What Is a Palestinian State Worth?

Sari Nusseibeh, geboren 1949, ist seit 1995 Präsident der Al-Quds-Universität, der einzigen arabischen Universität in Jerusalem, an der er auch Philosophie lehrt. Von 2001 bis 2002 war er Statthalter der PLO in Jerusalem und ist seit Jahren auf vielfältige Weise in den Friedensprozess involviert. Er lebt mit seiner Familie in Jerusalem. 2003 wurde er mit dem Lew-Kopelew-Preis für Frieden und Menschenrechte ausgezeichnet. Im Jahr 2010 erhielt er den Siegfried Unseld Preis.

Palestinians live in Israel (or under Israeli occupation) without freedom, legal rights, resources, under the constant threat of state violence; Israelis, living under the constant threat of terrorist violence, are also trapped. Nusseibeh recommends reframing the conflict and advocates that negotiators look beyond the conference room to focus on the reality in the homes and streets of Palestinians and Israelis, and envision a collective peace, progress, and safety. Nusseibeh makes a number of tentative stabs at envisioning possible solutions, and his philosophical and balanced book is unfailingly sensitive and empathetic to both sides. Publishers Weekly 20101122 Nusseibeh's informal style, urgent and passionate, and especially his call to sit down with the enemy, will engage all sides in intense debate. -- Hazel Rochman Booklist 20110101 Sari Nusseibeh repeatedly expresses his belief that change is possible if people have the self-confidence and faith in themselves to act. He sees his task as an educator to be one of inculcating such faith. And he also describes, in several chapters of his often moving book, a moral basis for political action that can speak to all of us. Like Gandhi, and like Abdallah Abu Rahmah and Ali Abu Awwad...Nusseibeh seeks not to coerce his opponents--in this case the Israeli people along with their political and military institutions--into changing their self-destructive course but to change their will, or their feelings. He wants them to step back from prejudice and an obsession with brute force and to open their eyes. He wants them to find in themselves the generosity of spirit needed in order to take a chance on peace, whether in the form of two states or a single binational entity or, perhaps, some kind of confederation. -- David Shulman New York Review of Books 20110224 Sari Nusseibeh is not a Palestinian Gandhi--he is a secular intellectual, not a saint, and while he has occupied prominent roles in Palestinian life (formerly as a