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Professor Sari Nusseibah, President Al Quds University, East Jerusalem

Our meeting with Professor Nusseibah took place in an atmosphere of outstanding hospitality, the morning after a suicide bomb in Tel Aviv which killed more than 20 people. After an ‘incident’ very few students can get to campus. Some students support suicide attacks strategically; some oppose them strategically.

He told us that he took out an ad 6 months ago asking people to rethink the situation. I would like to make a number of points:

We’re stuck. We need people to have faith in life (not just after death) but in life post-conflict.

We need a miracle of faith. We need people to believe in peace as a fact and as a possibility.

Muslim intellectual and political life has been held captive since the Napoleonic invasion of Islamic countries.

Religion is as good or as bad as its practitioners.

Islamic intellectual xenophobia began with the Napoleonic invasion. We have been unjustly subjected to invasion. Many now see the US as ‘the enemy’.

People don’t see deeply enough into each other.

On the issue of democracy and dissent in Islam: These issues have many layers. Syria is an authoritarian regime, but it allows more secular ideas than Egypt, which is a freer regime.

The debate in the Arab and Islamic world between secular and religious voices is strong.

The scope of tolerating intellectual dissent is less now than it was several centuries ago.

The narratives of the Palestinians and the Jews are in conflict. Same characters, but opposite interpretation of same events.

The novel “The Rock” is helpful to understand some of the underlying issues which help to perpetuate the conflict.

I am trying to promote the people’s vote. I started “Vote for Peace” as a grassroots intellectual movement.

When asked if Arafat was duplicitous he said Arafat does not have one hand under the table and one on the peace document. But he has not done enough.

In speaking about the Palestinian Authority, Prof Nusseibah said that 1994-2000 was a period of major growth compared to the previous 20 years of occupation. But the major failure of the PA is corruption and not enough political progress on the peace talks.

“It’s never been so bad as now – unemployment, break-ins, malnutrition – it is the worst in my memory”

Palestinians can live on very little for a very long time, but the occupation is driving the economy ever lower.

In response to the question what can we as outsiders do, he told us: “Be agents of peace; keep on believing. Encourage one more step. You must believe in peace”