Middle East Roundtable : bitterlemons.org

Bitterlemons.org is a website that presents Israeli and Palestinian viewpoints on prominent issues of concern. It focuses on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and peace process. It is produced, edited and partially written by Ghassan Khatib, a Palestinian, and Yossi Alpher, an Israeli. Its goal is to contribute to mutual understanding through the open exchange of ideas. Bitterlemons.org aspires to impact the way Palestinians, Israelis and others worldwide think about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Bitterlemons.org is directed toward the interested public and policymakers in the region and elsewhere. Each weekly edition of bitterlemons.org is posted on our website. Readers can obtain a free subscription by entering their email address in the space provided on the home page or by writing to subscribehtml@bitterlemons.org (for the HTML version) or subscribetext@bitterlemons.org (for the text version).


They now released The Best of Bitterlemons Five years of writings from Israel and Palestine (see attached .pdf file)


For five years, the bitterlemons family of internet publications has hosted a rare gathering of enemies and friends. From the neutral territory of the internet, our websites have sponsored important contemporary discussions on the Middle East peace process– crossing state boundaries, military lines and taboos–helping readers to understand the region’s complexities. The Best of Bitterlemons: Five years of writings from Israel and Palestine is a compilation book of the most prescient and important articles published through the bitterlemons family of publications. Creators and editors Yossi Alpher and Ghassan Khatib introduce this volume of 83 short essays and interviews touching on the most fundamental issues of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Contributors include former prime ministers, negotiators, military leaders and journalists, hailing largely from Israel and Palestine. The articles selected for publication in The Best of Bitterlemons faithfully reflect the diversity of authors and topics that characterizes bitterlemons, while telling the story of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a unique and informative way. This book was arranged by selecting some of the most interesting bitterlemons contributions and then grouping them into key issues, which appear as chapters. Any categorization is in essence a political act—the kind that bitterlemons on the web has studiously avoided. The issues explored under each heading are not exhaustive, but provide several windows into subjects that are important to both Palestinians and Israelis.

The bitterlemons family of publications was born in 2001 with the commencement of bitterlemons.org. The initial magazine sought to provide a neutral space on the internet for Palestinians and Israelis to present their views on equal footing. Each week, the Israeli and Palestinian editors invite others from their own respective communities to write or be interviewed for the publication, with the idea of presenting four very different views—two Israeli, two Palestinian—on an agreed upon topic.

In 2003, the project expanded to include bitterlemons-international.org, also a weekly publication of four articles or interviews on subjects important to the entire Middle East, and including contributors from all

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Ghassan Khatib
is minister of labor in the Palestinian Authority. He previously taught cultural studies at Birzeit University, and served as Director of the Jerusalem Media and Communication Center, which specializes in research, opinion polling and media affairs. He was a member of the Palestinian delegation for the Madrid Middle East Peace Conference in 1991 and the subsequent bilateral negotiations in Washington from 1991-93. He has an MA in Development Studies from Manchester University in the UK, and is completing his PhD in Middle East Politics at the University of Durham, UK. Before his apointment as minister, Khatib served on the boards of the Democracy and Workers Rights Center, Ramallah; the Friends School, Ramallah; the Israel-Palestine Journal, Jerusalem; and Palestinian Politics, Nablus.

Yossi Alpher
is a writer and consultant on regional strategic issues, and director of the Political Security Domain (PSD), an independent NGO. He has served as director and acting head of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, Tel Aviv University; as director of the American Jewish Committee's Israel/Middle East Office in Jerusalem; and as a senior official in the Mossad. While at the Jaffee Center, he coordinated and coedited the JCSS research project on options for a Palestinian settlement, and produced "The Alpher Plan" for an Israeli-Palestinian final settlement. Since 1992, he has coordinated several Track II dialogues between Israelis and Arabs. In July 2000 he served as special adviser to the prime minister of Israel, concentrating on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. In late 2001 he published (in Hebrew) And the Wolf Shall Dwell with the Wolf: the Settlers and the Palestinians.