Chairman of the Board
Dr. Sapir Handelman
Sapir Handelman is the Chairman of the Board of Minds of Peace and a negotiation moderator. Sapir founded the Minds of Peace in 2009 based on his concepts of conflict resolution in intractable conflicts. Sapir has successfully implemented Israeli-Palestinian public negotiating assemblies, called Minds of Peace Experiments, in a number of bilateral divided communities both inside and outside the region. These include public groups from Israel and Palestine assembled in Beit Jala, as well, as expatriate Israeli-Palestinian communities in Detroit, Los Angeles, Irvine, Chicago in the United States, and Windsor Canada. Sapir is the co-laureate of the 2010 Peter Becker Award for Peace and Conflict Studies in recognition of his efforts and academic contribution. Sapir is the editor and co-author of “The Minds of Peace Experiment: Public Diplomacy and People to People Negotiation” currently in preparation, which details the theory behind Minds of Peace, and the author of two books: “Thought manipulation: the use and abuse of psychological trickery” (Praeger) and “Conflict and Peacemaking in Israel-Palestine: Theory and Application” (Routledge). Sapir has also authored articles in International Journal of Conflict Management, International Negotiation, Middle East Policy and others. Sapir is a visiting professor at the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies at Wayne State University, the 3 times Lentz Fellow in Peace and Conflict Resolution Research, and an associate at Harvard University.
Strategy and Management
Ofer Lidror
Ofer is a businessman and a high-tech entrepreneur. In 2010 he was awarded the International Award for Technological Innovation – Interterpic.
Ofer has been active in “Minds of Peace” for four years and his motivation and High spirit promotes the objectives of the organization and contributes his thought creative and managerial experience in its continuing operations.
Treasury
Miki Dotan
Owner & c.o. of the Third Ear (“Haozen hashlishit”) – a well-known brand in music and film.
Miki is an entrepreneur and a partner in several start-ups.
Studied and taught Economics and Philosophy at Tel Aviv University.
Former owner of record stores in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.
Lives in Tel-Aviv.
For the past two years, he is a peace-activist in Minds of Peace as he believes in resolving the conflict through dialogue between equals.
Palestinian Coordinator
Ibrahim Enbawi
Ibrahim Enbawi is a negotiations moderator. Ibrahim has been responsible for organizing the Palestinian delegations for Israeli-Palestinian public negotiations congresses, which were held in open and central public places in Israel. Ibrahim has been instrumental in bringing Palestinians from all walks of life to the negotiating table, including some that spent a major part of their lives in Israeli jails for resisting the occupation. As a moderator he helped to bring citizen delegates to peace agreements that addresses the most difficult and sensitive issues, such as borders, Jerusalem, security and refugees.
Ibrahim has served as the field director of a number of grassroots organizations in the past 10 years, notably the Arik Institute for Reconciliation, Tolerance & Peace (2004-2007 ), Hand in Hand (Yad B’yad) (2010-2011) and All Palestine Youth Commission (2011-2013). Ibrahim was in charge of building relationships between Israelis and Palestinian people, elites and leaders. In 2006, Ibrahim created the first contacts between the Israeli government under Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the leadership of Hamas in relation to the kidnapped Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit.
Since 2010 Ibrahim has been working on building peaceful relationships between Israeli settlers and Palestinians. Significantly, he arranged several meetings between Israeli settlers from the movement Eretz Shalom and Palestinian leaders, such as the president Abu Mazen and the governor of Bethlehem. The main purpose was to explore the possibility that settlers will remain in their places and live under Palestinian sovereignty after a peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority will be achieved.
Ibrahim has spent one year of his life in an Israeli jail for resisting the occupation. In addition his brother and uncle were killed by the IDF. Nevertheless, he decided to dedicate a major part of his life to peace activities in the hopes of putting an end to the conflict. In May 2013, Ibrahim was a participant in the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP), which is the U.S. Department of State’s premier professional exchange program.