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GUSH SHALOM - pob 3322, Tel-Aviv 61033
http://www.gush-shalom.org
Press release
Uri Avnery on US Speaking Tour
The focus of Avnery's presentations
will be the imperative for Israel to reject an imposed military solution
and support a diplomatic solution with security for two-states of Israel
and Palestine.
Uri Avnery is Israel's most
influential political organizer for a "Two State Solution". On october
4, 2001 the "Alternative Nobel Prize" was awarded to Gush Shalom and Uri
and Rachel Avnery in Stockholm.
CV - Uri Avnery: member of the Jewish underground
fighting the British, twice wounded in Israel's wars with
the Arabs; political organizer; Knesset member; publisher;
journalist; founder of "Gush Shalom," Israel's Peace Bloc; and recipient
of numerous international human rights and peace awards,
will speak in five cities: Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, New York and
Washington, DC. to press for a political resolution to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Uri Avnery was born in Germany in 1923 and emigrated with
his family to Palestine in 1933 when Hitler rose to power. He joined
the Jewish underground, The Irgun in 1938 to fight against
the British colonial regime. After three years he left in protest
against its anti-Arab attitudes and terrorist methods. In 1948 he was a
member of an Israeli commando unit and was wounded twice on the Egyptian
front.
In 1950 after leaving the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz
Avnery founded a mass circulation news magazine, Haolam Hazeh which he
served as publisher and chief editorial writer during all of its 40
years. It was similar in style to Time magazine and Der Spiegel
magazines, and a mouthpiece of aggressive political opposition, with
exposes of political and economic corruption and proposals for a
radically different national policy.
The magazine proposed a modern, liberal state of Israel
belonging to all of its citizens, irrespective of ethnic, national or
religious roots.
The chief of the Israeli secret service in the 50's later
testified that the Ben-Gurion establishment considered Uri Avnery and
Haolam Hazeh as "Public Enemy No.1." This might explain why its
editorial offices and printing facilities were bombed several times.
Avnery was ambushed and both his arms were broken after he criticized
the infamous Kibieh massacre in 1953. In 1972 arson destroyed the
offices of Haolam Hazeh. In 1975 he survived an assassination attempt.
Throughout all this time all branches of the government and army
maintained a total economic boycott against the paper.
In 1965 he was responsible for starting a new party whose
goals were separation of state and religion; equality for the Arab
minority, Oriental Jews and women; support for the creation of a
Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza and an Israeli-Arab alliance
throughout the whole region. Called "Haolam Hazeh" it astounded the
establishment by winning a seat on the Knesset, at that time a
unprecedented feat for a completely new party.
By 1974 Avnery established secret contacts with senior
PLO officials. By the summer of 1975 Avnery called for the creation of
an Israeli Council for Israeli-Palestinian Peace which by December
officially took over the still secret dialogue.
In July of 1982 Avnery crossed the lines at the height of
the battle of Beirut and publically met the leader of the "enemy" Yassir
Arafat with whom he has met since many times.
In 1992, Avnery called for the election of Yitzhak Rabin,
and later supported the Oslo agreement. Soon afterward, frustrated
with many of the government's acts and omissions in moving towards peace
he was responsible for the formation of Gush Shalom, the Peace Bloc
which has become -- together with the women's peace movement in Israel
-- the leading (and often sole) voices in Israel calling for the
creation of the state of Palestine in all of the West Bank and Gaza
Strip, the release of all Palestinian prisoners, the dismantling of all
settlements and the recognition of Jerusalem as the joint capital of
both states.
When the al-Aksa Infifada broke out at the end of
September, 2000 after the failure of the Camp David summit, much of the
Israeli peace camp collapsed. Gush Shalom was one of a very small number
of peace groups that risked unpopularity by daring to maintain its
view that a just peace is not only a moral solution, but the only
pragmatic one. Avnery eloquently advocates his views in a regular
column in Ma'ariv, Israel's second largest newspaper. In particular, he
works to dispel the notion that "Barak offered the Palestinians almost
everything, but they turned him down." Due in no small part to the
challenge of Uri Avnery and his words, mainstream Israeli peace groups
are slowly beginning to resume their activity.
Uri Avnery's American tour is sponsored by the
Northern California office of the American Friends Service
Committee (AFSC) and the Resource Center for Nonviolence in Santa Cruz,
California.
AFSC is a Quaker-based organization founded in 1917 that
received the Nobel Peace Prize for its work with refugees after the
Second World War. The Resource Center for Nonviolence has worked for a
quarter of a century for a diplomatic resolution to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Other tour sponsors include the Fellowship
of Reconciliation, AFSC Middle East Committee, Muslim Peace Fellowship
and Jewish Peace Fellowship.
Tour Schedule:
Data and contact addresses:
Boston: October 10 -- 14;
Hilda B. Silverman; ph 617-661-7490;
hildasil@email.msn.com
Chicago: October 14 -- 17;
Steven Feuerstein; ph 773-454-8397; fx 773- 262-8138
steven@stevenfeuerstein.com
Philadelphia: October 17 - 19;
Kathy Bergen, American Friends Service Committee; ph 215-241-7019
kbergen@afsc.org
New York City: October 19 - 22;
Scott Kennedy, Resource Center for Nonviolence; ph (831) 457 - 8003 / fx
(831) 423 - 8716,
kenncruz@pacbell.net
Allan Solomonow, American Friends Service Committee; ph (415) 565 - 0201
x 26;
asolomonow@afsc.org
Ben Remple, Middle East Program, Fellowship of Reconciliation; ph (845)
358 -4601 / 4775;
Jewish Peace Fellowship (Joyce); ph (845) 358 -4601 / 4775;
jpf@forusa.org
Washington, D.C.: October 22 - 27;
Josh Ruebner, Executive Director, Jews for Peace in Palestine and Israel
(JPPI); office ph: 202-423-7666; home ph/fx: 703-685-7666
josh@jppi.org
/ jruebner@hotmail.com;
http://www.jppi.org;
Helena Cobban
hcobban@aol.com
"ALTERNATIVE NOBEL PRIZE" AWARDED TO GUSH
SHALOM AND URI AND RACHEL AVNERY Stockholm, October 4, 2001
The jury of "The Right Livelihood Award", generally
known as the "Alternative Nobel Prize", announced that it has awarded
this years award to "Gush Shalom and Uri and Rachel Avnery". The award
will be awarded in the Swedish parliament on December 7, a day before
the official Nobel awards.
haGalil onLine
11-10-2001 |
