CMEP Network Conference Call
with Andrew Whitley

Director of the Representative Office of UNRWA

~Humanitarian Concerns in Gaza & the West Bank:

Implications for Progress Toward Peace~

Wednesday, Feb. 27th at 1pm ET/12pm CT/11am MT/10am PT

CMEP is pleased to announce that Andrew Whitley, Director of the Representative Office of UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East), will be the guest speaker for our next grassroots network conference call on February 27th at 1pm ET. Mr. Whitley will report on UNRWA's work in the West Bank and Gaza, the current humanitarian situation and its implications for progress on the peace process. Mr. Whitley was a speaker at a Feb 12th Capitol Hill Briefing, "Re-Calculating Annapolis: Understanding the Crisis in Gaza and Southern Israel and Its Impact on the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process" co-hosted by CMEP and collegial Jewish and Arab-American organizations. To view the video of this event, please click here.

ABOUT CMEP NETWORK CONFERENCE CALLS: Churches for Middle East Peace offers occasional conference calls featuring prominent policy analysts and issue experts from the CMEP/church community and others who stand with CMEP in support of Middle East peace. The conference call speakers offer their perspectives and provide timely, informational updates on key developments in Washington and the region.

HOW TO CALL IN: Dial 1-641-715-3200 and then enter the access code 644415#. You are responsible for domestic long distance charges associated with this call. The call will last approximately one hour, beginning promptly at 1pm (ET).

QUESTIONS: The presentation will be followed by a question and answer session open to all participants. Questions should be submitted by email before or during the call to confcall@cmep.org.

BACKGROUND READING:

"Letters from Gaza (6)…between Gaza and Sderot", by Najwa Sheikh (in Gaza), UNRWA, February 2008

"Open the Rafah Crossing", Editorial, Haaretz, February 8, 2008

"Additional United States Contribution to Refugees and Conflict Victims in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Africa", Fact Sheet, US Department of State, Washington, DC, January 31, 2008

"Under-Secretary-General, in briefing to Security Council, underscores gap between aspirations of Middle East peace process, reality on ground", UN Security Council, January 30, 2008

SPEAKER BIO:

ANDREW WHITLEY is currently Director of the Representative Office of UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. At the UN, Whitely has also served with UNCTAD in Geneva, as Chief of the Secretary-General’s Office, and with the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, holding senior posts in UN transitional administrations in East Timor and Kosovo. Mr. Whitley previously worked as an academic, in Tehran and New York; as a foreign correspondent specializing in the Middle East, South Asia and Latin America, with the BBC and Financial Times; and in human rights. He was the founding director of Middle East Watch now Human Rights Watch/Middle East and North Africa.

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