Peace Now

Peace Now’s central political proposition is that negotiated peace and territorial compromise serve Israel’s security rather than undermine it.[1] Originally mobilized around the opportunity for an agreement with Egypt, it subsequently became an advocate of Israeli-Palestinian mutual recognition, Palestinian statehood, and opposition to Jewish settlement in territories captured in 1967.[3][4] Its advocacy has addressed the West Bank — known by its original, indigenous Jewish name of Judea and Samaria — as a central arena in which settlement policy affects the prospects for an agreement.[1]

The movement defines its preferred settlement as two states based on the June 1967 borders, with mutually agreed land swaps.[5] Its vision includes two capitals in Jerusalem and a special international agreement concerning the Old City.[5] It presents a Palestinian state, reconciliation with Palestinians and Arab states, and negotiated compromise as ways of strengthening Israel’s Jewish and democratic character and ensuring its future security.[5] Opposition to settlement expansion follows from this framework: Peace Now regards settlements as an obstacle to a future agreement and a threat to the national character it seeks to preserve.[5]

Peace Now has operated outside parliament rather than becoming a political party, declining opportunities to establish one in order to retain support across party lines.[6] Its activities have nevertheless overlapped with parliamentary politics, and some of its leaders later served in the Knesset and in government through other parties.[6] Public mobilization, dialogue with Palestinians, and research on settlements have all formed part of its work.[6] In 2003, its representative Dror Etkes described it as a Zionist movement rooted in Israel’s military and security establishment, for which peace was essential to long-term national security.[1]

The immediate background to Peace Now’s emergence was Egyptian President Anwar Sadat’s November 1977 visit to Israel and the subsequent Israeli-Egyptian peace negotiations.[6] In March 1978, 348 reserve officers and combat soldiers issued an open letter to Menachem Begin urging him to reach an agreement with Egypt.[1][7] Published in the media, the “Officers’ Letter” called on Begin to “choose the path of peace” and became the catalyst for the movement’s formation.[7] Tens of thousands of Israelis supported the letter.[8]

The letter connected the signatories’ military service with their concern about the direction of national policy.[1] It warned that preferring settlements beyond the Green Line to ending the conflict would cast doubt on the justice of the country’s path.[7] The officers’ military standing gave their intervention particular public impact, linking pressure for diplomatic compromise to people identified with combat service and national defense.[9] Among the movement’s founders were Tzali Reshef, Yuli Tamir, Avshalom Vilan, Amiram Goldblum, Eran Shander, Yossi Ben-Artzi, Dedi Zucker, Omer Bar-Lev, and Omri Padan.[10]

Large demonstrations followed in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.[6] Begin later said that these demonstrations impressed him and helped persuade him to persist in efforts to conclude the Israel-Egypt peace treaty the following year.[6] After the September 1978 Camp David agreements provided for further negotiations on the Palestinian question, the failure of the subsequent autonomy talks and an increase in Jewish settlements helped redirect Peace Now toward broader opposition to the occupation.[6] Its anti-settlement activism was already visible in 1979, when it held a demonstration opposing settlement in the territories.[11]

The Lebanon War brought the movement into a new phase of mass protest.[12] On June 15, 1982, Peace Now called on the government to end the fighting and invite Palestinians to participate in the peace process.[12] The movement explained that it had exercised restraint during the military operation but now felt able to state its position publicly.[12] A demonstration it sponsored in Tel Aviv on July 3 drew approximately 100,000 people.[12] Many of its founders were reserve officers and combat soldiers, and the movement became prominent in the broader protests against Israel’s continued presence in Lebanon.[13]

The killings at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps intensified the protests.[2][12] The massacre was carried out by the Lebanese Christian Phalangist militia in an area controlled by the IDF, whose failure to protect civilians became part of the demands for an investigation into Israel’s role and responsibility.[2] On September 19, police used tear gas to disperse a Peace Now demonstration outside the prime minister’s Jerusalem residence; approximately 60 demonstrators were arrested and several dozen injured.[12]

