Palestinian Peace Activist to Visit Cornwall

Nonviolent resistance, ending the Middle East conflict, and the place of Christians in Palestine will be discussed when one of the leaders of the Palestinian peace movement visits the Northwest Corner. Ghassan Andoni, a primary figure in Palestine's nonviolent resistance movement opposing the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, will discuss the current situation in the Middle East at the United Church of Christ Parish House on Monday, September 9 at 7 p.m. The church is located at 8 Bolton Hill Rd. (off Route 4) in Cornwall Village. The presentation is free and everyone is invited to attend.

Andoni is traveling to the United States to participate in the United Nations North American Conference in Support of the Palestinian People, which will take place at the UN in New York on September 22-24. He will also speak to various groups in the city, in the Northeast and on the West Coast.

Andoni, 46, was born in Beit Sahour—the biblical Shepherd’s Field near Bethlehem. He has been a lecturer in the physics department at Birzeit University near Ramallah since 1984. He is the founder and executive director of the Palestinian Center for Rapproachment between People (PCR), established in Beit Sahour in 1988. The center is a nonprofit, non-governmental community-based organization that has a genuine commitment to, and a long history of working for, peace and justice in the Holy Land. Under Andoni’s leadership, PCR has been in the forefront of the nonviolent movement, motivating and leading Palestinians in the struggle for human, civil and national rights.

Andoni's resume as a peace and social activist dates back to the mid 1980s, when he organized Beit Sahour’s tax resistance movement against the Israeli occupation, an effort for whicn he was arrested four times by the Israeli authorities.

In December 2000, Andoni co-founded the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) along with the American husband-and-wife team Huwaida Arraf and Adam Shapiro, Israeli peace activist Neta Golan and other Palestinians. Hundreds of internationals from around the world have since traveled to the West Bank and Gaza to resist the Israeli occupation by participating in nonviolent direct actions, including removing roadblocks, delivering food and medicines to Palestinians under curfew, riding in ambulances with Palestinian emergency medical workers, and acting as human shields between Israeli occupation soldiers and Palestinian families.

Both the Palestinian Center for Rapprochement and the International Solidarity Movement work in alliance with other Palestinian and Israeli peace groups, including the Women’s Coalition for a Just Peace, Gush Shalom, Women in Black, Alternative Information Center, Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, Rabbis for Human Rights, and the Christian Peacemaker Teams.