Peace

At the beginning of the 1950s, the Committee for Peace in Israel (something similar to — though not quite the same as — what would much later become Peace Now) organized public petitions, conferences, and demonstrations in support of peace.

At the time, there was deep concern over the rearmament of Germany and the possible consequences for both Israel and the world — the trauma was still fresh. Germany was then establishing its defense force (officially — to this day — Germany was not meant to function as an offensive military power).

Alongside this, people also began to entertain the then-unusual idea of direct negotiations with Arab states and to question what kind of security position Israel sought to occupy within the international arena as a state.

Everything presented here, once again, consists of materials encountered while searching for entirely different things — yet they touch something deeply personal and resonate with the reality of our present lives, and so they find a place here.

Materials gathered during archival research:

• Yad Yaari — the Documentation and Research Center of Hashomer Hatzair and the Kibbutz Artzi Movement
• Kibbutz HaOgen Archive
• Historical Jewish Press Collection