Please give us a brief background about yourself.

Rami Nasrallah 1

Please give us a brief background about yourself.

My name is Rami Nasrallah, I am 36 years old. I was born in Jerusalem and live in Jerusalem. I am head of the International Peace Cooperation Center, a center for policy studies. I was in charge of the Israeli relations at Orient House and an advisor for Faisal Husseini on Israeli affairs for many years. I became close to Israeli decision makers, social activists, NGOs and to people in the field of civil society. My main work is with the Palestinian parliament, I am the director of the Jerusalem department. My work is part of a cumulative process. I am not here because I have no other choices. I have many options and I perform my work because I believe in what I do. At the IPPC we try, as much as possible, to build cooperative relations with Israeli centers in order to study the conflict, its results and its effects. We try to draft social policies regarding issues such as Jerusalem, dealing with issues of economy, infrastructure, community development, transportation and tourism. At the Center we formulate policies that concern peace as a way of life. I don't perform my work because I love peace, but rather because it is in the Palestinians' interest, a way we Palestinians can change our position, build a democratic society and a strong economy which will provide viability for the Palestinian state. All this can be achieved only through peace. In my opinion, peace is a means of achieving our goal: a modern and democratic civil society. Peace needs to be implemented as a way of life that creates change and improves people's standard of living, this is our aim.