Meretz USA | For Israeli Civil Rights and Peace

Meretz USA for Israeli Civil Rights and Peace is a US non-profit organization that supports a genuine peace between the State of Israel and its neighbors (including the Palestinian people) based on a negotiated land-for-peace solution.

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Join Meretz USA at JStreet's First National Conference: Driving Change, Securing Peace

10/25/2009 - 9:00am

Join Meretz USA at JStreet's first National Conference

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Meretz USA President Lawrence Lerner and Chairman Theodore Bikel declare: Netanyahu’s speech was a wasted opportunity

Prime Minister Netanyahu's June 14 speech at Bar-Ilan University might be seen as an attempt to move the Middle East an agonizingly small step forward towards peace. Unfortunately, the Prime Minister's address, by and large, was a wasted opportunity for Israel to take the initiative and reenergize the dangerously dormant peace process between Israel and the Palestinians.

Netanyahu is to be congratulated for his sorely belated acceptance of the principle of Palestinian statehood. The import of this statement from a long-time supporter of Israeli control over the West Bank marks a further weakening of the annexationist doctrine and should not be underestimated.

Crunch time for Israel – and American Jews

I arose early yesterday to watch Barack Obama's much-awaited speech in Cairo. Unsurprisingly, I was impressed by the dexterity of the writing and the superb quality of the oratory. And, by and large, I found myself in agreement with everything the President had to say.

And yet, I came away feeling a vague sense of discomfort as well, a slight queasiness that at first defied explanation. After all, wasn't Barack Obama's clear enunciation of the illegitimacy of West Bank settlements and the non-negotiability of the two-state principle the best news since penicillin?

Ambassador (ret.) Philip Wilcox: The US must present its own Middle East peace plan

On Tuesday, June 9, 2009, Ambassador (ret.) Philip C. Wilcox, Jr., the President of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, addressed a crowd of Meretz USA supporters in New York. His wide-ranging remarks included a history and analysis of the Israeli, Palestinian and American approaches to the peace process. The summary below focuses primarily on the American aspect of his discussion.

Ambassador Wilcox termed Barack Obama's June 4 speech in Cairo as "stunning", and he praised the President for showing an equal measure of compassion for Israelis and Palestinians, without diminishing America's "unbreakable" bond with Israel.

The two-narrative solution: Or why Tzipi Livni isn’t (yet) a peacenik

Although Prime Minister Netanyahu's speech on June 14 unfortunately created as many obstacles to peace as it removed, it was a watershed moment in one important respect: After 42 years of Occupation, the entire Israeli mainstream has finally come to accept the inevitability of Palestinian statehood.

Only the ideological segment of the settler community and a smattering of far-rightists continue to claim that Israel can and should control the entire "Land of Israel", from the Mediterranean Sea to the River Jordan.

The enormity of this accomplishment can be appreciated when one remembers that, in the early 1970s, support for a two-state solution was considered so radical that the Labor Party forced its Secretary-General, Arieh (‘Lova') Eliav, to resign due to his muted call to consider this "subversive" idea.

Meretz in Israel

Meretz MK Gilon speaks out against torture

This week, the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) released a report documenting the use of painful shackling by the country's various security agencies, including the Israel Defense Forces and the General Security Service (Shin Bet). These procedures, according to the Meretz party, in some cases meet the legal definition of torture.

In the wake of the report's publication, Meretz MK Ilan Gilon invited the report's author, as well as PCATI's executive director and legal advisor, to a special meeting in the Knesset, where the PCATI report will be distributed.

Gilon spoke out this week against the use of torture by Israel: "The published data is a warning bell for us all. The beating and humiliation of detainees must be completely eliminated."

For media coverage of the PCATI report, click here.
To read the PCATI report (executive summary and/or full report), click here.

Israeli LGBT community to honor Meretz’s Zehava Galon

On June 16, Israel's LGBT community organizations will bestow a medal of esteem on Zehava Galon, a member of Meretz, who served in the Knesset between 1999-2009. The award is being given in appreciation of Galon's ongoing efforts on behalf of LGBT rights. An award will also go to Prof. Uzi Even, the first openly homosexual member of Knesset, who served a partial term for the Meretz party in 2002-03.

Meretz Gay Pride Forum - for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Rights

June is Gay Pride Month, and in Israel Gay Pride marches are planned for Tel Aviv (today, 6/12), Haifa (6/18) and Jerusalem (6/25). Meretz's Gay Pride Forum will take part in all three marches, notwithstanding attempts by Israel's Interior Minister, Eli Yishai (Shas party), to have the marches cancelled as "acts of abomination".

Meretz demonstrates against racist march in Umm el-Fahm

Police escort right-wing activists as they march in Umm El-Fahm, Tuesday.

This past Tuesday, March 24, Meretz activists were among the thousands of demonstrators in the Israeli Arab city of Umm el-Fahm, who were protesting the march through the city of right-wing Jewish extremists, led by Baruch Marzel and Itamar Ben-Gvir. Ben-Gvir, now a parliamentary aide to National Union MK Michael Ben Ari, and Marzel, who heads that party's "Jewish National Front" faction, are the former leaders of Israel's now-outlawed, racist "Kach" movement, founded by Meir Kahane.

New Movement-Meretz MK Nitzan Horowitz pushes “pro-choice” bill for civil marriage and divorce

On the opening day of the new, 18th, Knesset, freshman New Movement-Meretz MK, Nitzan Horowitz, submitted a bill that would allow for civil marriage and divorce by all citizens of Israel.

Horowitz explained that the bill was designed to give Israel's citizens, "basic freedom of individual choice" between civil or religious practices. "In Israel of 2009, there is no reason for us to force people to get married on the steps of the Rabbinate, and not on the steps of City Hall," he said. A similar bill had been submitted in the past by former Meretz MK, Zehava Galon.