On September 25, Peace Now joined Labor, Mapam, Shinui, and the Independent Liberals in organizing a major Tel Aviv rally demanding resignations and a judicial inquiry.[12] The gathering became known as the “march of 400,000,” with an estimate equivalent to roughly one-tenth of Israel’s population at the time.[2][12] Calls for an inquiry cut broadly across party lines.[12] Bereaved parents carried signs asking, “Why did my son die?”[12] The mobilization placed public pressure on the government, which established the Kahan Commission on September 28.[12]

On February 10, 1983, Yona Avrushmi threw a grenade at a Peace Now protest march in Jerusalem, killing Emil Grunzweig.[13] The demonstration had set out from Zion Square toward the Prime Minister’s Office and demanded that Begin adopt the Kahan inquiry’s recommendations.[14] Protesters also called for Defense Minister Ariel Sharon’s dismissal.[6] Other demonstrators were wounded, including Avraham Burg, and Avrushmi was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment.[14][15] Grunzweig’s killing became a symbol of the violence and deep divisions in Israeli public opinion surrounding the Lebanon War.[13]

Peace Now continued to campaign for negotiations with Palestinians during the following years.[8] In 1988 it led a demonstration of approximately 100,000 calling on the government to negotiate with the Palestine Liberation Organization after the PLO accepted UN Security Council Resolution 242 and the principle of a two-state solution.[8]

The movement supported the 1993 Oslo Accords, welcoming direct negotiations between Israel and the PLO.[8] Its historical account emphasizes the subsequent Israeli military withdrawal from parts of the West Bank and Gaza, together with the PLO’s public acceptance of Israel’s right to exist and renunciation of violence.[8] Peace Now and its supporters also celebrated the Israel-Jordan peace treaty in 1994.[8] As the Rabin government pursued policies long associated with the movement, Peace Now’s distinct mobilizing role diminished; the subsequent decline of the peace process after Rabin’s assassination renewed its activity, increasingly centered on settlement monitoring.[6]

The collapse of the July 2000 Camp David negotiations and the Second Intifada, beginning that September, discouraged the movement amid a wider malaise on the Israeli Left.[16] It nevertheless continued campaigning, formed an Israeli-Palestinian Peace Coalition, and undertook joint activities with the Palestinian People’s Campaign.[16] Although generally favoring negotiated agreements over unilateral action, Peace Now supported the Gaza disengagement plan.[17] It formed a coalition that led a demonstration of approximately 100,000 in favor of withdrawal and distributed blue ribbons in response to the settlers’ orange-ribbon campaign.[17]

By the years preceding 2016, the movement’s principal diplomatic objective was a two-state resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.[18] Its then-leader Yariv Oppenheimer campaigned for Palestinian statehood, an end to Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, and a halt to settlement activity.[18] Following the October 7 attacks, Peace Now head Lior Amichai described the organization’s immediate response in terms of grief, shock, fear, and anxiety.[19] In December 2023 he nevertheless expressed hope that the events might reopen public discussion and lead toward a two-state solution, while acknowledging major unanswered questions about how it could be achieved.[19]

Settlement Watch, established in the early 1990s, became one of Peace Now’s principal research and advocacy projects.[8] The movement created it after identifying settlements as a major obstacle to a two-state solution, with the stated objectives of preventing expansion and stopping illegal settlement activity.[8] In 2003, project director Dror Etkes explained that its researchers traveled through the territories and conducted aerial overflights to document outposts, recording their establishment and growth.[1] The project translated the movement’s political opposition to settlements into continuing observation, data collection, and public reporting.[1][8]

Peace Now’s broader repertoire includes demonstrations, public campaigns, lectures, debates, tours, and calls for action.[8] These activities are intended to educate and mobilize Israelis, influence mainstream opinion, and keep Israeli-Palestinian peace on the public agenda.[8] Its nationally distributed organization has included local coordinators and activity groups in Beersheba, Jerusalem, Haifa, and Tel Aviv.[10] In a 2017 interview, executive director Avi Buskila described local groups as autonomous organizers of demonstrations and protest vigils, united by a practical message of preserving and strengthening the two-state vision.[10]

