Victor Cygielman (1926-2007): Was the founding co-editor of Palestine-Israel Journal (1994-2000). Born in Poland and raised in Belgium, he participated in the Palmach in the 1948 war. Cygielman was a veteran Israeli journalist and foreign correspondent for Le Nouvel Observateur, Le Soir, New Outlook and other European and Israeli publications and a dedicated and long-time peace activist. He is one of the few people who predicted the possibility that Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin might be assassinated by opponents of the Oslo Accords.
Dan Leon (1925-2010): Was managing editor of Palestine-Israel Journal (1994-2001). He was a founder of Kibbutz Yasur, an editor of New Outlook, the author of The Kibbutz: A Portrait from Within (1964), The Kibbutz: A New Way of Life (1969) and editor of Who’s Left in Israel? (2004). From a Sephardi family, he was active in The Committee for Israeli-Palestinian Dialogue founded by Members of the Mizrachi Community.
Leila Dabdoub (1945-2013): Was managing editor of Palestine-Israel Journal (1994-2013). She was a lecturer in English literature and language at Bethlehem University, and spent her last 10 years in exile in Chile while continuing to work remotely with PIJ.
Simcha Bahiri (1927-2015): Was a specialist in peace economics and a founding member of the PIJ Editorial Board. He worked on economic conversion with Prof. Seymour Melman at Columbia University and was involved in the Armand Hammer Project for Middle East Economic Cooperation at Tel Aviv University. He served as a co-chair of IPCRI, and in 2009 initiated the Simcha Bahiri Youth Essay Prize Contest for essays about peace by Israeli and Palestinian youth aged 17-26. The contest resulted in the PIJ issue devoted to “The Next Generation: Young Palestinians and Israelis Look Towards the Future” (Vol. 16 No. 2, 2010). He published a number of books about the Palestinian economy, including Peace Pays: Palestinians, Israelis and the Regional Economy (1993).
Boas Evron (1927-2018): Was a journalist, author and intellectual and a founding member of the PIJ editorial board. Born in Jerusalem, he was a member of the left-wing of the Lehy underground and of the Canaanite movement, co-founder of the periodical Semitic Action. He wrote a column in the Ha’aretz daily, and for many years in the Yediot Ahronot daily together with other left-wing journalists like Amos Kenan, David Shaham and Ziva Yariv, nicknamed “Fatahland.” Among his books are Jewish Nation or Israeli State? (1995).
Ron Pundak (1955-2014): Was one of the two original Israeli participants in the secret channel that led to the Oslo Accords, together with Prof. Yair Hirshfeld. He was Executive of the Peres Center for Peace, one of the architects of the Geneva Initiative, the founding Israeli chair of the Israeli-Palestinian Peace NGO Forum alongside Palestinian chair Riyad al-Maliki and an active member of the PIJ editorial board. He was the author of Axis of Curiosity (2013) which tells the story of his family and his older brother Uri who was killed in the 1973 Yom Kippur War and of Secret Channel (2000), the behind the scenes story of the Oslo Process.
Ari Rath (1925-2017): Born in Vienna, and a founder of Kibbutz Hamadia, he was a close associate of Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, and served as Editor-In-Chief of The Jerusalem Post before it was taken over by right-wing elements led by financier Conrad Black’s Hollinger group in 1989. Rath was a founding member of The Next Century Foundation and an active member of the PIJ editorial board, He published an autobiography in German titled Auf dem Weg zum Frieden. Artikel und Essays aus fünf Jahrzehnten (2005).
Izzat Ghazzawi (1951 –2003): Was a Palestinian writer born in Deir al-Ghusun. He wrote about the sufferings of the Palestinian people and was arrested many times by Israeli authorities for “political activities.” He was a professor at Birzeit University and was awarded the Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought in 2001. He was the culture editor of Palestine-Israel Journal (1994-2000).
Kollie Friedstein (1921-2007): Born in Poland, he moved with his family to South Africa as a child while his older brother who stayed behind died in the Holocaust. He later became one of the founders of Kibbutz Shoval in the Negev desert. Moving to the city he became a successful industrialist, serving for a period as deputy chair of the Manufacturers Association while always maintaining his progressive views about peace and coexistence. He also served for a period as the chair of the Israeli Tennis Association when it was going through a difficult period. Friedstein served as chair of the board of New Outlook magazine, the Israeli peace monthly, and became an active supporter of Palestine-Israel Journal after it was co-founded by his friend journalist Victor Cygielman.
