History

The Institute for Palestine Studies was established in Beirut in 1963 and incorporated there as a private, independent, non-profit Arab institute unaffiliated with any political organization or government. It is led by a Board of Trustees composed of scholars, businessmen, and public figures from across the Arab world, and by a volunteer Executive Committee elected by the Board. The Institute's office in Washington, DC, was established in 1982, and it also has offices in Paris and London and an affiliate, the Institute of Jerusalem Studies, in East Jerusalem. Its full-time professional staff in these offices (administrators, researchers, translators, and support staff) number about 50. Over the years, the Institute's library, located in Beirut, became the largest in the Arab world specializing in Palestinian affairs, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and Judaica, and is now one of the finest anywhere. Convinced that knowledge of Hebrew and Israel are prerequisites for such study, IPS cosponsored, with the American University of Beirut, the first classes in modern Hebrew in the Arab world. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, it published a regular monthly digest in Arabic of unexpurgated translations from the Israeli press. IPS has continued this trend by translating Hebrew sources into Arabic. The Institute's first journal, Journal of Palestine Studies, was published in 1971 in Washington, DC, followed by Revue d’études palestiniennes in Paris in 1982, Majallat al-Dirasat al-Filastiniyah in London and Beirut in 1990, and Jerusalem Quarterly in Ramallah also in 1990. Throughout the Arab world, IPS is looked upon as the major source of accurate information and analysis on Palestinian affairs and the Arab-Israeli conflict and as a model of institutional organization and independence. In the English and French speaking worlds, its publications are widely respected and have become mandatory resources for anyone doing serious research on Palestine and the Arab-Israeli conflict.