Teddy Katz of Gush ShalomWednesday, March 23, 2005
3-4 pm
WHA 970 AMTeddy Katz of Gush Shalom will be on WHA 970 AM from 3-4 pm on Ben Merens' call-in show. Teddy is on a U.S. tour and although he is not coming to Madison (he's speaking in Milwaukee that evening) you can listen to him and call in to the show with your comments and questions. If you call in, be sure to thank Ben for putting this on the air and note that they seldom do this.
Teddy Katz provided this background information about himself:
Personal Story, Personal Points of View
"I was born in Haifa, 1943.
I'm a member of kibbutz Magal since 1962. Magal was established at the west side of the Israeli border that was called the Green Line, located on a land that was taken after the war of 1948 from the Palestinian village Zeita.
I'm married and have three children. The forth, who was the elder one, was killed in a terrible truck accident in the army, 40 days before the end of her military service.
After having started studying in the university at a later age I finished my M.A. in History at the Middle East in Haifa University with an "excellent" though the paper which I wrote afterwards caused a years-long controversy..
I'm an active member of the "Peace Camp" in Israel in the last 15 years, mainly in "'Gush Shalom". At the same time I'm a member of the leadership of "'Meretz"', the Jewish-Arab party, trying very hard to convince my colleges there towards my conceptions. I was attacked hard by the [Israeli] right ... after the publishing of a media interview about my M.A. research about the big massacre in the Palestinian village of Tantura, being done by the Israeli army in May, 1948.
I'm one of those Israelis, not all too many, who passed a very sharp change in their life, how they view Israel, its birth and its way of life, inside & outside. From being a messenger (shaliach) of the Jewish Agency to Mexico, with the task of sending Jews to the "Holy Land" (1979 - 1982), I find myself now in a situation, in which I have many many doubts about the Israeli moral behavior towards the Palestinians, which is the origin of grave troubles in the whole zone, and inside the state - poor & rich Israelis, Sefaradies & Ashkenazies, Israeli Palestinians, etc.
This is the reason that I'm ready to go, almost everywhere, to explain to everyone the problematic situation we have in the Middle East and the solutions possible.
There is very much to talk about: Israel, ideas & reality; the Israeli "famous democracy", including Israeli Palestinians; the kibbutz life, compared to others' life in Israel; Israeli morals, nowadays & in history from Tantura, 1948 via Jenin, 2002 to Gaza, Beit Hanun & Rafah in 2004..."