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The Canadian Jewish News, Thursday, December 13, 1984-Page 3
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SHELDON KIRSHNER
TORONTO -
An Israeli and a Palestinian debated recently and, both agreed that there is a consensus for peace among Israelis and Palestinians.
Tzaly Reshef, the chief spokesman for Peace Now, and Sari Nusseibah, a West Bank philosophy professor, emerged from a 2-hour symposium with the feeling that, although peace is not at hand, the people of the region desire it,
The meeting, held at the University of Toronto, was sponsored by Canadian Friends of Peace Now. It was billed as the first dialogue between an Israeli and a Palestinian in Canada.
Reshef and Nusseibah were scheduled to address
audiences in Montreal and in Ottawa as well; ^
Saying there are "reasonable people" in both camps, Reshef pointed out th^t Israelis have come to understand that dialogue with the enemy is essential, while Palestuiians have reached the realization that Israel cannot be destroyed.
Expressing gratitude for being able to speak to a predominantly JewiiSh audience, Nusseibah said that the majority of Palestinians seek a peaceful settlement on the basis of mutual Israeli and Palestinian sovereignty.
Nusseibah, who describ-. ed himself as a Palestinian nationalist, said He detects "a readiness" for peace on both sides.
However, each speaker acknowledged the dif-
ficulties blocking a solution.
Reshef, a Jerusalem lawyer and a reserve officer iii the intelligence branch of the armed forces, said that "petty political considerations" stood in the way of a settlement.
Israel's present national unity government, he said, is not prepared; to encourage moderates within the PLO which, he claimed, "seems like the only representative organization of the Palestinians."
The Palestinians, by contrast, want to heal the deep, divisions which have rent the PLC, and fear that Israel would reject a meaningful peace plan.
The son of a former governor of Jierusalem and a former Jordanian minister oif defence, Nusseibah conceded that the Palestine National
Council — the Palestinians' parliament-in-exile — was not at this juncture ready to openly recognize Israel.
He did not explain the reason for this, but he did stress the need for a Palestinian state. Nusseibah, warning of the dangers of leaving the Arab-Israeli dispute to fester, said the Middle East is one of "the likely places" for nuclear war.
Although Reshef said he was pleased by the PNC's recent decision in Amman to work for a diplomatic solution with Jordan and Egypt, he said he was disappointed with its failure to recognize Israel.
Reshef said he believes the PLO is "more moderate" today than in the past, but he warned that Israelis like himself would And it difficult to
Retpgnizes humanitarian acts
rtze
NEW YORK (JTA) -
The 1984 Jabotinsky Prize, given for "outstanding service in defence of the rights of the Jewish People" has been awarded jointly to Israel's former United Nations^ ambassador, Yehuda Blum, Nazi hunter Beate Klarsfeld "and imprisoned Soviet Refiise-nik Anatoly Scharansky,
The $100,000 award, to be divided between the three winners, was announced by Eryk Spektor, founder and chairman of the Jabotinsky.Foundation in a ceremony at the Jewish Museum here last week. Benyamin Netanyahu, Israel's current UN ambassador, gave the keynote address. • Blum, who served as ambassador from 1978 to 1984 was cited for his "courage and eloquence in defending the honor and rights of the Jewish people and the State df Israel'' during his tenure at the
UN..::.\ \-
Klarsfeld was honored for her efforts "to identify and apprehend Nazi war criminals, securing^ the fights of the Jewish people for international justice for the crime of the Holocaust"
Scharansky was cited for his "courageous opposition to Soviet oppression of Jews and his dedication to Jewish values at great per-sonalcost." He is currently incarcerated in a labor camp in the Soviet Union and is reported to be in poor health.
The prize was created last year by the Jabotinsky Foundation to honor the memory of the Zionist Revisionist leader and philosopher Ze'ev Vladimir jabotinsky.
The foundation says the award is the flrst given by an American Jewish or-„:- ganization to single out humanitarian actions taken speciflcally. on behalf of Jews. It also says the Jabotinsky Prize is the only award given by a U.S. Jewish group to include a sizeable honorarium.
