The Palestinian-Israeli Peace NGO Forum's Visit to Brussels March 17 -19 , 2009

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The Palestinian-Israeli Peace NGO Forum’s visit to Brussels March 17 th -19 th , 2009 The Palestinian-Israeli Peace NGO Forum is a network of Palestinian and Israeli NGOs working towards peaceful relations. As strength is found in numbers, the Forum, by uniting more than 100 organizations, validates and reinforces the efforts of the various Peace NGOs both independently and mutually. www.peacengo.org

A senior delegation of Israeli and Palestinian representatives of the Forum, will visit Brussels to share the experience of peacebuilding activities undertaken in the region by the Forum and its members and to deliver strong joint messages. Please find below further information about the delegates and their respectful organizations.

Delegate Organization Palestinian Delegation Mr. Saman Khoury Peace & Democracy Forum is a Palestinian Non-Governmental (Palestinian Co-chair) Organization based in East Jerusalem, and functions as a public institution subject to the rules and regulations governing civil Director General, society institutions. The center works on promoting peace in the Peace & Democracy Forum region and pertaining to democratic processes. www.pdf-palestine.org

Ms. Maysa Baransi-Siniora The idea of a joint Israeli-Palestinian radio station is unique and innovative, and one through which we can bring the vast Executive Director, accumulated experience of both the Jewish-Arab Center for Peace All for Peace Radio at Givat Haviva and the Palestinian organization Biladi – The Jerusalem Times to bear through the electronic media and reach a new audience, previously not exposed to the message of peace, and bring to them our message. www.allforpeace.org

Mr. Ziad AbuZayyad The Palestine-Israel Journa l is a non-profit organization, founded in 1994 by Ziad AbuZayyad and Victor Cygielman, two prominent Founder and Co-editor, Palestinian and Israeli journalists, and was established concurrently Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, with the first phases of the Oslo peace process to encourage Economics and Culture dialogue between civil societies on both sides and broaden the base of support for the peace process. It was obvious from the start that, alongside the institutional efforts of Palestinians and Israelis, channels of communication must be opened for academics and other intellectuals, opinion and policy makers, grassroots organizations and activists to voice their views and take part in the public debate for a democratic and just solution to the conflict. www.pij.org

Ms. Nisreen Abu–Zayyad Panorama - the Palestinian Center for the Dissemination of (Palestinian Coordinator) Democracy & Community Development was established in 1991 in Jerusalem. The center works to contribute to community Panorama Center for Dissemination of development, and to promote issues that are related to the Democracy and Community Development relationship between the citizen and the society, as a means to build a pluralistic Palestinian civil society. PANORAMA serves as the Palestinian Coordinating body for the Palestinian Israeli Peace NGO Forum. www.panoramacenter.org

Israeli Delegation

Dr. Ron Pundak The Peres Center for Peace is an independent, non-profit, non- (Israeli Co-chair) partisan, non-governmental organization founded in 1996 by Nobel Peace Laureate and former Prime Minister Shimon Peres, with the Director General, aim of furthering his vision in which people of the Middle East The Peres Center for Peace region work together to build peace through socio-economic cooperation and development, and people-to-people interaction. The first Director General of the Peres Center was Ambassador Uri Savir, who, together with Shimon Peres, established the organization and currently serves as President. www.peres-center.org

Dr. Sarah Ozacky-Lazar The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute is a leading intellectual center for the interdisciplinary study and discussion of issues related to Researcher, philosophy, society, culture and education. The Institute gives Van Leer Jerusalem Institute expression to the wide range of opinions in Israel, and takes particular pride in its role as an incubator and creative home for many of the most important civil society efforts to enhance and deepen Israeli democracy. www.vanleer.org.il

Ms. Yael Patir The Peres Center for Peace serves as the Israeli Coordinating body (Israeli Coordinator) for the Palestinian Israeli Peace NGO Forum.

