Harper speaker Oct. 5 on Palestinian bid for statehood

At the United Nations 66th General Assembly in New York last week, Mahmoud Abbas, of the Palestinian National Authority, formally asked the Security Council for full membership to Palestine, which would clear the way to a declaration of formal statehood for the administrative organization.

In a speech last year to the U.N., President Obama spoke of advancing Palestinian statehood through negotiations between the Palestinian Authority and Israel. But he lowered expectations last week by vowing to veto the Palestinians’ bid for statehood recognition if it comes to a Security Council vote.

Reza Aslan, an Iranian-American considered an expert on the Middle East, will speak about the region and “Islamophobia,” at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 5, at Harper College.

Aslan, author of “No god but God: The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam,” wrote an opinion piece for the Los Angeles Times last week outlining reasons “why the U.S. should support the Palestinian bid and not exercise its veto at the U.N.”

“It will be on Barack Obama’s watch, and as a direct result of his actions, that we will say years from now that the two-state solution came and went,” said Aslan, an outspoken critic of how the Obama administration has handled Israeli-Palestinian policy.

“I believe in Israel’s right to exist as much as I believe in the right of a Palestinian state to exist,” says Aslan.

“But when I talk to Palestinian militants, particularly those aligned with Hamas, they say very clearly: ‘All we have to do is wait another decade or two and all that you see here will be called Palestine.’”

Tickets for Aslan’s lecture in the Harper Performing Arts Center, are $15, with discounts for Harper students, faculty/staff, and other students. Call (847) 925-6100 or visit harpercollege.edu.