Negotiating Jerusalem. in Middle Eastern Studies at the Baker Institute

Sari Nusseibeh is president of Al-Quds University in East Jerusalem and the Diana Tamari Sabbagh Fellow in Middle Eastern Studies at the Baker Institute. Nusseibeh has extensive knowledge of the sensitive issues surrounding the Middle East through his work as a representative of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from 2001 to 2002, and his founding of the People"s Voice initiative, a nonpartisan civil initiative to advance the process of achieving peace between Israel and the Palestinians. The plan supports a two-state solution based on a return to 1967 borders, with Jerusalem as an open city. Nusseibeh is working under the aegis of the Baker Institute"s Conflict Resolution Program which is chaired by Ambassador Djerejian. The program includes the work of the institute"s Israeli-Palestinian Working Group, which is comprised of an Israeli team headed by Yair Hirschfeld, the Isaac and Mildred Brochstein Fellow in Middle East Peace and Security in Honor of Yitzhak Rabin, and a Palestinian team headed by Samih Abid, a former minister in the Palestinian Authority. Nusseibeh lives in Abu Dis, a Palestinian village bordering Jerusalem. He is also professor of Islamic philosophy at Al-Quds, Jerusalem"s Arab university. His presidency there began in 1995. The son of Palestinian parents and a native of Shaykh Jarrar, East Jerusalem, Nusseibeh has a BA in politics, philosophy, and economics from Christ Church in Oxford and a PhD in Islamic philosophy from Harvard University. His memoir, "Once Upon a Country: A Palestinian Life," was published in 2007. The New York Times described it as "one of the best personal accounts of the Israeli- Palestinian conflict ever written." Oct 2007.