Shaul Arieli, born in Ashkelon (1959) undertook his academic studies at Tel Aviv University, including a BA in Political Science and an MA in Management Studies. 

Arieli served as commander of a brigade in the Gaza Strip. As part of his military service, he was responsible for the preparation of the official negotiations with the Palestinians, as head of the Interim Agreement Administration under the Rabin government, and head of the Peace Administration in the Barak Government. Since retiring from the IDF in 2001, Arieli has dedicated himself to advancing an Israeli- Palestinian permanent status agreement, and was amongst the leading negotiators in the process that brought about the Geneva Initiative in December 2003.

In recent years, Arieli has been active in a wide array of activities aimed at renewing the political process and upholding ethical standards in the IDF’s actions in the Palestinian territories. He assists by advising in legal campaigns and providing expert opinions to different organizations and authorities. In a number of petitions to the High Court of Justice against the delineation of the separation barrier, Arieli has acted as a “Friend of the Court” in his capacity as a board member of the Council for Peace and Security. Lately, he has embarked upon a public campaign against the “Leiberman Plan” and the idea of including a “population exchange” in a permanent status agreement with the Palestinians.

Arieli has made dozens of appearances in the media, and has conducted hundreds of lectures and field tours for people from different sectors of Israeli society, mainly public figures, academics, security officials and journalists. Furthermore he has published dozens academic articles in both Hebrew and English, in the fields of Management and the Israeli-Palestinian political process, and has also published many newspaper opinion pieces. His last book, “The Wall of Folly”‘ came out in 2008 .