Our World is NOT for Sale!

Peace Now is the largest extra-parliamentary movement in Israel, the country’s oldest peace movement and the only peace group to have a broad public base. 

The movement was founded in 1978 during the Israeli-Egyptian peace talks.  At a moment when these talks appeared to be collapsing, a group of 348 reserve officers and soldiers from Israeli army combat units published an open letter to the Prime Minister of Israel calling upon the government to make sure this opportunity for peace was not lost.  Tens of thousands of Israelis sent in support for the letter, and the movement was born. 

The basic principles of the movement from the outset were the right of Israel to live within secure borders and the right of our neighbors to do the same, including the right of Palestinians to self-determination. In time the movement became convinced the only viable solution to the conflict was the creation of a Palestinian state in the territories adjacent to Israel, which were occupied as a result of the 1967 war.  In 1988, upon PLO acceptance of UNSC resolution 242 and the principle of the two-state solution, Peace Now led a massive demonstration of 100,000 persons calling on the government to negotiate with the PLO.  Fully supporting the break-through represented by the 1993 Oslo Accord, Peace Now has consistently supported any and all steps promising to promote a resolution to the conflict, in addition to pressing all Israeli parties in power to initiate steps to bring about an end to the occupation and negotiations for peace.

The activities of  Peace Now are partially sponsored by S.H.A.’A.L. – Peace Now for Israel Educational Enterprises (R.A.), a registered NGO, which, among other things, implements educational activity for promotion of peace by publicizing informational materials, organizing informational gatherings, etc.

Peace Now operates through public campaigns, advertisements, petitions, distribution of educational materials, conferences and lectures, surveys, dialogue groups, street activities, vigils, and demonstrations.  The movement organized the largest demonstration ever held in Israel, some 400,000 people from a population of 5 ½ million in 1982, calling for a commission of inquiry into the Sabra and Chatilla massacre.  The commission that was established recommended the removal of Ariel Sharon  as Defense Minister. 

A particularly important ongoing project of Peace Now is its Settlement Watch, which monitors – and protests, the building of settlements, including housing tenders, expropriation of lands, budget allocations, and the like, along with studying settlers attitudes regarding possible evacuation (and compensation) in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.  Known for their credibility and reliability, the data and maps produced in the framework of this project have raised public awareness of the terrible price Israel is paying for these obstacles to peace.  Indeed one of the objectives of Peace Now is to convey the sense of the harm incurred to Israel not only by the economic and political aspects of continued occupation, but also the moral damage done to the values and fabric of Israeli society – in addition to the untold hardship incurred on another people, the Palestinians.

While Peace Now is an Israeli movement, working primarily amongst the Israeli public, it also has been engaged over the years in dialogue and joint activities with Palestinians in the occupied territories.  The largest such joint activity was a massive Hands Around Jerusalem in 1989 in which some 15,000 Israelis and 15,000 Palestinians called for peace.  Shortly after the beginning of the al-Aksa Intifada, the movement was instrumental in the creation of the Israeli Peace Coalition, which evolved into the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Coalition, composed of political and public figures as well as grass-roots activists from both the Israeli and Palestinian mainstream.  The movement also conducts joint activities and statements with the Palestinian Peoples Campaign.

For a presentation about 30 years of activity for peace - click here