SWEDEN: Israeli Peace Bloc wins 'alternative' Nobel prize

BY JONATHAN GADIR

In a ceremony at the Swedish parliament on December 7, the Right Livelihood Award, generally known as the alternative Nobel Peace Prize, was awarded to Gush Shalom, the Israeli Peace Bloc, and personally to its tireless co-founders Uri and Rachel Avnery.

The jury honoured the Avnerys and all Gush Shalom activists "for their unwavering conviction, in the most difficult and dangerous circumstances, that peace and an end to terrorism can only be achieved through justice and reconciliation".

Uri Avnery, a veteran Israeli activist, journalist and a former member of parliament said "The decision of the jury is an expression of the wish to strengthen ... the part of Israeli society which continues to seek a peace based on mutual respect between the two peoples".

As every year, the award was divided between four. The three other laureates are the British anti-nuclear organisation Trident Ploughshares, Brazilian Leonardo Boff, one of the founders of liberation theology in Latin America, and Jose Antonio Abreu, the founder of Venezuela's system of children's orchestras.

Gush Shalom has formed the core of Israel's extra-parliamentary opposition since its creation in 1993.

Gush Shalom's weekly advertisements in the daily Hebrew broadsheet Ha'aretz have consistently influenced the public agenda, fiercely denouncing the terrorist policies of Ariel Sharon's "unity government", upholding the call for an end to the occupation, evacuation of settlements and a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

In an opinion poll conducted after the terrorist attacks in Jerusalem and Haifa and published in the popular daily Yediot Aharonot, 32% of Israelis still supported an immediate unconditional return to negotiations with the Palestinians despite months of aggressive government propaganda equating Yasser Arafat with Osama bin Laden.

Gush co-founder Uri Avnery, aged 78, has an astounding personal history. Born in Germany and emigrating to Palestine in 1938, he joined the Irgun Jewish underground at the age of 15 to fight the British regime but left three years later in protest at its anti-Arab activities.

Twice wounded in action as a paratrooper during the Arab-Israeli War of 1948, Avnery was an early advocate of an independent Palestinian state. In 1982 he was the first Israeli Jew to meet with Yasser Arafat, crossing lines in besieged Beirut to conduct an interview.

He was elected three times to the Israeli parliament and served from 1965-73 and 1979-81. For 40 years, he edited Ha'olam Hazeh, a radical magazine which constantly scandalised Israel's ruling elites.

From Green Left Weekly, December 12, 2001.

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From GLW issue 475