300 Religious Professors Add Their Names to the Peace Now Movement

A group of 300 religiously observant university professors have added their names to the growing list of supporters of the Peace Now movement which is urging the government to adopt a more flexible policy in the interests of peace. The professors signed a letter to Premier Menachem Begin calling for “bold moves” for peace and an end to such obstacles as continued settlement activity in the occupied territories “at this hour.”

Most of the signatories belong to Oz Veshalom (Valor and Peace), a movement of Orthodox academicians and intellectuals formed two years ago to counter the militant Orthodox Gush Emunim. Dr. Mordechai Brauer, a lecture on Jewish history at Bar Ilan University, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that his group shares the views of the 300 reserve officers who founded the Peace Now movement but had doubts about the use of military rank to advance a political cause.

The letter to Begin states that peace is of greater value than asserting the “historic rights to Eretz Israel” and should be given priority. The professors said they did not object to settlements in principle but stressed that they were wrong “at this hour.”

Their letter followed a similar one yesterday signed by 350 other university professors and came only a few days after Begin received a delegation of the Peace Now movement. He told them that his policies represented the will of the electorate.

PREMIER’S OFFICE APPEARS UNIMPRESSED

So far, the Premier’s office appears, outwardly, unimpressed by the burgeoning peace movement. They claim that a pro-Begin rally in the Tel Aviv municipal square last week which drew 40,000-50,000 people was much larger than a Peace Now rally in the same square a week earlier attended by an estimated 25-30,000 people. Shlomo Nakdimon, Begin’s press advisor, showed the JTA two heavy files today filled with letters from Begin supporters.

Nevertheless, spokesmen for Peace Now claim that their drive to soften government policies is gaining momentum. Public pressure does appear to be increasing as Begin prepares to visit the U.S. next week. A Peace Now chain letter is planned for tomorrow. Hundreds of supporters will pass a peace petition hand-to-hand along a 10-mile stretch of the Jerusalem highway.

The Premier is also coming under pressure from groups who think his peace offer to Egypt was too generous. He was visited today by a delegation from Yamit, the Israeli seaside town in northern Sinai. They urged him to retract his offer to return all of Sinai to Egyptian sovereignty. He told them that if his offer is rejected, he would recommend changes in his original plan. But according to Yossi Maas of Moshav Sadat near Yamit, Begin promised them nothing.