The Israel-Hamas Conflict and its Broader Implications: A View from Germany

On October 7, in a series of coordinated attacks, the Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas launched an unprecedented assault on Israel, with hundreds of gunmen infiltrating communities near the Gaza Strip. More than 1,400 Israelis were killed and more than 200 people – including civilians – were taken to Gaza as hostages. In response, Israel has carried out air and artillery strikes, begun a counter-offensive, and cut off electricity and most water supplies. The fighting is causing death and destruction in the region – and causing reverberations around the world. On Monday, the UN Security Council will hold an emergency meeting regarding the situation. This comes after a meeting on Friday when 120 countries voted in favor of a UN resolution calling for a “sustained humanitarian truce” in Gaza. The United States voted against the resolution. Germany – and 14 other EU member states – abstained, showing that the EU countries cannot find a common position.

More than three weeks into the conflict, join the American Council on Germany on November 1 for a virtual discussion about the broader implications of the conflict with Middle East expert Prof. Dr. Eckart Woertz, Director of the GIGA Institute for Middle East Studies and Professor for Contemporary History and Politics of the Middle East at the University of Hamburg.

Prof. Dr. Eckart Woertz has been the Director of the GIGA Institute for Middle East Studies and Professor of Contemporary History and Politics of the Middle East at the University of Hamburg since October 2019. Prior to that, he was a Senior Research Fellow at the Barcelona Centre for International Affairs (CIDOB). Earlier in his career, he served as Director of Economic Studies at the Gulf Research Center (GRC) in Dubai. He began his career in finance, working for banks in Frankfurt, Mainz, and Dubai. He has also held positions with the Barcelona Institute of International Studies, the Paris School of International Affairs at Sciences Po, and at Princeton University.

Prof. Dr. Woertz studied Economics, Political Science, and Islamic Studies at the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, the Free University of Berlin, the Institut Français d’Études Arabes de Damas,  and the University of Damascus.