The Fred Segal Friendship Library
Wahat al-Salam / The School for Peace
22-10-14

The conference was an activity of the forum for strategic thinking for planning freedom from the occupation. The forum is organized by Wahat al-Salam – Neve Shalom and includes leaders of the peace and human rights movement, and left wing parties. Some 25 organizations are represented. The difficult relations between Jews and Palestinians in recent months obliges us to act more intensively for the advancement of peace in our region. We are working to join forces in order to reach new audiences, towards Jewish – Arab, Israeli-Palestinian cooperation and towards freedom from the occupation. Till today, we have conducted four encounters. On July 13 we organized a rally in Tira under the banner, “Jews and Arabs refuse to be enemies”.

Alon Liel initiated the signature by Israelis on letters to the European Parliament, in support of recognition for a Palestinian State and already five nations have recognized Palestine. Many Israelis signed the petition and over a hundred activists from peace organizations, human rights organizations and left wing organizations, graduates of the School for Peace, representatives of the Other Voice of the Negev. In addition, many people took part such as Prof. Moshe Maoz from the Hebrew University, Prof. Hilik Klar from the Tel Aviv University, the deputy chief of mission of the Spanish embassy Mr. Miguel Moro, MK Dov Hanin, representatives from Palestine, representatives of Friends Associations of WAS-NS, village members and others.

The conference included three panels and concluded with round tables.

The atmosphere was that we must work in a unified way and overcome disagreements and to advance freedom from the occupation.

These are the new ideas and directions for action. The conference was organized by Nava Sonnenschein, Eyas Shbeta and Anwar Dawood from WAS-NS and the School for Peace, and by Shmulik David.

Audiovisual Links

Photos from the Conference