Shalom Achshaw

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Shalom Achshaw ( Hebrew שלום עכשיו, German  Peace Now , also often in English Peace Now ) is an extra-parliamentary peace movement in Israel . Since its inception, Shalom Achshaw has condemned the Israeli settlements in the West Bank for calculatingly undermining the possibility of peace with the Palestinians.

Political agenda

According to his own statements, Shalom Achshav represents the following principles:

  • Peace, compromise and reconciliation with both the Palestinians and neighboring Arab states are necessary to ensure Israel's future security and state survival.
  • The continued civil and military control of the West Bank with its Palestinian population endangers the existence and the democratic character of Israel as a state of the Jewish people.

Shalom Achshaw positions himself as follows on individual questions:

  • For a two-state solution within the 1967 borders with an amicable exchange of land.
  • For the building of a Palestinian state as a means to strengthen the Jewish and democratic character of the State of Israel.
  • For Jerusalem as two capitals of two states based on population distribution and guaranteed by an international agreement.
  • Against the Jewish settlements in the West Bank. They damaged Israel's international image, they were an existential threat to Israel's future as a Jewish and democratic state and a major obstacle to any future peace treaty.

history

Letter from the Officers (1978)

Yuval Neria (2011)

In the wake of Anwar as-Sadat's visit to Israel in 1978, 348 Israeli reserve soldiers with officer rank drafted a petition to the then Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin urging him to continue the peace process . Yuval Neria, a commander who received the country's highest award for military bravery in 1973, said: “We felt the prime minister would find it difficult to ignore a letter from officers with combat experience who demonstrated their worth in the field and made a contribution for society. "

The text of the petition, which was published in several daily newspapers, is in a way characteristic of the concerns of Shalom Achshaw, which brought the movement on the one hand supporters and on the other hand vehement rejection: patriotism, positioning in mainstream Zionism, rejection of a Greater Israel and at the same time affirmation of the unlimited sovereignty of Israel within the borders of the Green Line . Quote: "A government policy that leads to permanent control over millions of Arabs will damage the Jewish-democratic character of the state and will make it difficult for us to identify with the path of the state of Israel." The authors of the petition were surprised of the strong mobilization they had triggered in the population, and which was partly connected with the 1977 election victory of Likud , which was difficult to accept for many politically left-wing Israelis.

Foundation, early years

This petition led to the founding of Shalom Achshaw, a grassroots movement that seeks support for the peace process. At a rally in Tel Aviv , the demonstrators called on Prime Minister Begin to make peace with Egypt in exchange with the Sinai Peninsula . In March 1979, Sadat and Begin signed the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty . In the early 1980s, Shalom Achshaw was a well-organized grassroots movement with two centers in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

The following people played a leading role in Shalom Achschaw's early days:

Tzali Reshev (2012)
  • Naftali Raz, a youth worker from Jerusalem;
  • Orly Lubin, a communication science student at Tel Aviv University ;
  • Avshalom "Abu" Vilan, a kibbutznik from Negba , established the connection to the kibbutz movement , from which not only many members came, but which Shalom Achshaw also provided logistical support;
  • Janet Aviad, a lecturer in sociology at the Hebrew University ;
  • Yossi Ben-Artzi, a lecturer in Social and Historical Geography of Israel at Haifa University , veteran of the 1973 protest movement and founder of the Shinui party ;
  • Shulamit Hareven, a prominent writer and essayist;
  • Tzali Reshev, a lawyer in Jerusalem who, thanks to his legal training, is a frequent spokesman for Shalom Achshaw to the media.

Lebanon War

From 1982 to 1984 the movement protested against the Lebanon war and demanded the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon . However, for ten days after the war began, Shalom Achshav hesitated to demonstrate for peace while Israel's soldiers fought. Meanwhile, more radical peace activists became independent: a split in the peace movement that Shalom Achshaw could no longer completely undo. The height of the anti-war protests was reached with the mass rallies in the wake of the Sabra and Shatila massacres :

  • 120,000 demonstrators in June 1982,
  • 100,000 demonstrators in June 1983,
  • 400,000 demonstrators in 1984 after the Sabra and Shatila massacres, the largest demonstration in Israeli history to date.

On February 10, 1983, Yona Avrushmi , a petty criminal who was previously not politically active but convicted of various violent crimes, murdered Peace Now supporter Emil Grünzweig , who was taking part in a rally in Jerusalem, with a hand grenade . Nine other demonstrators were injured, including MP Avraham Burg .

Support for the Oslo Agreement, Tel Aviv 2004

During the 1980s and early 1990s, Shalom Achshaw demanded that the PLO be recognized as the national representation of the Palestinian people. The first Intifada (1987-1993) was recognized by Shalom Achshaw as a political act. The organization therefore called for negotiations with the Palestinians and demanded an “end of the occupation” of the West Bank (or Judea and Samaria in the Israeli version) and Gaza .

Supporter of the Oslo Agreement

The signing of the Oslo Accords marked a milestone in the activities of Shalom Achshaw, who has since endeavored to support those governments which act on the formula land for peace and to demonstrate against those who it believes are preventing the peace process.

