In Memoriam
Edmund R. Hanauer
1938-2006

Edmund R. (Ned) Hanauer, a life-long peace and human rights activist, died after a short illness on August 10, 2006.
He was 68.

Ned Hanauer dedicated his life to peace and human rights issues and worked in particular for reconciliation between Palestinians and Israelis.  Realizing that this work required full-time attention as well as an organizational base, he left teaching in 1971 and, in 1972, started Search for Justice and Equality in Palestine/Israel (SEARCH) whose mission was to inform members of Congress, journalists and other opinion makers about aspects of the conflict between the Palestinians and Israeli Jews that did not always get a hearing in the political establishment and the media. 

In the early years of its existence - before the internet - the organization published a newsletter, the Palestine/Israel Bulletin.  In cooperation with Dr. Israel Shahak, the chairman of the Israeli League for Human and Civil Rights, the Bulletin brought many articles from the Israeli press that were critical of Israeli policies to journalists, members of Congress, and the general public.  The lead article of the first issue published in February of 1978 was entitled “Israeli Settlements: Obstacle to Peace.”   In his writings and in his talks to American audiences, Ned frequently drew a parallel between the fate of the Native Americans and that of the Palestinian people.

Ned Hanauer’s op-ed articles and letters-to-the-editor appeared over the years in many newspapers and magazines, such as The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Chicago Tribune, The Dallas Morning News, The Christian Science Monitor, USA Today, The International Herald Tribune, and Newsweek.

Ned Hanauer stands in a long line of Jewish critics of Israeli policies from Achad Haam, who believed that one cannot push the native population out of its homeland without resistance, to Martin Buber, who sought reconciliation of Palestinians and Jews, to Rabbi Elmer Berger, Israel Shahak, and many, many others too numerous to mention.

His concern about the Palestinian/Israeli conflict dated back some 50 years.  As a pacifist he was committed to bringing about reconciliation between the parties by nonviolent means, something SEARCH consistently advocated.  For the last 34 years, SEARCH has carried out its work according to its motto: “SEARCH believes that justice for Palestinians and security for Israeli Jews are not mutually exclusive, but interdependent.”

Edmund Raas Hanauer was born on March 1, 1938, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  He earned a B.A. in history from Dartmouth College and an M.A. and a Ph.D. in political science from American University, Washington, D.C.  His dissertation with the weighty title An Analysis of Conflicting Jewish Positions Regarding the Nature and Political Role of American Jews, with Particular Emphasis on Political Zionism indicates his abiding preoccupation with the many aspects of the issue.  Before forming SEARCH, Ned taught political science at the University of Maryland European Evening Division, a program for the U.S. Armed Forces, and at Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts.

See also: http://www.wrmea.com/archives/November_2006/0611078.html