Brit Tzedek v'Shalom

Jewish Alliance for Justice and Peace

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 10, 2005

Israeli and Palestinian Speakers Look Beyond Gaza

Chicago— Director of policy planning and international efforts at the Geneva Campaign Headquarters in Tel Aviv, Daniel Levy, and the executive director of the American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP), Rafi Dajani, will launch a speaking tour on Thursday, April 14, at Northwestern University. Addressing the question of “Where Do We Go From Gaza?” the two men will comment on the upcoming Israeli evacuation of the Gaza Strip and suggest that this move should be the beginning of the end of Israeli occupation of Palestinian land.

“While the world is focusing on this summer’s planned evacuation of settlements in the Gaza Strip, I believe that we must focus on what will happen next: will we move towards negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians to bring a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or will everything stop with the disengagement?” said Daniel Levy, who was also a primary drafter of the Geneva Initiative which is a non-governmental blueprint of a settlement of the major issues, agreed upon by a group of Israelis and Palestinians.

Rafi Dajani believes that, to move from Gaza to negotiations, Jewish Americans and Palestinian Americans who believe in a two-state solution should work together, and “become engaged in active U.S. participation to bring the two sides together.”

The two men will speak at 8 p.m. at Northwestern University, Swift Hall Room 107 at 2029 Sheridan Road in Evanston. The next day they will speak at noon at the Levine Hillel Center of the University of Illinois - Chicago Circle, followed by a 6:30 p.m. presentation at Al Basha Restaurant (formerly Little Egypt Restaurant) at 6216 W. College Drive in Palos Heights, IL.

The week-long speaking tour, which will take the two men across four states, is sponsored by the Chicago chapter of Brit Tzedek v’Shalom, the Geneva Initiative-North America and the campus group, Union of Progressive Zionists.

Brit Tzedek v’Shalom, the Jewish Alliance for Justice and Peace, is a national organization of American Jews deeply committed to Israel’s well-being through the achievement of a negotiated settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Brit Tzedek has 25,000 members and supporters and 31 chapters in cities across the country.