Advisor to the Israeli Foreign Ministry to deliver lecture Sept. 20

Ishmael Khaldi, the Middle East and Arab Affairs advisor to the Israeli Foreign Ministry, will deliver a lecture Tuesday, Sept. 20, in FIU’s Graham Center, Room 150, at Modesto A. Maidique Campus.

Titled “Israel Today and the Arab Spring,” the lecture is scheduled for 10 a.m. and is free and open to the public.

Khaldi was born in a Bedouin village in Galilee, Israel. He earned a bachelors degree at the University of Haifa and a master’s degree at Tel-Aviv University. After his studies, Khaldi served in the Israeli Boarder Police and the Israel Defense Forces and Defense Ministry.

In 2004, Khaldi began working for the Israeli Foreign Ministry. In 2006, he was chosen to serve in San Francisco. In 2009, Khaldi was appointed adviser to the Minister of Foreign Affairs Avigdor Lieberman. Khaldi is the first Bedouin deputy consul of Israel and the nation’s first high-ranking Muslim diplomat in the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Khaldi recently published a memoir, A Shepherd’s Journey: The Story of Israel’s First Bedouin Diplomat, in which he tells a story of transformation, from his modest village roots to his triumph as a diplomat and voice of reason in the Middle East.

The Sept. 20 lecture is sponsored by FIU’s Judaic Studies Program and co-sponsored by the Jewish National Fund, Caravan for Democracy, MediaWatch International, Shalom FIU and Hasbara Fellowships. For information, call 305-348-7266.