Dialogue on Middle East with former Palestinian negotiator and former Israel-based journalist at ISU on April 5

AMES, Iowa --A former Palestinian negotiator and former political journalist based in Israel, both now scholars based in Washington,D.C., will analyze current approaches to resolving the Middle East conflict during a panel discussion at Iowa State University. "The Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process" will be at 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 5, in the Memorial Union Great Hall. Part of the World Affairs Series, the talk is free and open to the public.

Ghaith al-Omari is the advocacy director of the American Task Force on Palestine in Washington, D.C. From 2005 to 2007, he was director of the International Relations Department in the office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. He was a legal and foreign policy advisor to the Palestinian negotiating team before and during the Camp David summit and Taba Talks. A lawyer by training, al-Omari is a graduate of Georgetown and Oxford universities. He previously taught international law in Jordan and was active in human rights advocacy.

As the Ziegler Distinguished Fellow at the Washington Institute, David Makovsky directs its Project on the Middle East Peace Process. He previously was a journalist in Israel, covering the peace process for many years. Makovsky is the former executive editor of the Jerusalem Post, former diplomatic correspondent at Haaretz, Israel's leading daily, and was the U.S. News and World Report Jerusalem correspondent for 11 years. He is author or co-author of Washington Institute monographs on issues related to the Middle East peace process and the Arab-Israeli conflict.

John Murray will moderate the discussion. For the past nine years, Murray was external adviser to the Palestinian Negotiation Support unit, a legal and policy unit. He specializes in training and coaching individuals in public and non-governmental organizations as they address communal conflict, with particular attention to water and other natural resource concerns. Murray also teaches international conflict management at Johns Hopkins University's School for Advanced International Studies, and previously taught international law and negotiation at the American University in Cairo. From 1973 to 1982, he served three terms as an Iowa state senator from Ames.

The panel discussion is cosponsored by the International Studies Program, LAS Miller Lecture Funds, World Affairs and the Committee on Lectures, which is funded by the Government of the Student Body. More information on ISU lectures is available at http://www.lectures.iastate.edu, or by calling 515-294-9935.