AFSC’S NOMINATION FOR THE
2006 NOBEL PEACE PRIZE:
GHASSAN ANDONI AND JEFF HALPER

Philadelphia - February 3 — The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker humanitarian service organization, has nominated two candidates for the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize: Jeff Halper from Israel and Ghassan Andoni from the West Bank and Gaza.

For decades they have worked to liberate both the Palestinian and the Israeli people from the yoke of structural violence — symbolized most clearly by the Israeli Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. They have opposed the Separation Wall that blinds people to one another's existence. They have instead tried to build bridges to recognition and celebration of a common humanity.

Ghassan Andoni is a physics professor at Birzeit University who has combined his teaching with peace activism since 1988. He is best known for co-founding the Palestinian Center for Rapprochement between People, but his peace activities began much earlier.

Jeff Halper is also an academic — a professor of Anthropology. His discipline convinced him early on of the importance of trust in human relationships and the need never to treat humans as the ‘other.’ Jeff is an American who went to Israel in 1973 after attending rabbinical school and becoming a Vietnam War resister. Jeff Halper co-founded the Israeli Committee Against House Demolition (ICAHD) in 1997, which was among the first Israeli peace groups to work inside the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Through resistance to Israel’s house demolition policy ICAHD exposes the injustice of the Occupation and asserts the importance of international civil society in bringing about change, just as Ghassan Andoni had done with the founding of the International Solidarity Movement.

The American Friends Service Committee is a faith-based organization working for peace, justice and reconciliation. With national headquarters in Philadelphia and offices in 22 countries of the world, AFSC emphasizes people, not politics or ideology - upholding the dignity and promise of every person. Additional information about the Service Committee can be found at www.afsc.org.