Public Event Lecture and Response: Israel and the Palestinians – What Comes Next?
25 March 2025
Public event with historian Fania Oz-Salzberger and sociologist Jules El-Khatib
“Israel and the Palestinians – What Comes Next?” Israeli historian Prof. Dr Fania Oz-Salzberger and German sociologist Jules El-Khatib will meet at Heidelberg University to exchange perspectives on the war in the Middle East. In her lecture, Prof. Oz-Salzberger will analyze the current situation following the Hamas attacks of 7 October 2023, while also addressing Israel’s relationship with Germany. In his response, Jules El-Khatib will present the perspective of a Palestinian who grew up in Germany and is politically active, yet remains in close contact with his family members, who are facing the existential impact of the events in Israel, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank. After the lecture, the audience will have the opportunity to ask questions. The event, which will be held in English and German with translation, is organized by the Department of History and the Ecumenical Institute of Heidelberg University. It will take place on Sunday, 30 March 2025, in the Great Hall of the Old University, starting at 5:00 p.m.
Fania Oz-Salzberger is an emeritus professor of history at the Faculty of Law at the University of Haifa (Israel). She studied history and philosophy at Tel Aviv University and earned her doctorate at the University of Oxford (UK). Her academic career has included research stays at institutions and universities in Berlin, Melbourne (Australia), Munich, Princeton (USA), and Stockholm (Sweden). Prof. Oz-Salzberger’s research focuses on the history of ideas and political thought during the Enlightenment. Politically, she has been actively involved – often alongside her father, writer Amos Oz – in advocating for peace, a two-state solution and liberal democracy. For her activism and academic work, she has received multiple awards, including the Federal Cross of Merit and the Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm Prize from the German Academic Exchange Service.
Jules El-Khatib has been teaching at IU International University of Applied Sciences Hamburg, since 2023 as an Academic Lecturer in Social Work. He studied sociology at the University of Duisburg-Essen. From 2011 to 2023, he was a member of the political party Die Linke, serving as State Speaker for North Rhine-Westphalia in 2021/2022. From 2017 to 2023, he worked as a research associate in the German Bundestag, focusing on migration, integration and racism.