Buskila’s 2016 account distinguished between a broad organizational base and a much smaller group undertaking field activity: he reported more than 10,000 registered members but approximately 300–400 field activists.[4] His “Decide at Fifty” referendum campaign asked the public to choose between one state and two states, presenting that decision as one for the public rather than an answer supplied by the organization itself.[4] He also emphasized Hebrew-language engagement with Israelis, arguing that no agreement could be achieved without the Israeli public.[4] In keeping with that priority, he said Peace Now declined an invitation to address the UN Security Council on settlements, while American Friends of Peace Now accepted instead.[4]

The movement’s policy advocacy has addressed the relationship between security measures and a negotiated settlement.[1] In 2003, Etkes supported Israel’s right to construct a security barrier but objected to the proposed route in the West Bank.[1] Peace Now’s position was that deviations from the Green Line to accommodate settlements could complicate negotiated separation and a peace agreement.[1] Its objection therefore concerned the barrier’s route and political implications rather than a rejection of Israel’s right to build a protective barrier.[1]

Dialogue has ranged from meetings with Palestinian political leaders to youth and student exchanges and local initiatives.[6] Peace Now also supported legal efforts on behalf of Palestinians whose rights it believed had been infringed by settlers, particularly in Jerusalem, where the litigation organization Ir Shalem was established.[6] Activists associated with Peace Now also started the human-rights organization B’Tselem.[6] These activities extended the movement’s work beyond large rallies into interpersonal contact, legal action, and organizational initiatives.[6]

Settlement Watch’s reporting has distinguished among existing settlements, outposts, construction starts, tenders, and planning decisions.[20][21] Its figures for 2008 recorded 1,518 new structures: 1,257 in existing settlements and 261 in outposts.[20] It reported that 61 percent were west of the separation-fence route and 39 percent east of it, while tenders covered 539 housing units, compared with 65 in 2007.[20] These categories describe different aspects of settlement development rather than a single interchangeable measure of building activity.[20][21]

During the nine months of the 2013–2014 Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, Peace Now’s data recorded 13,851 housing units advancing through planning or reaching its final step.[21] Of these, 4,868 were tendered or otherwise passed the final step, while 8,983 advanced without reaching that stage.[21] A “settlement unit” in this accounting meant one single-family housing unit, and planning advancement preceded construction rather than demonstrating that construction had already occurred.[21] Announcements came in three batches around prisoner releases in August 2013, October 2013, and January 2014.[21]

For 2015, Peace Now reported 1,800 housing-unit construction starts in West Bank settlements, with more than 40 percent east of the separation fence and 69 percent in isolated settlements.[22] It also recorded preparation of building lots for another 734 units.[22] Its report classified 265 units, or 15 percent of starts, as being in illegal outposts and estimated, using Civil Administration figures, that 32 units were built on privately owned Palestinian land, almost all in such outposts.[22] These reports connected construction totals with the location and legal circumstances of individual developments.[22]

The movement also examined settlement-related public expenditure.[23] Its calculations placed average annual education spending at NIS 8,034 per student in Judea and Samaria, compared with an Israeli average of NIS 4,915 excluding the settlements.[23] It reported approximately 2,000 housing units built annually during Benjamin Netanyahu’s premiership and argued that construction under Netanyahu extended deeper into the West Bank than under the Sharon and Olmert governments.[23] Hagit Ofran was identified as the head of its Settlements Watch Team in reporting on this work.[23]

Agricultural outposts became another focus of monitoring.[24] In 2019, Peace Now counted 32 new West Bank outposts established since 2012, including 18 since Donald Trump became US president in 2017.[24] Its findings described many as agricultural properties, some publicly funded, and argued that farms could enable control over extensive areas with relatively little built infrastructure.[24] The movement also reported that the government had retroactively authorized 15 outposts that year and sought to approve another 35.[24] By May 2025, its data counted 270 West Bank outposts, approximately half designated as farms, including 112 established since early 2023.[25]

