Page 9 - Climate Conference - EBook 2023: Al-Qasemi Academy

participation, local government and urban management. He has published in English,
Hebrew and Arabic in local and international journals. Prof. Khamaisi received his PhD in
Geography (1993) from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, MSc (1985) from the Technion -
Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa and a BA in Geography from the Ben Gurion University,
Beer Sheva (1981). He is a member of various professional international and local
associations and NGO's involved in public and environmental policy issues, planning and
development. Khamaisi was elected at 2007 as President of the Israeli Geographical
Association. He is the manager of a private company (Center for Planning and Studies),
which engages in urban and strategy planning and management. Khamaisi has received
the "Yakir haTichnun” decoration for the year 2012– a notable recognition of the Israeli
Association of Planners. Since November 2013- October 2017 Khamaisi also held the
position of Head of Jewish-Arab Center at Haifa University between 2013-2017. Between
October 2017 – September 2018, he was a visiting professor/researcher at Queen
University Belfast, and the Technical University of Berlin. Throughout his career, Khamaisi
has adopted the notion of planner as ‘Initiator’ and ‘Social Changer’. He have sought to
combine research with practice in order to enrich both. His focus and orientation is
three-dimensional: academic, professional and public service on the international, national
and local levels, with the aim of promoting social change, community sustainability and
peace building. In terms of peace building, he is familiar with various alternative dispute
management methodologies.