War Against the People – Jeff Halper

Israeli peace and human rights activist Jeff Halper will speak Wednesday, February 24, about the current situation in Israel/Palestine and his recent book War Against the People: Israel, The Palestinians and Global Pacification. The event is at 7:00 p.m., at First Christian Church, 701 Franklin St. SE, in downtown Olympia.

Halper is a leading figure in the Israeli peace movement, a co-founder of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), an anthropologist, and former professor at Haifa and Ben-Gurion Universities. Author of Between Redemption and Revival: The Jewish Yishuv in Jerusalem in the Nineteenth Century; An Israeli in Palestine: Resisting Dispossession, Redeeming Israel; and Obstacles to Peace: A Reframing of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Halper travels and lectures widely on the Israeli/Palestinian issue. In 2006, the American Friends Service Committee nominated him along with Palestinian Ghassan Andoni for a Nobel Peace Prize.

In War Against the People, Halper addresses Israel’s militarization of everyday life and how systems like database tracking, automated targeting, and unmanned drones become a “seamless” part of it. He points to the Occupied Territories as a “veritable laboratory” for this effort and explores how the approach is rapidly globalizing as major powers and corporations transform militaries, security agencies, and police forces into instruments of global pacification. Stephen Zunes, Coordinator of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of San Francisco, writes that War Against the People, “serves as a reminder that US-backed Israeli militarism and its devastating humanitarian impact is neither unique nor can it be seen in isolation” and cites Halper’s argument that “it is part of an even more disturbing global phenomenon that goes well beyond Israel and…threatens the lives and civil liberties not just of Palestinians, but of people around the world.”

The free event is sponsored by the Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice and co-sponsored by Jewish Voice for Peace – Tacoma. Donations and book purchases are welcome!

For information, contact the Rachel Corrie Foundation at (360) 754-3998 or info@rachelcorriefoundation.org.