Brit Shalom

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This article is about the Jewish-Palestinian reconciliation organisation. For the Jewish naming ceremony, see brit shalom.

Brit Shalom (Hebrew: ברית שלום, lit. "covenant of peace"; Arabic: تحالف ألسلام‎, Tahalof Essalam; also called the Jewish-Palestinian Peace Alliance) was a group of Jewish intellectuals, founded in 1925.

The original "Brit Shalom" sought a peaceful coexistence between Arabs and Jews, achieved by a Jewish renunciation of the Balfour Declaration. It supported the establishment of a bi-national regime under the British Mandate, where both Jews and Arabs would enjoy equality.

Among its supporters and founders: Arthur Ruppin, Martin Buber, Hugo Bergmann, Gershom Scholem, Henrietta Szold. Others, such as Albert Einstein have also voiced their support.

Most Palestinian Jews and Arabs rejected the proposed solution and the movement became a marginal element in the politics of the region.

In the past few years, a new organisation has taken up the name. The contemporary Brit Shalom is an Israeli organisation of Jewish and Palestinian peace activists working towards reconciliation, peace and equal rights in the region. It generally favors binational confederation or two-state coexistence, drawing upon fringe historical and contemporary movements as varied as Uri Avneri's pan-Semitism, Buberian Zionism, and even aspects of rightist Canaanism for inspiration. Contributors to its website include Gideon Levy, Doron Rosenblum, Avraham Burg, Batya Gur, Meron Benvenisti, Shahar Smooha, Yossi Sarid, David Grossman, Yitzhak Frankenthal, Tony Judt, Rabbi Arik Ascherman of Rabbis for Human Rights, Gilad Atzmon, and Baruch Kimmerling.