Israeli Minister Sharansky to Speak June 1

Israeli Minister Sharansky to Speak June 1

By Michael Cinelli

Rice News Staff

Minister of Industry and Trade for Israel Natan Sharansky will
address economic issues and the Middle East peace process during an
appearance at Rice’s James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy
on Sunday, June 1.

Sharansky, who is charged with expanding economic ties for Israel
throughout the world, will speak on the topic “Economics and
Politics: The Middle East and the Peace Process” starting at 3:45
p.m. in the Commons Area of the Baker building. Attendance at the
program is by invitation only.

“Natan Sharansky has bridged two entirely different
worlds&emdash;the repressive Soviet Union and Israel’s open and
democratic society where he represented the political aspirations of
Israel’s immigrants,” said Edward Djerejian, director of the Baker
Institute. “He is playing a key role in Prime Minister Netanyahu’s
government, and we look forward to his insights on the prospects for
Arab-Israeli peace, trade and economic development.”

Sharansky was elected to Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, in May
1996, as leader of the Immigrant Party Yisrael ba’Aliya, which was
established in 1995.

He rose to international prominence as Russia’s most famous
“refusnik”&emdash;or prisoner of conscience&emdash;who spent 13 years
in solitary confinement and hard labor in a Siberian prison for
establishing a human rights organization with Andrei Sakharov.

Sharansky’s appearance on campus will be the latest in a series of
international leaders visiting Rice to deliver major speeches. In
February, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright presented her
first major foreign policy address outside of Washington, D.C. on
campus. In March, Yasir Arafat, president of the Palestine National
Authority, spoke on the prospects of the Middle East peace process
during his visit here.