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 ...

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
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References

External links

Bio at the Peres-CenterAix 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