Citizens make history · Letter · demonstration · map
Peace Now: from an open letter to a civic movement
A letter, a demonstration, a map: the history of Peace Now follows changing ways of turning support for a negotiated peace into public action.
Watch, listen, readMarch 1978 · A window that might close
After Sadat’s visit, 348 reservists appealed to Begin in March 1978. They urged peace rather than settlements and continued rule over Palestinians. Public support for the letter gave rise to Peace Now.1
1978–1982 · Taking an argument into the street
Peace Now used demonstrations, posters and education rather than electoral campaigns. Its name presented peace as an urgent political choice.2 Its Zionist framework was also contested. A 1982 Matzpen pamphlet criticized the Zionist left’s conditional approach to withdrawal and argued that Palestinian rights could not be reduced to Israel’s security or demographic interests.3
Peace Now: from letter to movement
Watch, listen, read
Archive material opens at its original source. Each description identifies its creator and what you will find.
1982–1983 · Demanding accountability, facing violence
After the Sabra and Shatila massacres, Peace Now helped mobilize the September 1982 Tel Aviv rally remembered as the “400,000 demonstration,” demanding an official inquiry.4 The name should not be mistaken for an uncontested headcount.5 On 10 February 1983, a Jerusalem march demanded implementation of the Kahan Commission’s recommendations. Yona Avrushmi, an extreme-right activist, threw a grenade into the demonstrators, killing the teacher and activist Emil Grunzweig. The struggle over government policy had become a struggle over the safety of dissent itself.6
1988–1993 · Recognizing a Palestinian interlocutor
In 1988, Peace Now pressed for negotiations with the PLO. In 1993 it mobilized public support for the Oslo process.7 This trajectory was not free of contradictions: historian Jon Simons identifies a tension between the movement’s images of peace as negotiation, opposition to occupation and separation. A campaign could encourage compromise while also presenting distance from Palestinians as the desired outcome.5
Early 1990s onward · Turning facts on the ground into evidence
Settlement Watch added another instrument to the movement’s repertoire: systematic research into settlement development. Reports, maps, analysis and public exposure sought to make territorial changes visible and to oppose expansion and illegal construction.2 Peace Now explicitly identifies with the Zionist left and advocates a Palestinian state alongside Israel on the basis of the 1967 lines.7 Public pressure on Israeli policy, rather than neutral mediation, connects these activities.