Stance
Gush Shalom objects to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, and argues that the occupation is illegal and that Israel is committing war crimes on a daily basis. It opposes Israel's policies of blockade and non-recognition of the Gaza Strip. It supports a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine question, with the 1967 border between Israel and Palestine, and with Jerusalem as the capital of both states.
The movement supports soldiers' refusal to serve in the West Bank or Gaza strip, recognition in principle of Palestinian right of return, and an Israeli withdrawal to the Green Line. Gush Shalom activists regularly confront Israeli security forces at construction sites in settlements in the West Bank and Gaza, and along the Separation Barrier. Gush Shalom said that Israel's offer to Yasser Arafat in the Camp David negotiations of 2000 was not a "generous offer" but "a humiliating demand for surrender," publishing the maps from the proposal (seldom published in the US), and an animation from the maps showing how little would be left for a Palestinian state under the proposal Avnery was among the first to meet and negotiate with PLO leader Yasser Arafat. In 2001 the organisation made a peace proposal on the basis of a two-state solution with the 1967 boundaries.
During the 2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict, Gush Shalom was a vigorous critic of the Israeil attack on Gaza. Avnery described it as "the Election War" since he believed it was intended to increase the election chances of Defence Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni in the planned February elections.
Gush Shalom has been described as left-wing in the Israeli and US media.
Avnery wrote:
Every left-wing body fears with terror the one who is on its left. The right-wing of the Avoda party is afraid of its left-wing. The left wing is afraid of Meretz. Meretz is afraid of Yossi Beilin, who was pushed out of the Avoda by Amram Mitzna and his leftist friends and that Meretz also didn't give him a realist position on its list. Meretz is afraid of "Shalom Achshav". "Shalom Achshav" is afraid of "Gush Shalom" and the Arab parties.
Read more about this topic: Gush Shalom
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“For good teaching rests neither in accumulating a shelfful of knowledge nor in developing a repertoire of skills. In the end, good teaching lies in a willingness to attend and care for what happens in our students, ourselves, and the space between us. Good teaching is a certain kind of stance, I think. It is a stance of receptivity, of attunement, of listening.”
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