Our Committee:

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Susan Abulhawa

Susan lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and is the author of The Scar of David, a historic novel about Palestine, and contributing author to several anthologies.

Susan is also the founder of Playgrounds for Palestine, an international NGO dedicated to upholding the Right to Play for Palestinian Children.
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Steven Beikirch

Steven lives in Iola, Texas and works at an electric power station for a local electric utility.

Steven became involved with Palestinian issues at the beginning of the Second Intifada and has visited Palestine in May 2003 and December 2004. During his second visit he spent time in the West Bank village Al-Walajah where he became acquainted with several residents of the village. He has kept in touch with his friends in Al-Walajah who keep him apprised of the goings on in the village.

During that same visit on Christmas Eve Steven had the opportunity to meet with Israeli "prisoner of conscience" Mordechai Vanunu. Mordechai has been living under the sanctuary of St. George's Cathedral in Jerusalem since his release from Israel's Ashkelon prison. Later that day Mordechai was arrested by Israeli authorities while attempting to visit the Nativity Church in Bethlehem where he planned to attend Christmas services.
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Henry Herskovitz

Henry is a 40 year resident of Ann Arbor, Michigan

Graduate of University of Michigan, College of Engineering, BSME, 1969

Visited Iraq in April, 2000. Toured Baghdad and Basra hospitals, schools, mosques, and churches, through Life for Relief and Development, humanitarian visit. Visited Israel/Palestine in January 2002, met with educators, religious leaders, Knesset leader, Human Rights organizations, both Palestinian (HDIP) and Israeli (B’Tselem) Human Rights groups. Visited Israel/Palestine again in December 2002, worked with International Solidarity Movement – 3 weeks in Balata Refugee Camp. Started action group: “Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends” August, 2003, which has been conducting weekly vigils at local Conservative Jewish synagogue continuously since that time. Returned to Palestine in April, 2005 as part of an 8-person delegation representing Michigan Peace Team, again worked with ISM and Christian Peacemaker Team. Took part in events at: Deir Sharaf, Bil’In, Qawawis (Bedouin village), Balata Refugee Camp, Dimona Nuclear Bomb plant, Al-Walaja, Hebron.

Member:
Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice, Middle East Task Force – Ann Arbor

Not in My Name, political organization in Chicago representing Jewish people against the Occupation

Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends
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Israel Shamir

Lives in Jaffa, Israel

A native of Novosibirsk, Siberia, grandson of a professor of mathematics and descendant of a Rabbi from Tiberias, Palestine, Shamir studied at the prestigious School of the Academy of Sciences, and read Math and Law at Novosibirsk University. He was active in the dissident movement, and after suppression of the Prague Spring in 1968, he moved to Israel, served as a paratrooper in the army and fought in the 1973 war. After the military service, he resumed his study of Law and International Relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, but abandoned the legal profession in pursuit of a career as a journalist and writer.

Shamir wrote for the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz and Al Hamishmar and worked in the Knesset as the spokesman for the Israel Socialist Party (Mapam).

As the first Palestinian Intifada began, Shamir felt himself disgusted and powerless. He had left Israel for Russia, where he covered the eventful years 1989- 1993. While in Moscow, he reported for the Haaretz, but was sacked for publishing an article calling for the return of the Palestinian refugees and rebuilding of their ruined villages. He wrote for various Russian newspapers and magazines, including the daily Pravda and Zavtra weekly.

In response to the second Palestinian Intifada, Shamir has turned his pen into a weapon: he supported the Palestinian struggle, and proposed to end the strife by introducing full equality of Jew and non-Jew, or as it is called, 'One Man, One Vote, One State' solution in all of Palestine/Israel. This view was shared by the late Edward Said, who befriended the Israeli writer.

In 2002, he was baptised by his spiritual father, Archbishop Theodosius Atallah Hanna, received the name of Adam and entered the Orthodox Church of Jerusalem.