The Case for Palestinian Empowerment, Especially Under Occupation

Date & Time Nov 16 2017 4:30 PM - 6:00 PM
Department Public Affairs and Communications
Speaker(s)
Salam Fayyad, Visiting Senior Research Scholar, Woodrow Wilson School; former Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority (2007-13) and former Finance Minister
Audience Open to the Public

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's administration said recently it had resumed security coordination with Israel in the occupied West Bank, frozen in July, and sought sole security control of the Gaza Strip, where Hamas forces dominate. What’s next for the region?

Princeton “Conversations About Peace” lecture series will continue on Thursday, Nov. 16, 2017, with a talk by Salam Fayyad, esteemed economist and former prime minister of the Palestinian Authority (2007-2013); visiting senior research scholar and the Daniella Lipper Coules ’95 Distinguished Visitor in Foreign Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School.

Fayyad’s talk is titled “The Case for Palestinian Empowerment, Especially Under Occupation.”

Fayyad was appointed prime minister in June 2007, holding the position until he stepped down in June 2013. Previously, he was appointed minister of finance in a national unity government in March 2007.

Prior to entering Palestinian politics, Fayyad was with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from 1987 to 2001, where his tenure included serving as IMF resident representative in the West Bank and Gaza Strip from 1996 to 2001. He then served as manager of the Arab Bank in Palestine. In June 2002, he was named minister of finance of the Palestinian Authority. Until he resigned in December 2005, Fayyad served in that capacity on several cabinets, introducing in the process extensive financial reforms. In January 2006, he ran for elections on a slate of independents and was elected for the Palestinian Legislative Council, where he served as chairman of the finance committee.

Fayyad is the founder of “Future for Palestine,” a nonprofit development foundation. He also is a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and a Distinguished Statesman with the Atlantic Council’s Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security. Fayyad holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Texas at Austin.

The “Conversations About Peace” lecture series is co-sponsored by the Mamdouha S. Bobst Center for Peace and Justice and the Woodrow Wilson School.