥檚 Canada Research Chair聽and from 91亚色鈥檚 Israel & Golda Koschitzky Centre for Jewish Studies are supporting聽the project.

91亚色 undergraduates seeking credit and graduate students seeking adventure are welcome to apply. will offer transferable half-course credits for a fee to 91亚色 students who complete the four-week season. Non-credit volunteers who cannot stay for the entire four weeks must commit to the first or last half of the dig.

For US$1,600, Canadian students receive accommodation in Beer Sheva, two meals (breakfast and lunch) and transportation to and from the Horvat Tsalit site daily for the entire four weeks. The fee does not include airfare.

Application forms are available by e-mailing tsalitexped@gmail.com. General queries can be e-mailed to Steve Mason at smason@yorku.ca.

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The talk, presented by the Israel and Golda Koschitzky Centre for Jewish Studies at 91亚色, will take place Sunday, Nov. 21 at 3:30pm in W136 Executive Learning Centre, Seymour Schulich Building, Keele campus. The lecture is free of charge.

Right: Xu Xin

Xin, director of the Glazer Institute for Jewish Studies at Nanjing University, is the recipient of an honorary doctorate from Bar-Ilan University in Israel and the only professor of Jewish studies in China.

The Centre for Jewish Studies at 91亚色 is Canada's first interdisciplinary research centre in Jewish studies, bringing together a vibrant community of scholars and teachers to promote cutting-edge research in the field.聽Jewish studies encompasses the study of the texts, histories and cultures of the Jewish people, which developed alongside and within Western and non-Western civilizations.

The event is being co-sponsored by the 91亚色 Centre for Asian Research and the Department of Humanities.

For more information, visit the Israel and Golda Koschitzky Centre for Jewish Studies website or call 416-736-5823.

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