Ron Pundak ( he, רון פונדק; 14 May 1955 – 11 April 2014) was an Israeli historian and journalist. He played an important role in starting the
Oslo peace process
The Oslo Accords are a pair of agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO): the Oslo I Accord, signed in Washington, D.C., in 1993; in 1993, and was part of the core group behind the
Geneva Initiative
The Geneva Initiative, also known as the Geneva Accord, is a draft ''Permanent Status Agreement'' to end the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, based on previous official negotiations, international resolutions, the Quartet Roadmap, the Clinton Pa ...
. Pundak was the executive director of the
Peres Center for Peace
The Peres Center for Peace, located in Jaffa, Israel, is an independent non-profit, non-governmental, and non-political organization founded in 1996 by Nobel Peace Laureate and former President of Israel Shimon Peres. Its aim is to further Pere ...
in
Tel Aviv-Yafo
Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...
and co-chairman of its Palestinian-Israeli Peace NGO Forum. He was on the board of directors of the
Aix Group.
Background
Ron Pundak was born in Tel Aviv. His parents are Danish Jewish immigrants from Denmark. He was the son of
Herbert Pundik
Herbert Pundik or Nahum Pundak ( he, נחום פונדק; September 23, 1927 – December 8, 2019) was a Danish-Israeli journalist and author. He worked for the newspaper Information and as a correspondent for Danmarks Radio. Since 1965, he worked ...
, a Danish-Israeli journalist and author. In 1991 Pundak graduated from the
University of London
The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...
with a PhD in Middle Eastern Political History.
Career
After his return to Israel, he worked as a journalist at the Israeli daily newspaper ''
Ha'aretz
''Haaretz'' ( , originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , ) is an Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel, and is now published in both Hebrew and English in the Berliner ...
'' for one year.
Together with fellow academic
Yair Hirschfeld
Prof. Yair Hirschfeld is an Israeli lecturer at the University of Haifa. Prof. Hirschfeld was a key architect of the Oslo Accords in 1993. He was born in Vienna and has been a strong supporter of the two-state solution, and has urged the Palestin ...
, he founded an NGO called the
Economic Cooperation Foundation (ECF), through which they established relationships with Palestinian leaders, which eventually led to the Oslo peace process. In 2001 Pundak became director general of the Peres Center for Peace in Tel Aviv-Yafo,
a position he held until 2011.
Personal life
Pundak died age 58 on 11 April 2014 after a long period with cancer.
Ron Pundak, architect of Oslo Accords, dies at 59
/ref>
References
External links
Bio at the Peres-Center
Aix Group
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pundak, Ron
1955 births
2014 deaths
Alumni of the University of London
Israeli Jews
Israeli journalists
People from Tel Aviv
Israeli people of Danish-Jewish descent