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. Pundak was the executive director of the
Peres Center for Peace in
Tel Aviv-Yafo 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 worke ...
, 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 degr ...
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'' for one year.
Together with fellow academic
Yair Hirschfeld, he founded an NGO called the
Economic Cooperation Foundation
The Economic Cooperation Foundation (ECF, Heb.: הקרן לשיתוף פעולה כלכלי) was founded by Dr. Yair Hirschfeld (the initiator of the Oslo Peace Process), former Minister of Justice Dr. Yossi Beilin at the end of 1990 as a non-pr ...
(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-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