wfn.org | AFSC: Gideon Spiro Tour Begins

[RByler@afsc.org]

For Immediate Release
February 3, 1997
Contact:  J.Ron Byler (215/241-7060)
or Aishah Shahidah Simmons (215/241-7056)

U.S. Speaking Tour for Gideon Spiro, Israeli Peace Activist, Begins

PHILADELPHIA – On February 1, Gideon Spiro, a leader for peace and
disarmament in the Middle East, began a four week speaking tour, despite a
call from the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) to cancel it.  He will
speak in Tucson, Phoenix, Santa Cruz, Seattle, Philadelphia, Washington,
D.C., Ann Arbor, Atlanta and Boston.  Spiro’s speaking tour is co-sponsored
by the U.S. Campaign to Free Mordechai Vanunu and the American Friends
Service Committee (AFSC). 
	While in the U.S., Gideon Spiro will meet with U.S. policy makers and
citizens’ groups to advocate for the abolition of nuclear weapons and the
threat of nuclear war in the Middle East.  In response to a claim by the
news editor of ZOA, Morton Klein, that he "has a long record of extremist
statements and actions," Spiro said that the ZOA apparently cannot forgive
him for turning from a decorated Israeli paratrooper to an Israeli peace
activist.  "We must turn our backs on war and look towards a promising
future with two peoples, Israelis and Palestinians,"  he said. 
        Gideon Spiro has been at the forefront of the campaign to free
Mordechai Vanunu, once an Israeli nuclear weapons technician, now held in
solitary confinement for revealing Israel’s secret nuclear weapons program
to a British newspaper.  
        In addition to his work with the Israeli Committee for Mordechai
Vanunu, Spiro has been active in many peace organizations in Israel.  He has
lived in Jerusalem since childhood and has worked as a journalist in Israel
and abroad, serving as an Israeli correspondent to the United States and the
United Nations.  As a senior civil servant in the Ministry of Education, he
was dismissed after refusing to serve in the Lebanon war.         For more
information about where Gideon Spiro will be speaking, contact Kathy Bergen,
national coordinator for the AFSC Middle East peace education program, at
215/241-7019.
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The American Friends Service Committee is a Quaker organization which
includes people of various faiths who are committed to social justice, peace
and humanitarian service.  Its work is based on the Quaker belief in the
worth of every person, and faith in the power of love to overcome violence
and injustice.
J.Ron Byler
Director of Media Relations
American Friends Service Committee
PH: 215/241-7060
FAX: 215/241-7275
E-MAIL: RByler@afsc.org
http://www.afsc.org