The Peres Center for Peace

Mr. Saman Khoury Palestinian Co-chair PIPNF

CURRENTLY 1. Deputy Chairperson of the Board of Trustees and General Manager, Peace & Democracy Forum/Jerusalem; 2. Treasurer; Palestinian Peace Coalition/ Geneva Initiative; 3. Chairperson, Board of Trustees, Panorama Center for the Dissemination of Democracy and Community Development; 4. Co-Chair, Palestinian-Israeli Peace NGO Forum; 5. Editorial Board/ Radio "All for Peace"; 6. Editorial Board / Palestine-Israel Journal; 7. Advisor to PLO Executive Committee S/G Yasser Abed Rabbo.

Previous Functions o General Coordinator, Peoples' Peace Campaign. o Director, Palestine Media Center/Ramallah. o Director, International Relations, Palestinian Ministry of Culture. o Chairperson, Board of Trustees, Palestinian National Theater/"Al Hakawati". o Founding Member and Deputy Chair, Palestine Broadcasting Corporation (Palestine Radio and TV). o Managing Editor, Al-Fajr English Weekly newspaper (1982-1985).

Education : Birzeit University (1965-66 / 1977-78); Birzeit University, Journalism Diploma (1982) Languages : Arabic, English, French

Dr. Ron Pundak Israeli Co-chair PIPNF

Dr. Ron Pundak, has served as the Director General of the Peres Center for Peace since mid-2001. In his current position, Dr. Pundak leads and oversees the Peres Center's staff and all aspects of its peacebuilding activities. His diplomatic experience has enabled him to effectively lead the center, and to serve as an essential link between the grass-roots sector and key policy makers.

Dr. Pundak played a decisive role in creating the secret track of the unofficial Oslo negotiations at the beginning of 1993. Under the guidance of former Prime Minister Shimon Peres, Mr. Yossi Beilin, and later by Yitzhak Rabin, Dr. Pundak served as a member of the official Israeli negotiating team in the subsequent stage of the Oslo Process, which culminated in the historic signing of the Declaration of Principles in Washington on September 13, 1993. During 1994 and 1995, Dr. Pundak played a central role in the so-called 'Beilin-Abu Mazen Understanding', which provided a blue-print for negotiations and a detailed framework for agreement on all final status issues utilized in the Camp David II and Taba Negotiations.

With a view to shaping and influencing governmental policy and building long-term peace, Dr. Pundak has continued to be involved in various peace-related initiatives such as think tanks, working groups, and advisory committees, including the Aix Group's Steering Committee and

the Steering Committee of the Geneva Initiative . He also currently serves as the co-Chairperson of the Palestinian-Israeli Peace NGO Forum . Prior to joining the Peres Center for Peace, Dr. Pundak worked in the fields of intelligence, government, and journalism, and he served as Executive Director of the Economic Cooperation Foundation, an Israeli think-tank dealing with Arab-Israeli peace process issues.

Dr. Pundak holds a Ph.D. from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) of the University of London in Middle Eastern political history, and he has published numerous academic articles. He published his first book, “The Struggle for Sovereignty", which details Jordanian history during the years 1946 through1951, and he has since contributed op-ed pieces to the Israeli and International press on an on-going basis.

Dr. Pundak's public positions include: member of the general Assembly at the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School Jerusalem, member of the Board of Directors of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, member of the Exhibitions and Acquisitions Committee of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, and member of the Academic as well as Executive Board of the Tel Aviv University Institute for Diplomacy and Regional Cooperation.

Dr. Sarah Ozacky-Lazar Steering Committee member, PIPNF

Dr. Sarah Ozacky-Lazar got her PhD at Haifa University, Israel in Middle Eastern History, focusing on the internal relations between the Arab minority in Israel and the State. For over 20 years she has been engaged in work for peace, co- existence and dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians and has written extensively on these issues. Until 2004 she was the co-director of the Jewish-Arab Center for Peace at Givat Haviva, Israel, a Center that under her leadership won the UNESCO Prize for Peace Education in 2001. As of 2005 Dr. Ozacky-Lazar is a fellow researcher at the Center for Strategic Analysis and Policy Studies at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem as part of an international team doing research on women in the Middle East. She is also a member of “The Citizen’s Accord Forum” based in Jerusalem, an organization promoting citizens’ rights and equality between the Arab minority and the Jewish majority in Israel. She serves as a consultant to various NGOs working in this field in Israel and Palestine. She is a member the Board of NIF – New Israel Fund, an organization which promotes social justice and civil equality in Israel. She is also a member of the board of “The Alliance for New Humanity” a peace and environment human forum based in Puerto Rico. Dr. Ozacky-Lazar is active as a volunteer in several organizations and committees working for peace, community and social issues in Israel. She lives in Kibbutz Ramot Menashe with her husband and 2 children.

