Ehud Barak to speak at Zellerbach Nov. 19

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak is coming to Cal.

13 November 2002 |

Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak will deliver an address entitled “Peacemaking: Prospects for an Israeli-Palentinian Peace” at 7 p.m. on Tues., Nov. 19, at Zellerbach Hall.

Free tickets for faculty and staff (limited to one per person on a first-come, first-served basis) were still available as the Berkeleyan went to press; tickets priced at $40 and $55 (with a two-per-person limit) are on sale through Nov. 14 at the Zellerbach box office or by calling 642-9988.

Barak, who saw action in 1967’s Six-Day War and 1973’s Yom Kippur War, rose to the rank of Lt. General, the highest in the Israeli military, in 1991. After holding several government posts in the mid-’90s, he was elected chairman of the Israeli Labor Party in 1996, later forming the coalition-based One Israel Party. He was elected prime minister in May 1999, but following the collapse of peace negotiations and the outbreak of new violence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, he called for early elections, and was defeated by Ariel Sharon in February 2001.

In recent interviews, Barak has said that, since the start of the intifada, Israel has been obliged to combat terrorism with military force — including the targeted killings of terrorist organizers and bomb-makers, even though civilian casualties often follow. But, he insists, such actions must be accompanied by a willingness to renew peace negotiations along the lines established at Camp David in the summer of 2000. The ultimate goal, he says, should be the establishment of a Palestinian state in the portions of the West Bank and Gaza from which Israel would pull out, either unilaterally or as the result of resumed negotiations.

Members of the Berkeley Stop the War Coalition are planning a program of anti-war speakers in protest of Barak’s appearance. No attempt will be made to block that appearance, organizers say.