Bridging the Gulf: International Relations Expert Speaks Tonight on Iraq, Israel and Palestine, and Solutions to the Crisis in the Middle East

Dr. David Kazzaz will speak tonight in the Program Room, at 6pm. During his presentation, Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict, Dr. Kazzaz will discuss Arab-Israeli relations, the war in Iraq, and potential solutions to these ongoing conflicts.

Dr. Kazzaz is currently consulting with Jalal Talibani, the President of Iraq, and with the leader of Kurdistan and the Liberal Democratic Party of Iraq, to find peaceable solutions to the exacerbating war.

Dr. David Kazzaz was born in Baghdad , Iraq and attended medical school at the American University in Beirut . He has completed his post doctoral training at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem Israel and subsequently did a residency in Psychiatry at the University of Colorado Medical Center in Denver , Colorado .

After studying in Denver , Dr. Kazzaz was asked by the Ministry of Health in Israel to develop a pilot program on community mental health centers which was used as a model for subsequent programs.

In 1962, Dr. Kazzaz returned to Denver where he practiced psychiatry for twenty seven years. He retired in 1989 and founded Project Pride, a program focusing on anti-Semitism and racial hatred. In 1995 Dr. Kazzaz founded the Hispano-Crypto-Jewish Resource Center at the University of Denver .

Since 2000 Dr. Kazzaz is a Research Associate of The Institute for the Study of Israel in the Middle East (ISIME). He is engaged in the study and analysis of events in Iraq and other countries in the Middle East . He is a regular lecturer in classes at the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver as well as a frequent lecturer on Middle East topics in the general community.

Dr. Kazzaz is the author of “Mother of the Pound: Memoirs on the Life and History of the Iraqi Jews.” The book is available for purchase at ISIME.