California Group Directs Peace Activists to Middle East

By John Egan

"Historically there is no other choice but to live together. They are there, but we are there too, and we are offering to live together."—PLO Chairman Yasir Arafat speaking to American peace and justice activists, Tunis, Aug. 30, 1987.

The Resource Center for Nonviolence in Santa Clara, California, mailed in late September an open letter calling on dozens of American organizations and publications concerned with peace and justice issues to focus their attention upon the Middle East.

The letter, signed by 11 leaders of such organizations, was based upon the group's study of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, which included a fact-finding tour to the Middle East led by two Resource Center members.

The tour included talks with government officials, community leaders, educators, professionals, and clergy in Jordan and Israel, and with Yasir Arafat and other PLO officials in Tunis. In Tunis, Arafat told the group he was ready to resume the format proposed in an October 1, 1977 US-USSR communique calling for an international conference on Middle East peace.

Left unresolved, the Arab-Israeli conflict will lead to another war. But open discussion of these issues is increasingly difficult in the US.

The PLO must send its own delegation, Arafat said, rather than have Palestinians participate only as part of a Jordanian delegation. But, as part of a settlement, Arafat added, he would accept the presence of UN forces so long as Israel deemed them necessary.

The Santa Clara group concluded there is insufficient communication between American groups focusing primarily on the Middle East and groups active in a number of social and political issues. The letter, calling for dialogue and interaction between groups in both categories, notes that although "there is a wide-ranging discussion by Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs concerning their conflicting claims and possible alternatives...open discussion of the issues and dialogue with all parties to the conflict is increasingly difficult in the United States."

Because "precious human and natural resources are being diverted to in

The letter concludes with a call for "individuals committed to peace and justice to begin or renew discussion of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and our country's role in it" and "more discussion of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Mideast more generally in the various publications, and among staff members and decision-makers in the many groups concerned with our country's priorities and global posture."

Activists signing the letter as individuals, not as representatives of their organizations, were:

Deena Hurwitz, Resource Center for Nonviolence, New Jewish Agenda Mideast Task Force co-chair, and International Jewish Peace Union; Marshall Kaplan, New Jewish Agenda, New York Area Network for Peace and Justice in the Middle East, and the Jewish Peace Fellowship; R. Scott Kennedy, Resource Center for Nonviolence, Witness for Peace national steering committee, and National Fellowship of Reconciliation executive committee; Father Jim Lewis, Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina; Naomi Nim, New Jewish Agenda, San Francisco; Rudy Simons, Michigan Coalition for Human Rights, Oak Park; and Corinne Whitlach, America-Israel Council for Israeli Palestinian Peace, and Churches for Middle East Peace.