Dear AIS Members,

We are pleased to announce the nomination of AIS Board member, Professor Mohammed Wattad, as the AIS Officer of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. This nomination follows the recommendation of the AIS Task Force, established last year, to bolster Arab participation in AIS activities. The recommendation was confirmed and adopted by the AIS Board in our Prague Annual Conference last month.

Professor Wattad has a proven record and extensive experience that make him an excellent choice for this position. Prof. Wattad is a full professor and president of Ramat Gan Academic College. He is also a Senior Researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel-Aviv University, a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Israeli Thought, a Research Fellow at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism at Reichman University, and a Research Fellow at the Minerva Center for the Rule of Law under Extreme Conditions at Haifa University. We trust that he will play a pivotal role in finding ways to increase Arab participation in our association, whether as Board members, committee chairs and members, applicants for AIS awards and grants, and, indeed, as general members.

We encourage our members to write to Professor Wattad. Please email him at ais@aisisraelstudies.org to express interest in positions as well as to voice constructive ideas and initiatives.

We wish Professor Wattad success in this important position.