16 Facts About Sari Nusseibeh

Sari Nusseibeh is a Palestinian professor of philosophy and former president of the Al-Quds University in Jerusalem.

In 2008, in an open online poll, Nusseibeh was voted the 24th most influential intellectual in the world on the list of Top 100 Public Intellectuals by Prospect Magazine and Foreign Policy.

Moshe Amirav reports Sari Nusseibeh as quipping, nonetheless, when replying in the negative to a query about his family's possession of the keys, that:'No, there is no longer any need for it.

Sari Nusseibeh was born in Damascus, Syria, to the politician Anwar Sari Nusseibeh who was a distinguished statesman, prominent in Palestinian and Palestinian-Jordanian politics and diplomacy.

Sari Nusseibeh returned to the West Bank in 1978 to teach at Birzeit University.

Sari Nusseibeh is co-founder of the Federation of Employees in the Education Sector for all of the West Bank.

Sari Nusseibeh has long been viewed as a Palestinian moderate.

Sari Nusseibeh was an important leader during the First Intifada, authoring the Palestinian Declaration of Principles and working to strengthen the Fatah movement in the West Bank; Sari 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.

Sari Nusseibeh was adopted as a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International.

Sari Nusseibeh was released without charge shortly after the end of the war, after 90 days of imprisonment in Ramle Prison.

Sari Nusseibeh was not politically active during much of the Oslo Peace Process but was appointed as the PLO Representative in Jerusalem in 2001.

In 2008, Sari Nusseibeh said that the quest for the two-state solution was floundering.

Sari Nusseibeh called on Palestinians to start a debate on the idea of a one-state solution.

Sari Nusseibeh is head and founder of the Palestinian Consultancy Group, co-founder and member of several Palestinian institutions including the Jerusalem Friends of the Sick Society, the Federation of Employees in the Education Sector in the West Bank, the Arab Council for Public Affairs, the Committee Confronting the Iron Fist, and the Jerusalem Arab Council.

Sari Nusseibeh is on the advisory board of The International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life at Brandeis University.

Internationally, Sari Nusseibeh is a member of the McGill Middle East Program's Executive and Management Committees.