Peace Now’s September 1982 mobilization brought demands for accountability over the Lebanon War into one of Israel’s largest public demonstrations.[12] Its combination of military-service credentials, extraparliamentary protest, and demands for diplomatic compromise made it a prominent voice of the Israeli Left.[1][3] The movement’s self-understanding joined Zionism with the argument that peace was necessary to preserve national security and Israel’s Jewish and democratic future.[1][5]

Women played significant leadership roles, including Janet Aviad, Galia Golan, Tamar Gozansky, and Shoshanna Kerem.[9] Aviad and Golan were among the movement’s leading decision-makers, while Aviad estimated that approximately 20 percent of active participants were American-born Israelis.[3] American Friends of Peace Now supplied political and financial support, and founder and historian Mordechai Bar-On credited American supporters with financing the Tel Aviv protest against the Sabra and Shatila massacre.[3] Founding member Tzalli Reshef also credited American-born members’ familiarity with American attitudes and institutions as a source of influence.[3]

The movement’s reach has not been confined to its own organizational structure.[6] Some leaders entered parliamentary and ministerial office through other parties; examples include Yael Tamir, who served as minister of immigration absorption, and Ran Cohen, who served as minister of industry and commerce.[6] Peace Now retained its extraparliamentary identity rather than becoming a party, seeking to preserve a broader constituency.[6] One account estimated that at its peak it had more than 200,000 supporters, measured through petition signatures, contributions, and demonstration participation rather than conventional membership.[6]

Settlement research provided another channel of influence alongside street mobilization.[1][21] By the 2013–2014 negotiations, Settlement Watch maintained the most comprehensive publicly available settlement data, allowing its figures to be used in analysis of the negotiations and associated building announcements.[21] Subsequent reporting drew on its work to examine construction, government expenditure, outpost authorization, and the growth of agricultural outposts.[22][24] The movement thus combined advocacy for a particular diplomatic outcome with documentation used in wider public discussion.[1][21]

A Sapir Journal essay interprets Peace Now’s political style as an emphasis on immediate, broad action, contrasting it with Gush Emunim’s more gradual settlement-oriented approach.[26] The essay also reads symbolism into the movement’s logo, describing “peace” in a biblical-style font and “now” in a modern typeface, and connecting its urgency with Hillel’s saying in Pirkei Avot 1:14, “If not now, when?”[26]

Peace Now’s positions on territorial withdrawal, Palestinian statehood, settlement expansion, and Jerusalem place it within major political disagreements over Israel’s security and future.[3][5] Its claims that settlements weaken security, consume public resources, and impede peace are elements of its own political analysis rather than conclusions shared across the Israeli political spectrum.[1] The movement has also described the occupation as economically and morally harmful to Israel while condemning violence by either side.[16]

Some quantitative claims have attracted direct disagreement.[20] The Yesha Council challenged Peace Now’s figure of 285,800 settlers in 2008, putting the population above 300,000.[20] The 400,000 figure for the September 1982 rally is an estimate rather than a precise count; verified accounts describe it as an estimated turnout and agree that it was an exceptionally large mobilization.[2][12] These disputes concern the precision of reported numbers rather than whether the movement conducted major public demonstrations.[12]

The movement’s stance toward settlement-product boycotts became part of the debate surrounding Israel’s 2011 Boycott Law.[27] Yariv Oppenheimer said Peace Now had not previously supported a boycott but adopted a more forceful public position after the law passed.[27] He argued that the legislation itself increased awareness of, and perceived legitimacy for, boycotting settlement products.[27]

Political hostility has also included lethal violence and explicit threats against activists.[13][28] Beyond Grunzweig’s murder, investigators examining the September 25, 2008 pipe-bomb attack outside professor and peace activist Zeev Sternhell’s Jerusalem home found neighborhood pamphlets offering NIS 1.1 million for killing a Peace Now member.[28] At the time of that report, the perpetrators of the bombing had not been identified.[28]

In a separate 1982 episode, Peace Now members returning from reserve duty publicly alleged humiliation, beatings, and collective punishments against Arabs in Hebron.[12] Two members submitted a detailed report to the IDF chief of staff, who ordered a formal investigation; eight soldiers went on trial in December over alleged systematic mistreatment.[12]