Conference Circuit

A SEMINAR on Environmentally Sensitive National Projects will be hosted by Tel Aviv University's Porter School for Environmental Studies in Room 110 of the Dan David Building on the TAU campus at 10 a.m.

By GREER FAY CASHMAN
Tuesday, April 10 BEN-GURION University and the Chaim Herzog Center for Middle East Studies and Diplomacy will host a discussion on The Syrian Option - Characteristics and Implications. Participants will include Yaakov Peri, former head of General Security Services, Dr. Alon Liel, former director-general of the Foreign Ministry and Dr. Yoram Meital, Chairman of the Chaim Herzog Center. The debate will begin at 4 p.m. at the W.A. Minkoff Senate Building on the BGU campus. A SEMINAR on Environmentally Sensitive National Projects will be hosted by Tel Aviv University's Porter School for Environmental Studies in Room 110 of the Dan David Building on the TAU campus at 10 a.m. Wednesday, April 11 IN RECENT years, the conflicts in Israel/Palestine and Northern Ireland continue to oscillate between momentum for peaceful resolution and regression into new cycles of violence or political deadlock. Guy Ben-Porat of Ben-Gurion University's Department of Public Policy and Administration has completed a book "Global Liberalism - Peace and Conflict in Israel/Palestine and Northern Ireland." To mark its publication, the Chaim Herzog Center for Middle East Studies and Diplomacy together with the Humphrey Center for Social Research will host a debate between Dr. Avishai Erlich of Beit Berel College and Dr. Guy Beiner from BGU's Department of General History. The debate will be chaired by Dr. Yoram Meital, Chairman of the Chaim Herzog Center. Guy Ben-Porat provides an in-depth analysis of the global environment and the profound effect it has on local conflicts. Because globalization affects localized social structures, institutions, and political divisions as well as international relationships between states and societies, it offers a unique perspective from which to examine the commonalities and differences between two regions laden with conflict. These and other issues will be discussed at 6 p.m. in Conference Room 136, adjacent to the W.A. Minkoff Senate Hall on the BGU campus. THE SIGNIFICANCE of Memorial Day in a Changing Society is the topic of a symposium that will commence at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque at 4 p.m. Speakers will discuss how memorial days are and should be presented on television, through the cinema, the print media and radio. Speakers will include well-known journalists, television and film directors and academics. Admission is free of charge. Thursday, April 12 THE ELBAUM Center is hosting a seminar at the Tel Aviv Fair Grounds on different types of learning disabilities and attention disorder problems. The seminar begins at 12 noon within the framework of an exhibition dedicated to learning disabilities. The symposium, which is directed at educators, tutors, caregivers, parents and people with learning disabilities, will examine methods of diagnosis, concentration and hyperactivity, the neurobiological basis for learning disabilities and attention disorders, coping in the classroom in accordance with the Elbaum method and psycho-didactic testing. Admission is NIS 30. For further information, call 1-800-226-206. Sunday, April 15 NEW FINDINGS that will help towards a better understanding of Obsessive Compulsive Disorders (OCD) will be discussed at a symposium organized by the Department of Psychology of Tel Aviv University's Faculty of Social Sciences, beginning at 8:45 a.m. at the TAU campus. Payment is required. For further details, call (03) 640-6389. THE NETVISION Institute for Internet Research will host a Holocaust Memorial Day Seminar on "The Holocaust from the Perspective of Israeli Bloggers." The intergenerational participants will include Holocaust survivors as well as second and third generation survivors, academics and journalists. Discussions begin at 3 p.m. in Room 407 of the Recanati Building on the TAU campus. Tuesday, April 17 THE JERUSALEM Institute for Israel Studies will host the Lisa Goldberg Memorial Conference on "Jerusalem - The Challenge. Are there options for settling the question of Jerusalem?" The event will be held in the JIIS' Teddy Hall, 20 Radak Street, Jerusalem. Participation is by invitation only. To secure an invitation, call: (02) 563-0175. Presentations will be made by legal, diplomatic, academic and political experts including Palestinian researcher Dr. Nazmi Jube. THE ROTHSCHILD-Caesarea School for Communications, the Chaim Herzog Institute for Communication, Society and Politics and the Chaim Herzog Center at Ben-Gurion University will host a memorial symposium at Tel Aviv University to mark the 10th anniversary of the passing of Israel's sixth president. The topic to be discussed by academics and veteran journalist Rafik Halabi is: "The image of Arabs and Muslims as portrayed by the Israeli media." The discussion will be on the TAU campus will begin at 5 p.m. TEL AVIV Mayor Ron Hulda'i will be the final speaker in the day-long Yuval Neeman Tel Aviv workshop on Science Technology and Security. The overall topic for discussion in the workshop is Ballistic Missiles and Rockets. Hulda'i will discuss the threat from the perspective of the population. The workshop begins at 8:30 a.m. in the Bar Shira auditorium at Tel Aviv University. THE ISRAEL Project, together with the Truman Institute, will hold a day-long conference on Iran, Hizbullah and Hamas in which speakers will explore Iran's global outreach as well as its impact on Hamas and the Palestinian Future. Participants will also discuss whether Hizbullah is an independent or an Iranian organization, and will present an in-depth look at global terrorism. The event begins at 8 a.m. in the Truman Institute's Handler Auditorium at Hebrew University. JUDAH BETWEEN East and West: The transition from Persian to Greek Rule (circa 400-200 BCE) is the subject of a three-day, Israeli-British conference to be held at Tel Aviv University under the auspices of TAU's Faculty of Humanities, The Chaim Katzman Archaeology Fund, The Chaim Rosenberg School of Jewish Studies, the Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology and The Academic Group for Study of Israel and the Middle East (UK). Wednesday, April 18 LEADING EXPERTS from Israel and abroad will participate in the two-day 54th Annual Meeting of the Israel heart Society and the Israel Society of Cardiothoracic Surgery to be held at the David Intercontinental Hotel, Tel Aviv. For details, call Batya Ziv: (03) 612-2577 or (054) 634-6588. THE THIRD meeting in the series "Palestinian Citizens of Israel - an Inside Look" will take place at 6 p.m. in conference room 136, next to the Senate Hall, (Building 70) on the Ben-Gurion University campus. The purpose of the series that were organized by Prof. Jon Anson and Dr. Achmed Saadi, is to provide an opportunity for listening to end entering into discussions with Israel's Palestinian citizens, many of whom are high achievers in their respective fields. The organizers believe that it is important to learn how the very fact that they are Israeli Palestinians has influenced and shaped their lives. Among the participants in the third meeting will Salman Natour, editor of Madar, an Arabic language journal published by the Palestinian Forum for Israeli Studies in Ramallah and Director of the Emil Tuma Institute for Israeli and Palestinian Studies in Haifa. Natour received a B.A. in Philosophy from the University of Haifa in 1976. He has published 27 books in Arabic and is an active member of the Committee of Palestinian and Israeli Writers Against Occupation and for Peace. The event is being hosted by the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute for Social Research. Monday, May 7 ENVIRONMENT 2020 - Challenges, innovation and regional cooperation is the subject of an in-depth conference to be held in the Prime Conference Hall at the Tel Aviv Fairgrounds. Topics to be discussed include socio-environmental responsibility of the business sector; environmental R&D in Israel; business initiatives for the rehabilitation of polluted areas; challenges of environmental development as a springboard for regional cooperation. Participation fee is NIS 250. For further details, call (03) 696-4453. Thursday, May 17 A FULL day seminar on Dreams will be hosted by the Jerusalem Friends of the Hebrew University at the Inbal Hotel.