Palestinian peace campaigner and writer. Samir, a most dedicated Palestinian peace activist, was a key figure behind the Israeli-Palestinian Geneva Accords, a joint initiative launched in December 2003, to posit solutions to the vexed issues of Jerusalem, refugees, settlements and borders. A journalist turned official spokesman for the Palestinian Authority, Samir continued to co-ordinate a Palestinian Peace Coalition, and established his own think-tank, the Jerusalem Institute for Peace Studies. Samir believed in non-violence the most effective way to fight Israeli occupation because violence provides pretexts to rightwing Israeli to destroy the option of an independent Palestinian state. Rantissi began writing for local papers in early 1990s, while acting as consultant to the US Consulate and foreign media organisations in east Jerusalem. Since 1994, he was senior advisor to PA minister of cultural and information, minister of cabinet affairs thereafter and chief Palestinian sponsor of the Geneva Accords. His first book, A Different Narrative Of The Palestinian Struggle, is due to be published in 2005. Samir Rantissi, who was born in Al-Bireh, was murdered at his home in Ramallah.