Washington D.C., April 26 – Today the American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP) cosponsored a discussion with Dr. Sari Nusseibeh on his new book Once Upon a Country, A Palestinian Life. The event at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace was cosponsored by The Foundation for Middle East Peace and the Middle East Institute.

Dr. Nusseibeh discussed his life, work and acclaimed new memoir. He spoke about the challenges of writing about peace under incarceration and the value of sincerity and candor in winning the respect of his opponents. “People are yearning to achieve the right of freedom,” he said, “and try to do so any way they know how.” Describing non-violence as “not only a way, but the way” to that freedom, Dr. Nusseibeh spoke of his hope and conviction that an independent Palestine could be born without force of arms. He also spoke of his desire to see the Palestinian people “work hand in hand with the Israelis to build a better future.”

American Task Force on Palestine President Dr. Ziad Asali praised Once Upon a Country, A Palestinian Life. “If you have but one book to read about the Palestinian story,” said Dr. Asali, “this is the book to read, with no reservations.” Leon Wieseltier wrote for the New York Times Sunday Book Review that Dr. Nusseibeh displayed a “refreshingly candid awareness that the reasons for the persistence of the Palestinians in their stateless misery are multiple and complicated.”

Dr. Sari Nusseibeh, a prominent Palestinian educator, political leader, writer and intellectual, has been deeply involved in the Palestinian national cause for decades. Educated at Oxford and Harvard, he is a leading advocate of a two-state peace in which both Palestinians and Israelis can fulfill their national aspirations in peace and dignity. He and former Israeli security chief Ami Ayalon cosponsored a two state peace initiative, "The People's Voice" in 2003 that gained hundreds of thousands of Israeli and Palestinian signatures.