Mr. Ziad AbuZayyad Member, PIPNF Co-editor and publisher of the quarterly ‘Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics and Culture’, which he co-founded in 1994 with prominent Israeli journalist Victor Cygielman. Attorney-at-Law: Graduate of Damascus University 1965. Weekly columnist of Al-Quds Arabic daily newspaper. Former member of the (PLC) Palestinian Legislative Council (1996- 2006), former minister of state in the Palestinian Authority (1998-2002), and former Chair of the Legal Committee in the PLC ( 2002-2006 ). Deputy Chairman of the Political Committee of the Euro-Med Parliament (2004-2005). Head of the Palestinian delegation to the Middle East multilateral peace talks, the Arms Control and Regional Security Working Group (ACRS) (1994-6). AbuZayyad was an advisor to the Palestinian negotiating team in Washington D.C. (1992-1993) and a member of the post-Oslo negotiating team that concluded the Israeli-Palestinian “Cairo Agreement” (1994) that led to the establishment of the Palestinian Authority. He was imprisoned several times by Israeli authorities; the last was administrative detention for six months (Nov. 90/ May 91). Immediately after his release he joined the Palestinian team led by Faisal al-Husseini to negotiate with U.S. Secretary of State James Baker the arrangements for the Madrid Peace Conference (1991). In 1986, well before the Oslo Agreement, AbuZayyad founded the Palestinian bi-monthly Hebrew language journal Gesher (Bridge) of which he was publisher and editor (1986 - 1991). He is interviewed frequently by Israeli and international media on current issues of the Israeli- Palestinian conflict, and has participated in numerous regional and international conferences on the Arab-Israeli conflict and interfaith dialogue. AbuZayyad is co-author of The West Bank Political Lexicon (together with two prominent Israelis, Meron Benvenisti and Danny Rubinstein) and co-Editor of the book Islamophobia and Anti-Semitism (together with Hillel Schenker). AbuZayyad was born in April 1940; he is a resident of Eizariah (Bethany), a Palestinian suburb of East Jerusalem. He is married and the father of eight (four girls and four boys).

Ms. Maysa Baransi-Siniora

Palestinian from Nazareth, lives in Jerusalem. Finished her high school studies in Canterbury, UK. BA degree in Accounting and Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, MA in Electronic Engineering from City University. Worked for three years at Motorola and Hi-Tech Sector, then worked as a correspondent for the Voice of Love & Peace in Ramallah. In 2002, established the Radio station 'All for Peace Radio', where she is today the Executive Director of it.

Ms. Nisreen Abu-Zayyad

Palestinian from Jerusalem, double major BA degree in Philosophy & a combined degree in European History and Jewish History from the Hebrew Universitry in Jerusalem, MSc. Media & Communications Regulation from the London School of Economics and Political Science (No Award made), professional experience in media related work, conflict resolution. Since December 2008 she serves as the Coordinator of the Palestinian Israeli Peace NGO Forum.

Ms. Yael Patir Coordinator, PIPNF

Ms. Yael Patir joined the Peres Center for Peace in 2006 as the Assistant to the Director General. Yael took part in the establishment of the Palestinian-Israeli Peace NGO Forum, a network of some 100 Palestinian and Israeli peace and dialogue organization, where she serves as the Israeli coordinator since inception in January 2006.

Prior to her work at the Peres Center, Yael worked as a Teaching Assistant in the Political Science Department and Research Assistant at the Harold Hartog School for Government and policy, both at the Tel Aviv University. She graduated a specialized mediation course for political and civil society leaders. She is an elected delegate in Israeli party Meretz (Social-democrats) convention, elected member of Meretz young council.

She holds a BA Degree in Sociology, Anthropology, and Political Science from Tel Aviv University.