A Call for Peace and Joint Action
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
A Call for Peace and Joint Action - was recently drafted by a group of Israeli and Palestinian activists. We joined together as Individuals and not as representatives of any organizations. A partial list of the initial Palestinian and Israeli supporters follows the text of the appeal.
If you are a Palestinian or an Israeli ONLY ( living in Palestine, Israel or the Diaspora), you are invited to join this Call for Peace.
After the collection of a signifficant amount of signatures we will publish the text in Israeli and Palestinian papers*, and will try to initiate relevant activities to forward and realize our vision.
Israelis and Palestinians ONLY who wish to join - please mail your full name and place of residence to:
ye_harel@netvision.net.il
Yehudith Harel
(* we will ask you to cover the expenses of the publication...)
A Call for Peace
We, Israelis and Palestinians, wish to state at these critical moments, that while war is always a tragedy by itself, this illegal and frightful American war on Iraq could lead to a terrible setback to the hopes and expectations of a just Palestinian-Israeli peace. Especially so, if the extremist Sharon government, which strongly supports this war, will use this opportunity to undertake its dreadful design against the Palestinian people living under the Israeli occupation.
The experience of more than 50 years of conflict between the State of Israel and the Palestinian people proves, beyond a shadow of doubt, that the problem cannot be solved by force. The continued occupation creates resistance to it in various forms. Therefore, the occupation is responsible for the suffering of both Palestinians and Israelis, condemning them to a life of physical insecurity, economic crisis and social disintegration.
At the same time, we wish to express our profound concern about the incidents of extreme violence, resulting from the intensification of the Israeli military occupation of the Palestinian Territories and of the Palestinian attacks inside Israel.
We condemn the brutal policy of the Israeli government aimed at destroying the Palestinian society, the Palestinian economy and the elected Palestinian leadership Headed By President Yasser Arafat. The erection of the ‘apartheid wall’ is a further device to help the ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian people.
However, we believe that there is no way to put an end to the acts of all forms of violence, without a just peace based on the co-existence of two states for the two peoples. This solution should be based on the June 4, 1967 borders, with two capitals in Jerusalem, the evacuation of Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and a just solution to the refugee problem by agreement between the two sides and cooperation between them and the international community, based on the relevant UN resolutions.
We emphasize again our call for complete termination of all attacks on civilians, both on the Israeli and Palestinians sides. We believe that on both sides there are forces that are willing to reopen the way to peace. We call on the international community to urgently intervene in the interests of ending the violence on both sides and concluding a final peace agreement.
We finally call on everybody who supports these ideas to speak out now in support of an Israeli-Palestinian peace front against the occupation, for mutual recognition and peace between the two nations.
In order to facilitate cooperation between the forces of peace on both sides and their joint efforts on a day-to-day basis, we hereby establish the ‘Joint Action Group for Israeli-Palestinian Peace’.
List of initial Israeli and Palestinian supporters in alphabetical order:
1. Dr. Samir Abdalla
President of Arab Centre of Agricultural Development
Professor in Economics A'Najah University.
Nablus
2. Shulamit Aloni
Former Minister in Rabin's Cabinet
Jurist and Guest Lecturer
Tel Aviv U. Law School
3. Prof. Colman Altman,
Dept of Physics,
Technion, Haifa
4. Dr. Janina Altman,
Chemist (retired)
Haifa
5. Prof. Daniel Amit,
Dept of Physics,
Hebrew University,
Jerusalem
6. Prof. Zalman Amit
Professor Emeritus
Concordia University
Montreal, Canada
7. Dr. Yossi Amitay,
Dept. of Middle East Studies,
Ben-Gurion University
Beersheva
8. Dr. Meir Amor
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Concordia University
Montreal, Canada
9. Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, PLC Member,
Director general of"Miftah" -
Centre for Global dialogue and Democracy
Ramallah
10. Uri Avnery,
Journalist
Tel Aviv
11. Dr Ariella Azoulay,
Camera Obscura School of Art
and Bar Ilan University
Ramat Gan
12. Dr. Gabi Baramki
ex president of Bir-Zeit university
Ramallah
13. Prof. Anat Biletzki,
Chair of the Board of B'Tselem,
Dept. of Philosophy
Tel Aviv University
14. Prof. Victoria Buch,
Dept. of Chemistry
Hebrew University
Jerusalem
15. Prof. Naomi Chazan, former MK
African Studies
Hebrew University
Jerusalem
16. Dr. Raya Cohen,
Dept. of Jewish History
Tel Aviv University
17. Prof. Gideon Freudenthal
History of Philosophy of Science
Tel Aviv University
18. Prof. Rachel Giora
Dept. of Linguistics
Tel Aviv University
19. Yehudith Harel
Organizational Psychologist
and Peace Activist
Ramat Ha Sharon
20 . Dr. Manuel Hassasian
Vice President of BetLehem University
Betlehem
21. Dr. Sara Helman
Department of Behavioral Sciences
Ben Gurion University
Beersheva
22. Prof. Hannan Hever
Dept. of Hebrew Literature
The Hebrew University,
Jerusalem
23. Dr. Ghassan Khatib
Minister of Labour in Palestine
Ramallah
24. Prof. Baruch Kimmerling
Dept. of Sociology
Hebrew University,
Jerusalem
25. Dr. Orly Lubin,
Department of Poetics and Comparative Literature,
Tel Aviv University,
26. Dr. Ahmad Majdalani
Editor of "People's Struggle Magazine"
Professor at Bir Zeit University
Ramallah
27. Dr. Ruchama Marton
Psychiatrist
Director of PHR
Tel Aviv
28. Dr. Isaac (Yanni) Nevo,
Ben Gurion University,
Beersheva
29. Prof. Adi Ophir,
History of Philosophy and ideas
Tel-Aviv University
30. Prof. Avraham Oz
Department of Theatre
University of Haifa
31. Prof. Gabi Piterberg,
Department of History,
UCLA.
32. Prof. Tanya Reinhart
Dept. of Poetis and Comparative Literature
Dept. of Linguistics
Tel Aviv University
33. Prof. Tova Rosen
Dept. of Hebrew Literature
Tel Aviv University
34. Dr. Samih Shbeeb
Writer and Columnist in local Palestinian
and Arab Magazines and Newspapers.
35. Mahmoud Shqir
Novelist,
Director General at the Palestinian Cultural Ministry.
36. Dr. Azmi Shuabi, PLC member
Secretary general for" Aman" centre -
Monitoring Transparency and Accountability in Palestine.
37. Prof. Oren Yiftachel
Chair, Dept. of Geography,
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Editor, 'Hagar: International Social Science Review'
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