Experts on the Middle East will meet at Dickinson College's Memorial Hall in Old West on Thursday, January 22, at 7 p.m., to participate in a panel discussion on the violence in Gaza. The presentation is free and open to the public.

Scheduled participants are David Commins, Benjamin Rush distinguished chair in liberal arts and sciences and professor of history at Dickinson College; Itzchak Weismann, a visiting assistant professor of history at Dickinson on leave from the University of Haifa in Israel; Ed Webb, assistant professor of political science and international studies at Dickinson; and Sherifa D. Zuhur, research professor of Islamic and regional studies at the U.S. Army War College.

The Israeli government bombed and invaded Gaza last month, resulting in more than 1,000 Palestinian deaths, many of them civilians. More than 5,000 have been wounded in the conflict. The panelists will discuss whether Israel's actions are disproportionate to the threat posed by Hamas, a Palestinian political group in de facto control of the Gaza Strip since June 2007 that has been launching rockets and mortar shells into Israel. In response to the Gaza conflict, Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden on Wednesday urged Muslims to wage holy war against Israel, according to an audiotape posted on Islamist Web sites.

The panel discussion is a breaking-news event organized by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues at Dickinson College.