Brit Tzedek v'Shalom
Jewish Alliance for Justice and Peace
FOR RELEASE ON JUNE 25th, 2002
CONTACT:
Marcia Freedman, info@btvshalom.org
Clare Kinberg, info@btvshalom.org
BRIT TZEDEK V'SHALOM: AMID GRIEF, HOPE IS IN POLITICAL SOLUTION
Brit Tzedek VıShalom, the Jewish Alliance for Justice and Peace, joins Jews everywhere in expressing our grief at the tragic loss of more than 30 Israeli lives and the injuring of many more due to attacks by Palestinian suicide bombers and gunmen. "We deplore these acts of cruel violence for the immeasurable pain they perpetuate on Israeli civilians as well as on the collective psyche of Jews everywhere," said Clare Kinberg, a member of the Board and editor of Bridges magazine. "We implore Palestinian and Muslim leaders everywhere to exercise all influence to stop these terrible attacks."
According to former Israeli Knesset member Marcia Freedman, another member of the Board of this new organization of American Jews who support Israel but oppose the occupation, Brit Tzedek holds both the Palestinian and the Israeli leadership responsible for the situation out of which suicide bombers emerge. "The daily military incursions, house demolitions, checkpoints and other violent constraints on daily life and humiliations with which Palestinians live have created a desperate situation. Young Palestinians are vulnerable to those extremists who convince them that ending their lives and those of innocent Israeli civilians will improve the lot of their people. There can be no excuse for turning the neighborhoods many of us love and have lived in into scenes of grisly murder."
"The Sharon governmentıs harsh military response to attacks on Israeli civilians has only increased the number of such attacks," said Clare Kinberg. "A political solution based on Israel returning to pre-67 borders offers hope for the future," she said, "and without a political soluction, we can only expect more of the same deadly cycle of violence."
Freedman noted the June 19th statement published in Arabic in Al Quds, signed thus far by over 500 Palestinian artists, intellectuals and political leaders, including Hanan Ashrawi and Sari Nusseibah, condemning attacks on Israeli civilians as well as calls for reform in the Palestinian Authority are encouraging signs. "There must also be new thinking on the Israeli side," she said, "or the future for both Israelis and Palestinians will grow increasingly bleak."
Less than two months after its founding conference, the fledgling Brit Tzedek vıShalom has more than a thousand members and supporters with chapters forming in major cities throughout the United States. Among those supporting the organization are well-known poets and writers, intellectuals, rabbis and community leaders, including Gloria Steinem, Arthur Waskow, Grace Paley, Adrienne Rich, Mordechai Liebling, Kathleen Peratis, Stephen P. Cohen, Alicia Ostriker, Ira Weiss, Susannah Heschel and Letty Cottin Pogrebin.