Yehuda Blum
This year's judges include "Spektor; Morris Abram, a member of the President's Council of Civil Rights; Kenneth Bi-alkin, chairrhan of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations; industrialist Thomas Hecht; advisor to the (Israeli) Prime Minister-, ReUven Hecht; Alan Greenberg, partrier in the investment firm of Blear Stearns and Co.; Dr. Norman Lamm, president of YeshivaUiiiversity; form-
NEW YORK (JTA) -
Former Defence Minister Ariel Sharon was sharply aittacked for charging Tirne Magazine with "blood libel" in his suit against the American weekly.
Anatoly Scharansky
er ambassador John Loeb Jr.; Milton Petrie, chairman of Petrie Stores Inc.; Nobel Laureate Prof. I. I. Rabi; Peggy Tishman, president of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York; and philanthropist Mrs. Roy Titus.
Presidents of major Jewish organizations in the U.S. and the leaders of Jewish communities in other nations were invited to coniment on a number of candidates proposed for the
55
Beate Klarsfeld
prize. Their responses formed the basis of the judges' deliberations. .
In i.983, a one time Founders Award was pre-: sented to the former Prime Minister of Israel, Menacheni Begin. The 1983 Prize was shared by the late Senator Henry Jackson, Soviet Prisoner of Conscience Yosef Begun and former president of the European Parliament, Si-mone Veil.
Amos Perlmutter, a professor of political science at American University in. Washington wrote in the New York Times last week that by charging bipod libel Sharon is wrapping himself
receive Kreisky awards
VIENNA (JTA) -
The third Bruno kreisky peace prizes were awarded recently to Knesset member Shulamit Aloni, the Society of Austrian Friends of Tel Aviv University and Oswald Amstler, an Austrian writer who..has pub-' lished booklets on children in concentration camps.
Aloni, an MK of the Civil Rights Movement (CRM), was cited for her fight for civil rights and for understanding between
Jews alnd Arabs. The Friends of Tel Aviv University were awarded the prize for its support of biological research to fight hunger.
The prize, funded by Austrian banks and by contributions from employers and workers in Vienna and the province of Carinthia, was established in 1976 to honor the then chancellor of Austria, Bruno Kreisky, on his 65th bjrthday.
in the flag of Israel and Judaism, not to make a moral point but to protect his scarred reputation.
' 'In charging Time with blood libel," the writer continued, "he is playing upon the Jewish people's historic anxieties about their relations with Christians — exploiting centuries of tragedy and misunderstanding to serve his personal ambition."
Perlmutter added: "Sharon has wrapped himself in the flag of Israel, but he does not wear it well. He has also, I believe, miscalculated badly. Too many 'Israelis resent his postur-^ ing, too many are still paying the price — moral, physical and political — for his misadventure in Lebanon. And these Jews, who know the meaning of blood libel can only wish that he would drop this ugly and demeaning phrase.'
mobilize Israeli public opinion in favor a rapprochement with the Palestinians unless the PLO adopts clear resolutions recognizing Israel.
He charged that the resolutions tabled in Amman, which included a call to armed struggle against Israel, were, in a way, expressions of traditional PLO policy.
Suggesting that Israel should acquiesce to the establishment of a Palestinian entity, Reshef urged his government to negotiate with any Palestinian group prepared to live in peace with the Jewish state.
Partition of Palestine among Jews and Arabs, he said,' was the most promising solution, The Palestinians, he added, recognize the fact that Arabs and Jews must live together in the same area.
Sooner, or later, he forecast, Israel would have to deal with the PLQ.
Nusseibah, who teaches at Bir Zeit University, implied he ran the risk of being identified as a traitor by appearing with Reshef. But, he went on to say, he was convinced that individuals must try as best they can to "influence events and make the world a better place, insofar as one can."
He said that Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza was maiinly an Israeli problem, since Israel must decide the nature of the state it desires to build.
Declaring he sought a solution not because he loved Israel or Zionism, Nusseibah said the basic issue boiled down to this: "Is Israel prepared to come to terms with
Palestinian sovereignty on an equal footing?" To mild applause, he said: "Let us be sovereigns and equals."
Nusseibah said that East Jerusalem, now annexed by Israel, should be the capital of a Palestinian state. He said the Western Wall and the Jewish quarter in East Jerusalem could be attached to Israel.
Asked why there are ho Arab equivalents of Peace Now, he ducked the question momentarily, then said that most Palestinians on the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip would accept Israel's existence after the formation of an independent Palestinian state.
Nusseibah said that the Soviet Union and Syria" should be part of any negotiated agreement if it is to last.
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