Israel – Architect Of 1993 Oslo Accords, Dead At 59

Israel – Ron Pundak, an architect of the 1993 Oslo accords died on Friday at the age of 59 after a lengthy battle with an illness.

Pundak was Chairman of the Israeli Peace NGOs Forum and was a former CEO of the Peres Center for Peace. He held a number of different positions in the IDF and military intelligence and in the early nineties served as a journalist for Ha’aretz.

Pundak was involved in the opening of the secret channels of communication between Israel and the PLO in Oslo that led to an official signing of accords between the two sides in Washington in September 1993.

President Shimon Peres mourned Pundak’s death on Friday saying that he was a “warrior for peace until his final breath.”

“He was a man of values, and an intellectual. He dedicated his entire adult life in efforts to achieve peace with our neighbors. For peace he was willing to sacrifice his life and dedicate every moment of his life,” Peres said.

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, who is also Israel’s representative to the current peace talks with the Palestinians, responded to Pundak’s death on Friday, writing on her Facebook page that there are heroes of war but Pundak was a hero of peace.

“A Zionist man that believed in peace and worked towards it and until his last day wished to contribute to achieving it without being deterred by extremists, cynics and the hopeless,” is how Livni described Pundak on Friday.

Head of Meretz Zehava Gal-On said Friday that Pundak showed that there was an alternative to the “extremist” policies of the Right and the policy that holds there is “no partner” on the Palestinian side.

“He taught us all that a creative, non-conservative and non-hesitant approach was required in order to achieve peace,” Gal-On said of Pundak.

Content is provided courtesy of the Jerusalem Post