A Bar Ilan University political science professor will discuss relations between Greece and Israel in a talk Feb. 13. at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. 

Amikam Nachmani, professor in the department of political studies, at Bar Ilan University in Israel, will speak on “Greece and Israel: Prospects and Developments in East Mediterranean Cultures, Ethnicities, and Politics” at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 13 at the Millennium Student Center’s Century Room A. At 7 p.m. there will be a reception with the speaker, immediately preceding his talk.

Nachmani is delivering this year’s Catharine Pelican Memorial Lecture and the event is presented by the Hellenic Government-Karakas Family Foundation Professorship in Greek Studies, International Studies and Programs, University of Missouri–St. Louis, In collaboration with the Michael and Barbara Newmark Institute for Human Relations at the Jewish Community Relations Council

“So near, and yet so far,” was the definition of the Greek-Israeli relations between the years 1948 and 1990; that year marked the first time Greece established an embassy in Tel Aviv. Since 2010, acute and dramatic adverse changes in the relations between Ankara and Jerusalem led to considerable improvements in relations between Greece and Israel.

Recent gas discoveries in the Eastern Mediterranean have already led to an expansion of Israeli-Cypriot-Greek cooperation in the issue of energy exploration and transfer, as well as in other related areas.

This presentation will focus on the East-Mediterranean and on the prospects for cooperation among the countries and peoples there.

All visitors to the UM-St. Louis campus must have a parking permit. To request a free parking permit or RSVP for this event, visit umsl.edu/isp or call 314-516-7299.