MA Field Work Report: -Palestinian Conflict Shazia Noor

During my studies in the MA in Diplomacy programme, I had found that my key interest were in the areas of crisis management, approaches to negotiation, international law and international organizations, which also happened to be the core element of my dissertation topic. Having been exposed to the peace processes, I was keen to undertake further research into to the under-workings of negotiation and dialogue to understand the crucial preliminary stages for the purpose of developing a template for future dialogue between inner-religious conflicts.

The focus of my dissertation is the politics of Islam in Pakistan and the State-sanctioned discrimination against minorities, in particular, the Muslim Community. While the research largely looks at Pakistan’s domestic policies and international law, the detailed analysis covers the escalation in persecution not only in Pakistan but also in other parts of the Muslim world and suggests that Islamization of the law and culture is a transnational threat to human ‘Mahmood ’ in Kababir, , Israel rights. It is for this reason I The only Mosque of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in the Middle East. decided that Israel was ideal for my field research to understand the plight of the Ahmadiyya sect in the Muslim world. An outsider may be oblivious to the fact that the only Ahmadi Muslim Mosque, in all of the Middle East or Arab world, is located in Haifa, Israel, not by choice, but by the continued discrimination by the Islamists in their attempts to eradicate the community from the Islamic world and elsewhere around the world.

Israeli-Palestinian conflict. These lectures were also supplemented with study tours to gain first-hand experience of the places of conflict, which included the Palestinian territories, Israeli borders, and both Arab and Jewish settlements. This unique opportunity gave me insights to build my own research into ethnic and religious conflicts within the nation and discuss international obligations. I was able to secure an interview session with

The Dome of the Rock the Head of the Ahmadiyya sect in Haifa and conducted a series of The fieldwork was carried out in interviews with community Israel at the Galilee International members to understand the th Management Institute from July 4 persecution of the Ahmadiyya sect th to July 28 2011, where I was by the Islamists groups, such as introduced to both Israeli and Hamas. This type of information Palestinian academics who gathering would not have been imparted their knowledge of the possible if it was conducted in a issues and peace solutions in the Muslim country. I was fortunate to spend time with prominent actors in the field of peace building process, such as Dr. Yair Hirshfeld, who was a key architect of the Oslo Accords in 1993 and Hiba Husseini, JD, who is the managing partner of Husseini and Husseini, a West Bank-based law firm and currently the chair of the Legal Committee to Final Status Negotiations between the Palestinians and Israelis. Their insights to the preliminary stages of negotiation and mediation tactics

At the Galilee Institute with Dr. Yair Hirschfeld will remain the absolute highlight of my stay.

The view of

This was truly an enriched experience that has provided me an opportunity to build important contacts with personnel in international politics, and gave me the foundation of dialogue and international cooperation for my research. Thank you IAPS Tomlinson Travel Award for supplementing my journey.