| Program overview (German) | Press reviews & reports (German) |
What views do Israelis and Palestinians have on the main issues in a conflict that is now over one hundred years old? How is the humanitarian and political situation in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel? How does the United Nations evaluate the situation on the ground? What significance does Jerusalem have with regard to political, cultural and religious issues?
During the 2015 academic research and study trip, participating students examined these and other issues in order to learn first-hand about the legal and political dimensions of the Middle East conflict. Jerusalem, Ramallah, Hebron, Masada, and Tel Aviv were stops on the trip where Master’s students learned not only about Israeli and Palestinian points of view on the conflict but also about the positions of international players.
Tours through East and West Jerusalem focused on the political significance of architecture and urban planning, the lives of Ultra-Orthodox Jews, and the tensions in the Muslim quarter of the Old City and all of East Jerusalem due to Israeli settlement activities. The itinerary included visits to the Israeli Supreme Court, the city of Hebron in the West Bank, which is particularly affected by the Israeli occupation, as well as discussions with representatives of Palestinian NGOs and international organizations (including the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees). In his guided tour through the West Bank, Shaul Arieli, a former colonel of the Israeli Defense Forces, placed special emphasis on the main disputes in current peace negotiations and the different standpoints of the parties.
