October | 2016 | Dorothy Day Catholic Worker Washington, D.C.

How the U.S. Has Destablized the Middle East

Speaker: Raed Jarrar

Date: Friday, November 4, 2016 @ 7:30 p.m.

Place: Dorothy Day Catholic Worker: Rock Creek Church Rd. NW,

Washington, DC, 20010.

What role has U.S. military intervention played in destabilizing the Middle East?

How has U.S. bombings, sanctions, occupation and torture in Iraq helped create the conditions for the formation of ISIS?

What does the recent $38 billion U.S. military aid package to Israel over the next decade mean for peace prospects in the region?

How has U.S. military intervention in the Middle East contributed to the refugee crisis in Europe and elsewhere?

What are some of the nonviolent solutions to help bring about peace in the Middle East?

Raed Jarrar will address these and other related questions regarding the role the U.S. has played in destabilizing the Middle East. Raed serves as AFSC’s Government Relations Manager at the Office of Public Policy and Advocacy in Washington, D.C. Since his immigration to the U.S. in 2005, he has worked on political and cultural issues pertaining to U.S. engagement in the Arab and Muslim worlds. He is widely recognized as an expert on political, social, and economic developments in the Middle East. He has testified in numerous Congressional hearings and briefings, and he is also a frequent guest on national and international media outlets in both Arabic and English. He also attended the historic Nonviolence and Just Peace conference at the Vatican this past April.

Born in Baghdad to an Iraqi mother and a Palestinian father, Raed Jarrar grew up in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Iraq. He received his bachelor’s degree in architecture from the University of Baghdad, and his master’s degree in architecture, with a specialty in post-war reconstruction in Iraq, from the University of Jordan. Raed has appeared in numerous media outlets, including MSNBC, Al Jazeera, Democracy Now, Foreign Policy in Focus, and Alternet. His opinion pieces have been published in the Chicago Tribune and Common Dreams.