(St. Mary's City, MD) Oct. 13, 2009 -Two women activists, one Christian and one Jewish, both affected by the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, will offer their perspectives on ways to achieve peace in the Middle East. The Jerusalem Women Speak Tour, organized by Partners for Peace, works to raise awareness of the importance of settling the conflict around the Gaza Strip and the ramifications for the rest of the world. The tour was planned to include a third speaker, Hekmat Besisso-Naji, a Palestinian Muslim, but her visa application was denied by the U.S. government. The Center for the Study of Democracy-sponsored talk will take place on Friday, October 23 at 10:40 a.m. in Daugherty-Palmer Commons at St. Mary's College of Maryland (SMCM). The talk is free and open to the public. For more information about the talk, contact Michael Cain at 240-895-4215 or mjgcain@smcm.edu. To arrange an advance interview, editorial board meeting, or radio or TV talk show appearance, contact Marc Apter at 301-904-3690 or mlapter@smcm.edu.

Both women say they oppose Israeli occupation of the West Bank and decry the presence of checkpoints and Israel's separation wall in the West Bank. "We want justice to prevail in the area," said Jala Basil Andoni, the Christian speaker. In an earlier talk, she said that the wall and checkpoints cause daily humiliation and hassle for her Palestinian friends and family. "Around Bethlehem they use these checkpoints that allow one person at a time, as if we were sheep."

Andoni is a Palestinian Christian from outside Jerusalem, and works with the Wi-am Center for Reconciliation, the Arab Educational Institute, and the Alternative Information center. She believes that "the only way to peace [is] to build bridges between Israelis and Palestinians, not walls and fences." Ruth El Raz, an Israeli Jew, is a therapist at the Counseling Center for Women in Jerusalem, which she co-founded. Along with a Palestinian partner, she represented Jerusalem Link, a joint Israeli/Palestinian women's peace organization, at the first U.N. World Conference against Racism in Durban, South Africa in 2001.

This is the 16th Jerusalem Women Speak Tour since its inception in 1998. The tour is presented by Partners for Peace, an NGO based in Washington, D.C. Partners for Peace aims to educate the public about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and help foster a just and lasting solution to the hostilities in the region. Founded in 1989, Partners for Peace advocates for human rights and a nonviolent resolution, and strives to promote working relationships between women in Palestine, Israel, and communities in the United States.

The Center for the Study of Democracy is a joint initiative of St. Mary's and its affiliated institution, Historic St. Mary's City. It explores contemporary and historical issues associated with democracy and liberty in national and international contexts. The center provides a forum for presentations by government officials, journalists and scholars; publishes scholarly writing on subjects of civil governance; encourages and supports public participation in political processes; and engages undergraduate studies in study and research on related subjects.

St. Mary's College of Maryland, designated the Maryland state honors college in 1992, is ranked one of the best liberal arts schools in the nation by U.S. News & World Report, Kiplinger's, and The Princeton Review. Founded in 1840 as Maryland's "monument school" commemorating the state's first capital, SMCM is the state's only public honors college, offering "an Ivy-level College with a public-school price tag" (Newsweek).

Some 2,000 students attend the college, which has the highest graduation rate for all Maryland public colleges and universities, and an SAT average for student admissions of 1848. The school's waterfront campus along the St. Mary's River in Southern Maryland is home to the 2009 National Intercollegiate Sailing Association Co-ed champions.