With the outbreak of the Al-Aqsa Intifada (since 2000), general support for the movement declined as the peace process that began in Oslo suffered severe setbacks. In 2003 new initiatives to resolve the Middle East conflict were launched, such as the National Consensus and the Geneva Initiative , both based on the land for peace formula . Both initiatives are not officially affiliated with Shalom Achshaw, but often the same activists have worked on many different initiatives. The Geneva initiative is associated with Jossi Beilin and the Meretz-Jachad party, while the national consensus is associated with the name Ami Ayalon , who deliberately led this initiative independently of Shalom Achshaw in order not to damage public support to provoke. Most of Shalom Achshaw's activities in 2004 are the surveillance of Israeli settlement expansions and the establishment of illegal outposts by the Hilltop Youth . Shalom Achshaw was one of the main organizers of the Mate ha-Rov ("majority camp ") demonstration in 2004, which supported the unilateral withdrawal plan and the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip .

The movement receives new impetus today from the groups If Not Now and J Street U, which emerged in North America . Liberal North American Jews also continue to provide important support for the liberal daily Haaretz , as well as for peace policy groups such as Schovrim Schtika , New Israel Fund , B'Tselem , Molad , or for the Internet magazine +972 .

activities

Shalom Achshaw at a memorial service 10 years after the murder of Yitzchak Rabin, Tel Aviv 2014

The movement is active in several Israeli cities and organizes regular vigils and demonstrations. Reports on the Israeli settlements are also published.

In the report published at the beginning of November 2007, among other things, the ongoing settlement policy is criticized. According to this, the number of settlers in the West Bank had risen by 5.8 percent to 267,500 people by the end of July 2007.

The May 2010 report covers what is going on in East Jerusalem . According to Shalom Achschaw, the intensification of settlement activities there threatens the chances for a two-state solution: The intensification of settlement activities in East Jerusalem threatens the chances of implementing the two-state solution and might create an irreversible situation that would prevent a compromise in Jerusalem . The mayor of Jerusalem , Nir Barkat , who has been in office since November 2008, is also one of the most loyal allies of the settlers in East Jerusalem and, together with the Netanyahu government, has caused increased tensions in the city.

"Price tag" attacks

Institutions and well-known representatives of Shalom Achschaw were repeatedly targeted by so-called “price tag” campaigns. These are acts of vandalism that emerged in 2008, initially to employ the Israeli security forces and thus also to prevent the liquidation of illegal settlements. This soon turned into acts of retaliation, often carried out by youth from the hilltop youth movement . The Jerusalem home of the head of the Settlement Watch project, Hagit Ofran, was sprayed with threatening graffiti in September and November 2011, as was Shalom Achshaw's Jerusalem offices.

Well-known members of Shalom Achshaw

literature

  • Mordechai Bar-On: In Pursuit of Peace: A History of the Israeli Peace Movement . United States Institute of Peace, Washington 1996.
  • Tamar S. Hermann: The Israeli Peace Movement: A Shattered Dream . Cambridge University Press, New York 2009.
  • Magnus Norell: A Dissenting Democracy: The Israeli Movement 'Peace Now' . Frank Cass, London / Portland OR 2002.

Web links

Commons : Shalom Achshaw  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Peace Now: Our Vision
  2. ↑ Art. Peace Now (Shalom Achshav) . In: Sara E. Karesh, Mitchell M. Hurvitz (Eds.): Encyclopedia of Judaism , New York 2006, p. 384.
  3. ^ Mordechai Bar-On: In Pursuit of Peace: A History of the Israeli Peace Movement , Washington 1996, p. 98.
  4. ^ A b Tamar S. Hermann: The Israeli Peace Movement: A Shattered Dream , New York 2009, p. 89.
  5. ↑ Hedva Isachar: Remaining uncomfortable. An overview of the history of political protest in Israel from the perspective of the extra-parliamentary movements. In: Rosa Luxemburg Foundation Israel Office. September 19, 2016, accessed April 27, 2017 .
  6. ^ Tamar S. Hermann: The Israeli Peace Movement: A Shattered Dream , New York 2009, p. 90.
  7. ^ Mordechai Bar-On: In Pursuit of Peace: A History of the Israeli Peace Movement , Washington 1996, pp. 100f.
  8. ↑ a b c d Tamar S. Hermann: The Israeli Peace Movement: A Shattered Dream , New York 2009, p. 92.
  9. ↑ Dan Izenberg: The troubled personality of Yona Avrushmi . In: The Jerusalem Post, January 27, 2011.
  10. ↑ Eric Alterman: Peace Now - The criticism of Jewish US citizens of Netanyahu . In: Barbara Bauer, Anna Lerch (Ed.): Le Monde diplomatique . tape 2/25 . TAZ / WOZ , February 2019, ISSN  1434-2561 , p. 1, 6 .
  11. ↑ BBC : West Bank settlements 'expanding' (November 8, 2007)
  12. ↑ Moshe Hellinger, Isaac Hershkowitz, Bernard Susser: Religious Zionism and the Settlement Project: Ideology, Politics, and Civil Disobedience . State University of New York Press, Albany 2018, pp. 249-252.
  13. ↑ Peace Now official's home vandalized with 'Price Tag' . In: The Jerusalem Post, November 9, 2011.
  14. ↑ Death Threats Sprayed on Home of Peace Now activist in Apparent 'Price Tag' Attack . In: Haaretz, November 8, 2011.