Brit Tzedek v'Shalom
Jewish Alliance for Justice and Peace
The following is an article from the Detroit Jewish News
New Peace Group
Two and a half years of Palestinian
terrorism have turned many Jewish
peaceniks into hawks. But leaders of
a new group think the time is right
for a new, grass-roots peace move-ment
with a strong focus on influ-encing
policymakers in Washington.
Brit Tzedek v' Shalom, the Jewish
Alliance for Justice and Peace,
brought a group of 100 activists to
Washington this week for training in
political advocacy and grass-roots
organizing.
Their goal: "To try to
influence American for-eign
policy," said
Marcia Freedman, the
group's president. "We
want the United States
to take a much more
assertive and active role
in trying to broker
peace between Israel
and the Palestinians.
We believe, like many Israelis and
Palestinians, that progress won't come
from within."
More specifically, the group wants
Washington to get aggressive in forc-ing
a change in Israel's settlements
policies, according to Freedman, a
former Knesset member.
"We are urging the U.S. govern-ment
to put pressure on the govern-ment
of Israel not to continue pro-viding
inducements to Israelis to
move to Gaza and the West Bank,"
she said, "and to provide an interna-tional
fund that would help relocate
settlers."
She conceded that it will be tough
going in a Congress that has become
a bastion of support for the current
Likud government. Brit Tzedek v'
Shalom will create an "alternative lob-bying
presence," she said.
In the past few years, the ranks of
pro-Israel lobbying groups has grown,
along with their diversity. The
American Israel Public Affairs
Committee is the primary pro-Israel
lobby group, but the Zionist
Organization of America has become
an active presence on Capitol Hill,
focusing on Palestinian terrorism and
criticisms of the Oslo peace process.
On the other side, Americans for
Peace Now has become more visible
on Capitol Hill.
Freedman said that her group is dif-ferent
from other pro-peace process
organizations because of its grass-roots
focus. "We are a chapter organization;
we already have 23 chapters, and we
will be working on both a local and
national level," she said.