It was great sadness that we mark the passing of Peter and Cora Weiss, both of whom were strong and dedicated friends of Palestine-Israel Journal and Israeli-Palestinian peace.

Peter was a dedicated human rights and civil liberties lawyer, served as the long-time Vice President of the Center for Constitutional Rights, as president of the progressive Institute for Policy Studies, was active in anti-nuclear movement and the defense of democracy, and we were proud that he was a member of
Palestine-Israel Journal’s Board of Sponsors. He helped to formulate the advisory opinion brought before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that declared the Separation Barrier in the West Bank to be illegal. This is an article that he wrote for PIJ (together with Prof. Debora Shushan) in 2018 on the illegality of Israeli annexation of the West Bank:  Israeli Annexation of the West Bank Would Violate International Law

A longtime supporter of Israeli-Palestinian peace, he was an active member of the Tel Aviv-based International Center for Peace in the Middle East. Peter was a central member of the New York organizing committee of the New Outlook-Al Fajr “Road to Peace” conference that took place at Columbia University in March 1989, a major stepping-stone towards the signing of the Oslo Accords and the mutual recognition between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). At the end of the conference he chaired the closing session with the participation of three senior Israeli participants, former MK Mordechai (Morele) Bar-On, MK Yair Tzaban and future Meretz leader MK Shulamit Aloni who became central members of Yitzhak
Rabin’s government in 1992 (to his left), and three senior Palestinian representatives, future foreign minister Dr. Nabil Sha’ath representing the PLO,
West Bank leader Faisal Husseini and senior Palestinian spokesperson Dr. Hanan Asharawi to his right,: (Photo: Sheryl Miller): 

Cora’s activities for human rights and peace are hard to encompass in one tribute. She was an early activist against the Vietnam War, eventually becoming
leader of “Women Strike for Peace. She became an anti-nuclear activist and went on to co-chair the Sane/Freeze anti-nuclear movement together with 
Reverend William Sloan Coffin. Cora also worked with him as head of the Riverside Church Disarmament Program. In 1999 on the eve of the millennium she initiated and organized the Hague Appeal for Peace conference on the anniversary of the first international peace conference in 1899, with the participation of 10,000 peace activists from around the world. Always a strong advocate of women’s rights, she had a central role in the formulation and passing of UN Security Council Resolution 1325, which mandates the involvement of women in all diplomatic negotiations. This is the article that Cora wrote for us in 2020 explaining the genesis of the resolution:   Implementing 1325: One Woman Does Not Women Make

Peter and Cora Weiss will be sorely missed by all of us who are continuing the struggle for peace and human rights and an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for the sake of both peoples.