Dr. Shiblak, discussed the issue of statelessness of Palestinians. As a matter of fact, as he said, the Palestinians considered the largest stateless people in the world. Mentioning the impact of statelessness on their life, since nationality is the key to life inside or outside one’s country, which allows “citizens” to enjoy the  services countries deliver.     

 
Dr. Khalidi talked about the refugees issue as a negotiation topic within a rational political solution. In his view, the appeal for the right of return that happens now, is a legal appeal for the resolution number 194, and not an appeal for the natural and moral right. Therefore, in case of applying this resolution, refugees should return to live peacefully with their Israeli neighbors, and to abide by Israeli law and sovereignty.         

The title of the lecture is: “Migration to Europe: between economics and politics” Dr. Fargues began his lecture by defining migration as the crossing of a border, based on two criteria: migrants must be citizens of a "legal" nationality, and the country he/she seeks to migrate from is the country of birth. He likewise referred to the 1951 Geneva Convention defining a refugee as a person who fled the country of his nationality due to fear of persecution for political, racial or religious reasons; Dr.

Dr. Seniora presented detailed information about The Independent Commission for Human rights (ICHR) and its role in developing the prevailed viewpoint on human rights as one of the most important components in the Palestinian struggle. She showed that enhancing human rights and general freedom can’t be accomplished through international organizations, as much as being the product of national mechanisms which should be exerted before resorting to the international level.

Dr. Takahashi presented the duties of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) office in the occupied Palestinian territories, which had been established after Oslo agreement. He pointed out that the main duties of the office are to assist the Palestinian Authority set regulations concurrent with the human rights, and to assist NGOs in preparing their reports and advocating about violations of human rights in the Palestinian territories.

 
During his lecture, Dr. Abu Khalaf discussed what the common foreign and security policy is, its objectives and operations. And in the second part of the lecture he opened the floor for discussion with students regarding the 2009 annual report from the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy to the European  Parliament on the main aspects and basic choices of the  CFSP.

Dr. Hogan started withemphasizing that a high level in death rates and a low birth rate doesn’t lead to a high growth rate. Whereas in Europe we are confronted with a decline in the infant mortality rate and the survivorship is going  up, thus old people are living longer and this affects the population structure of Europe. He also remarks that eventually all the worlds’ population will age and this started in the developed countries and in the future Africa and Asia will experience this.

 
The Ibrahim Abu-Lughod Institute of International Studies, in cooperation with Council for British Research in the Levant, and as part of the "Advancing Research and Teaching in Political Economy in the oPt" project funded by the LSE, held the first lecture of the lecture series given by Professor Toby Dodge, a professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science and Director of LSE’s Middle East Center.