Miko Peled

Miko Peled     (activist)
Born	1961 Jerusalem, Israel
Nationality	Israeli
Parents	Mattityahu Peled
Member of	American Herald Tribune, MintPress News
Israeli-American peace activist and author. Proponent of Israeli-Palestine single-state.

Miko Peled is an Israeli-American activist, author, and karate instructor. He is author of the books The General’s Son: The Journey of an Israeli in Palestine and Injustice: The Story of the Holy Land Foundation Five. He is also an international speaker.

Background

Born in Jerusalem in 1961, Peled grew up in Motza Illit to a prominent Zionist family; his grandfather, Avraham Katsnelson, signed Israel’s Declaration of Independence. His father, Mattityahu Peled, fought in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and was a general in the Six-Day War of 1967; later, after the Israeli cabinet ignored his investigation of a 1967 alleged Israeli war crime, he became an advocate for an Israeli dialogue with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). He condemned the Israeli military for seizing the West Bank, Gaza, Sinai and the Golan Heights, calling the war a "cynical campaign of territorial expansion".

Miko Peled followed his father’s footsteps at first, joining Israel’s Special Forces after high school and earning the red beret, but he soon grew to regret his decision. He surrendered his status as soon as he earned it, becoming a medic, and finally, disgusted by the 1982 Lebanon war, he buried his service pin in the dirt.

He moved to the United States in 1997.

Own words

The General's Son

He is considered by many to be one of the clearest voices calling for justice in Palestine, support of the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) and the creation of a single democracy with equal rights in all of historic Palestine.

His work is dedicated to tearing down the separation wall and transforming the Israeli apartheid system into a democratic state with equal rights. This is an idea that may be a bitter pill to swallow for Jews and Palestinians who will have to let go of the dream of having a state that is exclusively Jewish or Arab.

Miko is also a contributor to several online publications (Mint Press, The Electronic Intifada, Democracy Now, Mondoweiss), a blog (mikopeled.com), and produces The Miko Peled Podcast, all of which he dedicated to advocating for the creation of one democratic state with equal rights for Israelis and Palestinians.

Views

According to Peled: "Israel has been on a mission to destroy the Palestinian people for over six decades. Why would anyone not give solidarity to the Palestinian people?" He has said that Israel's actions in the Six-Day War of 1967 were not a response to a real threat but acts of bald aggression. And also that "every single Israeli city is a settlement" and that "expressing solidarity with Palestinians is the most important thing people can do."

On his Twitter feed, Peled has written that the "IDF lusts for blood," has called the peace process "a process of apartheid & colonization,” and has accused Israeli officials of “ethnic cleansing." In his blog posts, he has repeatedly referred to the IDF as an "Israeli terrorist organization" that is part of a "well-oiled ethnic cleansing machine." He has also written that Israel's educational system is designed to turn Israeli children into racists who view Palestinians "as culturally inferior, violent and bent on the annihilation of the Jews, and...void of a true national identity," and "as a problem that must be solved and as a threat that must be eliminated." He has decried "absurd comparisons like that of Yasser Arafat to Hitler, the Palestinians to Nazis, and the Palestinian resistance to Al Qaeda."

Peled supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. During a talk in Queensland, Australia, he supported a BDS campaign against the Israeli-owned Max Brenner chain of chocolate shops, part of the Strauss group of companies, which, he said, "supports a terrorist organisation, the Golani Brigade." BDS, he argued, was a "totally legitimate" means of "trying to stop this Israeli armed juggernaut."

Peled wrote in a June 2012 op-ed for the Los Angeles Times that, "Israel is faced with two options: Continue to exist as a Jewish state while controlling the Palestinians through military force and racist laws, or undertake a deep transformation into a real democracy where Israelis and Palestinians live as equals in a shared state, their shared homeland. For Israelis and Palestinians alike, the latter path promises a bright future."

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