Center for Israel Studies (Jordan)

Center for Israel Studies (Jordan)

Motto	Providing a deeper understanding of Israel for all Arab states.
Founded	2014
Founder	Dr. Abdullah Swalha
Type	Not-for-profit, non-governmental organization, think tank
Location	Amman, Kingdom of Jordan
Website	cis.org.jo?page_id=1400

The Center for Israel Studies in Jordan (CIS), also known as (مركز للدراسات الإسرائيلية) is an independent, non-profit Jordanian think tank based in Amman, Jordan dedicated to the study of Israeli politics, society, economy, and military. The center conducts policy studies and strategic analyses of political, economic and security issues throughout the greater Middle East, with a specific focus on issues concerning Arab-Israeli Conflict, Israel's Public Policy, and the advancement of Peace among the Jews and Arabs in the Middle East. The Center for Israel studies is not affiliated with any political parties or governments. Established in Amman, Jordan 2014, it is dedicated to the study and research of the state of Israel. In 2015, CIS-Jordan became a member of the Alliance for Middle East Peace^[1]

About the Organization

Founded in 2014, CIS is the only Arab NGO that conducts research on Israeli affairs. CIS works to build a multifaceted field of Israel studies in Jordan and expand the opportunities for a deeper understanding of Israel in all Arab states. Driven by the importance of disseminating a more complete understanding of Israel, CIS conducts lectures, trainings, consultations, conferences, and workshops.

Activities

CIS pursues its objectives through a range of activities:

• • To provide daily, expert news summaries and analysis regarding events in Israel and the region through their online publications written in Arabic .
  • To bring analysts, journalists and politicians from the region to Jordan to share their insights with their Jordanian counterparts.
  • To create opportunities for a wide range of voices to be heard.
  • To organize events and seminars in Jordan aimed at deepening the discussion about Israel in Jordan
  • To engage in dialogue with Jordanian opinion formers and the media on issues of importance to the Jordan-Israel relationship
  • To provide strategy analysis and recommendations to the Jordanian government — both to shape foreign policy vis-à-vis Israel, and to widen Jordan’s involvement in a binding rapprochement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

Position in regards to the Arab-Israeli conflict

• • CIS believes in a two-state solution with an independent, democratic viable Palestinian state living side-by-side with Israel and its other neighbors.
  • Settlement building anywhere in the occupied Palestinian Territories, including East Jerusalem, is illegal under international law
  • CIS condemns all acts of violence, as they impede progress towards peace

Collaboration with other institutions

In order to foster genuine and mutually beneficial cooperation, CIS Jordan collaborates with institutions such as the Institute for National Security Studies (Israel), the Moshe Dayan Center, the Western Galilee College, and the Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policy also known as Mitvim, the Bar-Ilan University, the American Jewish Committee, and the University of Jordan.

In the News

The Times of Israel write that the Center for Israel Studies in Jordan "seeks to combat media misinformation surrounding the Jewish state and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by presenting an alternative, neutrality-driven view of Israel in Arabic for Jordan’s decision makers, journalists and wider public."^[2]

Haaretz in an interview with former Israeli ambassador to Jordan, Oded Eran said, "I really admire their courage because it is not easy in an Arab country to speak objectively about Israel."^[3]

In an interview with the Jerusalem Post, Dr. Swalha is quoted saying that "during the Arab Spring Arabs focused on domestic issues and that in the past, Arabs hung all their problems on Israel, but now they discovered it is not the main issue."^[4]

Avi Lewis in an interview with Mosaic Magazine, said that "Dr. Abdullah Swalha wants to see an informed Arab public equipped with the tools to relate, deal, and negotiate with Israel, by presenting the country as an imperfect democracy and model of tolerance, albeit with inequalities between Arab and Jewish citizens and an occupying power still controlling the lives of millions of Palestinians in the West Bank—a far cry from the “Zionist entity” trope widely used for decades in the Arab world as a blanket description for the Jewish state." ^[5]

Assabeel, an Arabic weekly newspaper in Amman, Jordan, wrote that "Abdullah Swalha does not seek to beautify the image of Israel in the Arab world." Here, Sawalha discusses his meeting with former Israeli president Shimon Perez in the city of Petra and states that, the CIS “believes a lot of important information about the Israeli society is absent from the Arab governments and their citizens...There is a difference", he added, “between talking about Israel as an occupying power and to talk about its political system."^[6]

CIS Jordan was further discussed in both the New York Times and the Washington Post, but due to it being an Associated Press story, their contract only allowed them to have access to stories for a short amount of time.

References