Americans for Peace Now (APN) sends its condolences to the Oz family and to the people of Israel, who today lost Amos Oz, a literary giant, a beacon of morality and humanity, and a founder of Israel’s peace movement.

APN joins its Israeli sister-organization, Shalom Achshav (Peace Now), which Oz helped found and supported since its inception, in mourning Oz’s death. In a statement shortly after Oz’s daughter, Fania, announced his departure earlier today, Peace Now said: “Amos Oz worked throughout his life to advance peace and to establish an exemplary society in Israel. He was one of our founding fathers and will always be remembered as having charted a way, with his sharp words, for a large peace camp yearning for a liberal Israel that pursues peace with its neighbors.” 

Amos Oz was an official spokesperson of Shalom Achshav, and later continued to be a clear, articulate, sober voice articulating the worldview of Israel’s peace movement and its vision of a two-state solution. He recently said that Israel and the Palestinians “cannot become one happy family because we are not one, we are not happy, we are not family. We are two unhappy families. We have to divide the house into two smaller next-door apartments.”

Oz was a prophet of moderation and political pragmatism. His latest book, Dear Zealots: Letters from a Divided Land, sounds the alarm at the rise of ideological extremism in Israel and worldwide. 

Oz rallied both Israelis and their friends overseas to support Israeli-Palestinian peace. In 2011, in a video  he recorded for Americans for Peace Now, he called the two-state solution “unavoidable” and urged Americans to support Peace Now and its American sister-organization, APN.

May Amos Oz's memory be a blessing, and an inspiration for Israel in pursuit of peace.