Dr. Munther Dajani as a guest lecturer and partner for peace.

ISIME was honored to welcome Dr. Munther Dajani as a guest lecturer and partner for peace.

Dr. Dajani – who lives in East Jerusalem, and is Dean of the Faculty of Arts at Al-Quds University in the West Bank – provided warm hearted wisdom on the potential for peace between Israel and the Palestinians.  Dr. Dajani emphasized that peace is possible!  That it must be achieved by strong leaders.  And that there will always be extreme groups on both sides attempting to derail the peace process.  To let these extremists determine our agenda and define Israeli-Palestinian relations is not an option, and will only lead to continued conflict. 

Dr. Dajani spoke about the upcoming Annapolis peace summit.  Although inherently an optimist, Dr. Dajani shared concern over the ability of Prime Minister Olmert and Chairmen Abbas to lead the Israelis and Palestinians toward peace.  Dajani argued neither Olmert nor Abbas was in a strong enough political position to achieve reconciliation.

But most importantly Dr. Dajani shared his overall message of peace with the ISIME community.  He concluded by declaring, the Palestinians and Israelis must abandon their unattainable dreams (i.e. Palestinian full right of return and Israeli settlement of the West Bank) and unite in the mutual hope for peace.