Acknowledgments

Henry Siegman

Independent Task Force Report
Strengthening Palestinian Public Institutions

June 28, 1999

Council on Foreign Relations

 

The Council on Foreign Relations is indebted to the distinguished members of the Task Force for their careful review of and important contributions to the various drafts of this report. We thank members of the Experts Group for their dedicated and hard work at the many meetings in Ramallah, for their interviews with key Palestinian officials, and for their drafting contributions.

Because this project involved participants on three different continents, special thanks go to the Center for Palestine Research and Studies, which served as secretariat for the Project in the Territories, and especially to Olfat Hammad for her coordination of the meetings of the experts. The Center also produced an Arab-language version of the Executive Summary and the full report. My thanks also to Jonathan Paris, fellow at the U.S./Middle East Project, for his effective coordination among the various parties, and to my executive assistant, Barbara McCurtain.

Above all, I am indebted to Les Gelb, president of the Council, without whose counsel and support the work of the U.S./Middle East Project would not have been possible.

The Council on Foreign Relations acknowledges with gratitude the generous financial support given to this project by the European Commission and the government of Norway. Special thanks to Ambassador Miguel Angel Moratinos and Ambassador Terje Roed-Larsen for the constancy of their friendship and support, and to Michael Rocard for his balanced, wise, and steady chairmanship of the Task Force.

Henry Siegman, Project Director, Council on Foreign Relations