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Interview Questions for Dr. Ron Pundak

Please tell me about your background and how you first became involved in peace work.

Was there a particular moment when you realized that you wanted to be working on Israeli-Palestinian issues?

The Peres Center is independent and non-partisan even though it has Peres’s name on it?

Can you talk about why you wanted to make the switch from the more political work to the grassroots?

What were some of the differences in your approach when you joined the Peres Center?

Why did you think it was so important to work within civil society organizations and not just through the government?

What’s the biggest challenge in bringing the societies together right now?

You mentioned that you bring people together who don’t necessarily vote in the same sort of way or think politically in the same way. Does that ever present challenges for people to sit down and just talk about business or the matter at hand?

You were directly involved in the Oslo process. What’s your insight into what happened in Oslo, and why we are where we are now, in terms of the peace process?

What has to happen differently next time in a negotiation process and who has to do it?

You’re talking about the political level, obviously, but you’re working on the grassroots level. So how do you see the relationship between those two areas?

Where do you see that people have not lost hope that a solution is possible?

How do you explain that since the beginning of the intifada more people now want to participate in dialogue?

Has this work brought you to the West Bank?

Do Palestinians work at the Peres Center?

What do you do within the organization to ensure equality and understanding among the staff?

How has the conflict affected your life, your personal life?

What kind of criticism do you face?

Do you see signs of success?

As the director of a huge organization, do you have a strategy for identifying the parts of the societies that you most need to reach here on the Israeli side?

How do you think international audiences could be involved here constructively?

What does the word peace mean to you?

Do you have fears associated with the conflict?

What is your worst case scenario?

Do you mean that now it’s possible to say two-state solution, whereas before it wasn’t?

What is the most important thing for you to achieve?