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Cap. Hill Forum with Israeli, Palestinian, & Int'l Economists to Discuss Future Economic Relations Between Israel & Palestinians After Disengagement

Americans for Peace Now (APN) and the American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP) will host a Capitol Hill briefing on Tuesday, September 20

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - September 14, 2005

CONTACT: Lewis Roth/APN (202) 728-1893; Nino Kader/ATFP
(202) 887-0177

Washington, D.C.-Americans for Peace Now (APN) and the American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP) will host a Capitol Hill briefing next week with members of the Aix Group, a cadre of Israeli, Palestinian, and international experts who have been working together since 2002 to develop proposals for future economic relations between Israel and the Palestinians. They will be discussing their latest economic proposals for both sides in the post-disengagement period. The participants in the forum will include: Professor Gilbert Benhayoun, Chair of the Aix Group; Professor Arie Arnon, the Israeli Coordinator of the Aix Group's most recent paper and an economist at Ben-Gurion University; Dr. Ron Pundak, Director General of the Peres Center for Peace; Saeb Bamya, the Palestinian Coordinator of the latest Aix Group paper and an economist; and Dr. Salahaldin Abdelshafi, a Palestinian economic consultant and observer of the Aix Group.

The event will be held from 10:45 a.m.-11:45 a.m. on Tuesday, September 20, 2005, in Room 1116 of the Longworth House Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. Reporters are invited to attend. For more information, please contact Lewis Roth/APN at (202) 728-1893 or Nino Kader/ATFP at (202) 887-0177.

About the Aix Group:
These economists were originally brought together under the auspices of Professor Gilbert Benhayoun of the University of Law, Economics and Sciences of Aix-Marseilles III, who organized an international workshop-the Potential of Economic Cooperation in the Middle East: the Israeli-Palestinian Perspective-in Aix-en-Provence in July 2002. A workgroup was created after this seminar called the Aix Group, which has focused on addressing economic questions related to future permanent arrangements between the two sides and creating a forum for discussing and analyzing different scenarios and propositions.

The Aix Group initially worked on developing an economic framework to complement the political process started by the Road Map to Middle East peace. In January 2004, it published a paper entitled, Economic Road Map. Since then the group has continued to meet and develop plans for short-term and long-term economic issues. As a result of these ongoing efforts, it published a paper earlier this year called, Israel and Palestine: Between Disengagement and the Economic Road Map.

The Aix Group is comprised of Israeli and Palestinian academics, members of Israeli and Palestinian economic organizations, as well as participants from official institutions (acting as observers), particularly from ministries dealing with the economic sector. In addition, the Aix Group includes international experts, academics, and members of international institutions, like the European Union and the World Bank, who also act as observers.