Israeli scholar to lecture on Middle East

Professor Tanya Reinhart
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Wednesday, 6 September 2006

Israeli scholar and world-renowned linguist, author and media commentator, Professor Tanya Reinhart, will visit Australia next month to give a series of public lectures on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Professor Reinhart, an Emeritus Professor of Linguistics and Media Studies at Tel Aviv University in Israel, will deliver the second Edward Said Memorial Lecture at the University of Adelaide on Saturday 7 October.

Sponsored by the Australian Friends of Palestine Association, the lecture honours the memory of Palestinian Edward Said, one of the most widely known intellectuals in the world until his death in 2003.

The University of Adelaide hosted the highly regarded Middle East correspondent Robert Fisk at last year's inaugural Edward Said Memorial Lecture, which attracted a capacity crowd.

Professor Reinhart will also give public lectures at Macquarie University, University of Technology (Sydney), the Australian National University and the University of Melbourne.

The Israeli academic is an outspoken critic of Israel's handling of the Palestinian problem and her second book, A Road Map to Nowhere: Israel/Palestine since 2003, is due for release later this month.

Reinhart's timely book has been described as a "searing exposé of the peace process", giving readers an insight into the Israel-Palestinian crisis and the propaganda that affects its coverage.

It argues that the current situation has brought no real progress and that, under cover of diplomatic successes, Israel is using the road map to strengthen its grip on the remaining occupied territories.

Professor Reinhart contributes a regular critical column to Israel's biggest daily newspaper, Yediot Aharonot, and publishes widely online with the international media. She is also a guest lecturer at Utrecht University in the Netherlands and as of January 2007 will be a Global Distinguished Professor at New York University in the United States.

Tickets for this year's Edward Said Memorial Lecture are $10 and are available from the website: www.adelaide.edu.au/esml/

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