October 15, 2007

Dr. Afif Safieh, the head of the Palestine Liberation Organization Mission to the United States, will offer his perspective on the Arab-Israeli conflict in a lecture at 2 p.m. Friday, Nov. 2, in Trinity Chapel in the Durham Center on the Dana College campus in Blair, Neb. The free event is open to the public and hosted by Dana’s Nebraskans for Peace organization.

Safieh, whose talk is titled “Justice: The Critical Element for Lasting Peace in the Holy Land,” is one of the leading diplomats of Palestine, having represented the Palestinian state in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and now the United States, where he was appointed in 2005 to his post at the PLO Mission in Washington, D.C. The mission serves as the Palestinian embassy in the United States.

Among his other notable appointments, Safieh served from 1978 to 1981 as a staff member in the office of Yasser Arafat, former chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, in Beirut, Lebanon. He also participated in the 1988 historic meetings in Stockholm that paved the way for the U.S. recognition of the PLO.

A native of Jerusalem, Safieh holds graduate and post-graduate degrees in international relations and political science.

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For more information, contact:

Carrie L. Reed, Director of College Relations and Marketing,
402-426-7385, creed@dana.edu