Rami George Khouri (born 22 October 1948) is a journalist and editor with

Palestinian Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...

background and joint

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

ian and

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

citizenship. He was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

to an Arab

Palestinian Christian Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...

family. His father, George Khouri, a Nazarene journalist in what was the

British mandate of Palestine British Mandate of Palestine or Palestine Mandate most often refers to: * Mandate for Palestine: a League of Nations mandate under which the British controlled an area which included Mandatory Palestine and the Emirate of Transjordan. * Mandatory P ...

, had traveled with his wife to New York in 1947 to cover the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

(UN) debates about the future of Palestine. His family resides in

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

, Amman, and Nazareth. He is also a highly regarded public speaker. After attending secondary school at the

International School of Geneva The International School of Geneva (in French: ''Ecole Internationale de Genève''), also known as "Ecolint" or "The International School", is a private, non-profit international school based in Geneva, Switzerland. Founded in 1924 in the servic ...

in Switzerland Rami Khouri returned to the US to complete his education. Khouri has served for many years as the chief umpire for Little League Baseball in Jordan.

Career

In 1971, Khouri began his career working as a reporter for the English-language newspaper '' The Daily Star'' in Beirut, Lebanon. From 1972 to 1973, Khouri continued writing columns for the paper while working as managing editor of Middle East Sketch magazine. Following a year in the United States as program administrator for the Division of International Programs Abroad at Syracuse University, Khouri returned to Beirut to become managing editor of ''Middle East Money'' in Beirut from 1973 to 1974. He then moved to Amman, Jordan, where he served as editor-in-chief of Jordan's English-language daily, the ''Jordan Times'', from 1975 to 1982 and again from 1987 Khouri is former director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs (IFI) at the American University of Beirut. His journalistic work includes writing books and an internationally syndicated column by progressive commentary agency Agence Global, founded by

Jahan Salehi Jahan Salehi is an Iranian-American entrepreneur and progressive activist, He has worked for Agence Global, a left-leaning news and commentary syndicate, and as Managing Director of the Los Angeles Times Syndicate's European operations (now part o ...

. Khouri also serves as editor at large of the Beirut-based '' Daily Star'' newspaper, published throughout the Middle East with the '' International Herald Tribune''. He had hosted "Encounter", a weekly current affairs talk show on Jordan Television, and "Jordan Ancient Cultures", a weekly archaeology program on Radio Jordan. Khouri was a Nieman Journalism Fellow at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

(2001–2002), nonresident senior fellow of the Dubai Initiative at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, John F Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University and was appointed a member of the

Brookings Institution The Brookings Institution, often stylized as simply Brookings, is an American research group founded in 1916. Located on Think Tank Row in Washington, D.C., the organization conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in e ...

Task Force on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World. Khouri is a research associate at the Program on the Analysis and Resolution of Conflict at the Maxwell School, Syracuse University (NY, USA), a Fellow of the

Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs The Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs (PASSIA) was founded in Jerusalem in March 1987 by Dr. Mahdi Abdul Hadi and a group of Palestinian academics and intellectuals. PASSIA is a member of the Palestinian NGOs N ...

, Jerusalem (PASSIA), and a member of the Leadership Council of the Harvard University Divinity School. Khouri also serves on the board of the EastWest Institute, the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University and the National Museum of

. He was executive editor of the ''Daily Star'' newspaper from 2003 to 2005, and had been the editor in chief of the ''

Jordan Times ''The Jordan Times'' is an English-language daily newspaper based in Amman, Jordan. History Established in 1975, ''The Jordan Times'' is owned by the Jordan Press Foundation, a shareholding company which also runs the Arabic-language daily '' ...

'' for seven years before that. He also wrote for many years from Amman, Jordan for leading international publications, including the ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Ni ...

'', the ''

Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'' and the ''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large na ...

''. For 18 years he was general manager of Al Kutba, publishers, in Amman, and has served as a consultant to the Jordanian tourism ministry on biblical archaeological sites. He often comments on Mideast issues in the international media, and lectures frequently at conferences and universities throughout the world. In the fall of 2017 Khouri was a visiting professor at Villanova University.

Views on the Arab-Israeli conflict

Khouri believes that "allocating blame" is counterproductive. Writing for the '' Daily Star'', he states that "We end up with a situation in which it becomes easy for Arabs to blame Israel and the Western powers for the problems of our region." He believes that "the truth is in between, with Arab, Israel and Western actors all having to share the blame for contributing to the distressing conditions that define the Arab world."

Awards and personal life

Khouri was the 2004 winner of the Eliav-Sartawi Awards for Middle East Journalism in the Arab Press category In November 2006, he was the co-recipient of the

Pax Christi International Peace Award The Pax Christi International Peace Award is given out every year since 1988 by the Christian peace organisation Pax Christi to other peace organisations and peace activists. The focus lies on grassroots activists and organisations that are active ...

for his efforts to bring peace and reconciliation to the Middle East. He has BA (1970) and MSc (1998) degrees respectively in political science and mass communications from Syracuse University, New York, and is married to Ellen Kettaneh. They have two grown sons.Georgetown University
, School for Foreign Service in Qatar

Published works

*''The Antiquities of the Jordan Rift Valley'' Published by Al Kutba, 1988 , * ''Petra: A Guide to the Capital of the Nabataeans'' Published by Longman, 1986 , * ''Jerash: A Frontier City of the Roman East'' Published by Longman, 1986 , * ''The Jordan Valley: Life and Society Below Sea Level'' Published by Longman, 1981 , * ''USAID and the Private Sector in Jordan: A Chronicle : the Genesis, August 1985-August 1988'' Published by USAID, 1989 * ''The View from East of the Jordan'' Published by Center for Policy Analysis on Palestine, 1998 * ''Aqaba: port of Palestine on the China Sea'' Co-author Rami G. Khouri and Donald S. Whitcomb Published by Al Kutba, 1988 * ''Islamic Banking: Knotting a New Network'' Published by Aramco, 1987 * ''For Those who Share a Will to Live: Perspectives on a Just Peace in the Middle East'' Published by Resource Center for Nonviolence, 1985

Footnotes

External links