Due to inclement weather and airport closings, the following event has been canceled. The speaker will be rescheduled, if possible.

Neil Lazarus, an international lecturer on the Middle East, Israeli advocacy and effective communication training, offers a seminar titled Is Peace Possible in the Middle East? at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 14, in Chase Hall Lounge, 56 Campus Ave., Bates College. Sponsored by Bates College Hillel, the talk is open to the public free of charge.

Lazarus’ presentations are “substantive, educational and hugely entertaining,” says Orli Gil, consul for academic affairs for the Consulate General of Israel in New York. “He successfully communicates an impressive body of knowledge on Israel and the Middle East.”

Lazarus, director of the Israel advocacy firm AwesomeSeminars.com, speaks to more than 25,000 people worldwide about Israel and the Middle East. His many seminar topics include policy, media and advocacy issues. His extensive client list includes the Israeli ministries of foreign affairs and tourism, Keshet Television, the World Bank, Harvard University Extension Courses in Israel, Hillel, Hadassah, Birthright and the Jewish Agency of Israel.

Born in Britain, Lazarus received his first degree in political science at the University of Wales. He immigrated to Israel in 1988 and soon thereafter received his master’s degree at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

As part of an Islam and Middle East Awareness Week at Bates College, Forsan Hussein, an expert on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, will give a talk on the conflict and discuss alternatives for the peace process at 8 p.m., Thursday, March 30, in Room 204 of Carnegie Science, 44 Campus Ave., Bates College.  The public is invited to attend the talk, sponsored by Mushahada and the recently established Bates College Middle East Peace Alliance, at no charge.

Hussein is a communications associate at The Abraham Fund, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting peaceful coexistence between Arabs and Jewish citizens of Israel. Forsan is a Palestinian Arab who was born and raised in Sha’ab village in the Galilee in Israel. He attended Brandeis University after receiving the Slifka Coexistence Scholarship, a full scholarship awarded to one Palestinian-Israeli and one Jewish-Israeli committed to the goals of peaceful coexistence between the two people. At Brandeis, Forsan created his own major, “peacebuilding.”

Mushahada (the Bates College Muslim Student Association) was created to bring together the Muslim students of Bates and help them in their practice of Islam. The club organizes religious events for the Muslim community at Bates which are open to the whole campus. Mushahada sponsors speakers and organizes educational and social activities involving both Muslims and non-Muslims to promote greater awareness of the Islamic faith and traditions.