Jerusalem

by Sari Nusseibeh

Jerusalem -- forever the city of tribulations and sorrows? For Sari Nusseibeh of Al-Quds University, the answer is not necessarily yes. In her booklet simply titled "Jerusalem," Nusseibeh outlines what she believes to be two potential and quite possible resolutions to the question of the division of the city between the Palestinians and the Jews. With regard to all aspects of life -- historical, political, cultural, and religious, she weaves a design intended to be viable and fair to all inhabitants. A fascinating viewpoint for those interested in the future of the great city of Jerusalem.

13 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Sari Nusseibeh (Arabic: سري نسيبة‎)is a Palestinian professor of philosophy and president of the Al-Quds University in Jerusalem. Until December 2002 he was the representative of the Palestinian National Authority in Jerusalem.

Nusseibeh was born to the politician Anwar Nusseibeh who was a distinguished statesman, prominent in Palestinian and (after 1948) Palestinian-Jordanian politics and diplomacy, and Nuzha Al Ghussein, who descended from Palestine's wealthy landed aristocracy and is the daughter of Palestinian political leader Yaqub al-Ghusayn. Nusseibeh studied philosophy at Christ Church, Oxford and has a Ph.D. in Islamic Philosophy, from Harvard University (1978).

He returned to the West Bank in 1978 to teach at Birzeit University (where he remained as Professor of Philosophy until the University was closed from 1988 to 1990 during the First Intifada). At the same time, he taught classes in Islamic philosophy at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Through the early 1980s, he helped to organize the teachers' union at Birzeit, and served three terms as president of the union of faculty and staff there. Nusseibeh is also co-founder of the Federation of Employees in the Education Sector for the entire West Bank.

The Nusseibeh family are trustees, according to tradition, for the key to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

Nusseibeh was an important leader during the First Intifada, authoring the Palestinian Declaration of Principles and working to strengthen the Fatah movement in the Occupied Territories; Nusseibeh helped to author the "inside" Palestinians' declaration of independence issued in the first intifada, and to create the 200 political committees and 28 technical committees that were intended to as an embryonic infrastructure for a future Palestinian administration .

Internationally, Nusseibeh is a member of the McGill Middle East Program's Executive and Management Committees. In November 2007, following the publication of Once Upon a Country: A Palestinian Life he travelled to Montreal, Canada to lecture on the MMEP and his vision of peace.