Brit Tzedek v'Shalom

Jewish Alliance for Justice and Peace

MEDIA ADVISORY
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE : Dec 2, 2003

CONTACT: Ray Hanania: 312-933-9855 or Gidon D. Remba: 312-576-5610

Chicago Jewish and Palestinian Leaders Unite to Support Mideast Peace Accord

CHICAGO -- A group of prominent Chicago Palestinian and Jewish leaders will convene a press conference to declare their support for the Geneva Peace Accord on Wednesday, December 3rd, at 12 noon, at the Marriot Chicago Downtown Hotel, 540 N. Michigan Ave, Armitage Room, 4th floor.

They will be joined by a diverse coalition of area Muslim, Christian, Arab and Jewish religious and community leaders. The Geneva Accord, negotiated by prominent Palestinians and Israelis, acting as individuals, led by former Israeli Justice Minister Yossi Beilin and former Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo, will be signed in a ceremony in Geneva Switzerland on Monday, December 1st. A large group of Palestinians, Israelis, Arabs and Jews from the US, the Middle East and around the world, European diplomats and others, including heads of state, will attend the Geneva signing ceremony. Following the Geneva signing, the principals will meet with Secretary of State Colin Powell in Washington.

Participants expected to attend the Chicago event include Talat Othman, a prominent Palestinian American and President of the Arab Business and Professionals Association, who will have just returned from the Geneva ceremony and will join other Palestinian American and American Jewish leaders in signing the Chicago Declaration of Support for the Geneva Accord. Also attending are Newton Minow, an adviser to President John F. Kennedy, President Bill Clinton and to both Bush administrations, and industrial real estate developer and CEO Marshall Bennett, former director of National Advisory Committee of the Robert M. Hutchins Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions.

The group will urge Chicagoans and elected officials to support the bipartisan resolution recently introduced into the U.S. Senate by Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) et. al., and one of the two House resolutions on behalf of the Geneva Accord, one of which is co-sponsored by US Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL). They will call upon President Bush and Secretary Powell to integrate the Accord into efforts to implement the Road Map for Middle East peace.

The Geneva Accord is a model for a final status peace agreement between Israelis and Palestinians, designed to resolve the most difficult issues in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, including the final borders of two states, Israel and Palestine, the status of Jerusalem, the Israeli settlements, Palestinian refugees and security issues for both sides. The Chicago group includes a cross-section of Palestinian American and American Jewish organization leaders who support the Geneva Accord, while recognizing that the final details of a future peace based on them will be decided by Palestinian and Israeli negotiators.

Organizations whose national and local leaders will speak at the Chicago press conference include the American Task Force on Palestine, Chicago Peace Now/Americans for Peace Now, Yalla Salam/Palestinians for Peace Now, Brit Tzedek v'Shalom/The Jewish Alliance for Justice and Peace, and the Palestinian American Women's Society.

WHEN: Wednesday, December 3rd, 12 noon WHERE: Marriot Chicago Downtown Hotel, 540 N. Michigan Ave, Armitage Room, 4th floor.