Group wants emblem to symbolize Middle East peace

By: ROB O'DELL - Staff Writer | Sunday, January 9, 2005 8:31 PM PST ∞

OCEANSIDE ---- Hank and Su Kraus think they have created an emblem that could come to symbolize Middle East peace.

The Valley Center residents, along with their friend Roger Ingraham, have formed a nonprofit organization called PeaceMark which aims to promote the new emblem as the symbol of peace between Palestinians and Israelis.

The symbol features a white dove flying with a wreath in the background along with the Palestinian and the Israeli flags set on either side above the slogan; Peace is Possible.

The Krauses said their group is committed to that phrase.

"We wanted to create a universal symbol of peace to display support for the peace process," Hank Kraus said. "We hope it will slowly become adopted as the symbol for peace in the area. There are people who doubt that peace is possible in that region."

Su Kraus said that the group and the emblem are for those who believe peace is possible.

"We want to build a groundswell of people who desire peace," she said, adding that she hoped PeaceMark could give people information to help them act on their desire for peace.

The group has a few main goals: promoting peace by providing the PeaceMark emblem to anyone who wants to advance the goal of peace and supporting several groups with an interest in peace through nonviolent means regardless of their religious or political leanings.

Hank Kraus said the group does not take an active role to determine the best approach to peace between Israelis and Palestinians, but instead promotes like-minded peace groups with goals similar to its own.

Some groups that PeaceMark partners with are Sabeel, a Christian Palestinian group, the Churches for Middle East Peace and a Jewish group supporting peace.

One of the keys to achieving the peace, Hank Kraus said, is to begin to understand that the reality that is portrayed by the American media is not the real truth on the ground.

Kraus said that much of the issue in the region is the policies of the Israeli government, and the Israeli settlements that continue to be erected in the West Bank.

He said he first learned of the alternative truth while on a business trip to Israel. While there he spent time with a Palestinian Christian and was also turned on to the readings of Elias Chacour, the author of "Blood Brothers." Chacour is a famous author who was the first Palestinian to earn a degree from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

He said that part of the problem is that anyone who criticizes the Israeli government is labeled an anti-Semite. The Kraus and Ingraham are Christians.

"How can we solve the problem if we cannot have dialogue in an honest way?" Kraus said.

He said that the Israelis need to cede all of the Palestinian land from before the 1967 war back to the Palestinians and dismantle all of the settlements in the West Bank. In addition, he said the proposed solution brokered by President Clinton at Camp David in 2000 was a bad deal for the Palestinians.

The group is expected to hold a showing of the film about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict called "Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land: U.S. Media & the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict" at the Valley Center community center in two months.

For more information go to www.peacemark.org.

Contact staff writer Rob O'Dell at (760) 901-4067 or rodell@nctimes.com.

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