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Berkeley peace activists are fuming over a hostile takeover, but not by Republicans in Washington, D.C. or corporations abroad. 

They see appointees who oppose taking stands on controversial national and international issues, especially those which include Israel and Palestine, amassing power within Berkeley’s Peace and Justice Commission.  

Since the 15-person commission was created by voters in 1986, councilmembers and school board members who wanted Berkeley to weigh in on issues across the globe appointed like-minded residents to it. Many others chose to ignore the commission. It has been a vehicle for promoting pacifist ideals at home and abroad that has made some city lawmakers proud and others a bit uncomfortable. 

But not anymore. A recent series of appointments by officials uncomfortable with Berkeley taking stands on issues outside the city limits has some commissioners crying foul. 

“There has been an obvious attempt to change the face of Peace and Justice,” said commissioner Michael Sherman. 

The same commission that in 2001 voted unanimously to support conscientious objectors to war couldn’t muster an eight-vote majority last month to support a federal Department of Peace. The council ultimately adopted the resolution without the commission’s endorsement. 

“Some people seem to have come to the commission with the determination not to foster peace or justice,” said Rita Moran, removed last month from the commission by Councilmember Laurie Capitelli after serving for two years.  

“When I came on I was kind of a conservative, but by the time I was off I was a liberal,” she said. “It was funny to see my political role change for me.” 

The Peace and Justice Commission has no power to dictate policy, but over the years it has shown a knack for grabbing headlines and making lawmakers squirm. 

The most recent cases came at the height of the Palestinian Intifada, when the commission sent the council resolutions on the Israel-Palestinian dispute that polarized lawmakers and residents. 

In 2002, the council narrowly defeated the commission’s proposal for the City of Berkeley not to sign contracts or hold stock in any company doing business in Israel or Palestine. Opponents at the time charged that the resolution really targeted Israel since it has the larger economy.  

The next year the council narrowly passed a commission proposal that Berkeley support a house bill calling for an investigation into the death of Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old pro-Palestinian activist from Washington run over and killed by an Israeli bull-dozer.  

“I think there were members of the community who were very opposed to those two resolutions and decided they wanted to take over Peace and Justice,” said Councilmember Dona Spring. The commission has not taken up an Israel-Palestine resolution since the Corrie vote. 

After the two resolutions, John Gertz, former board president of the Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, began lobbying sympathetic councilmembers and school board directors to appoint commissioners who would oppose similar resolutions. 

“Corrie was the straw that broke camel’s back,” said Gertz, the president of Zorro Productions, which controls the worldwide trademark to the famed Spanish swordsman. A local player in Democratic politics, Gertz in the past year said he has played host to three congressmen and calls Sen. Joe Liberman (D-Conn.) a good friend. 

“What I have observed is that a lot of people were sick of the commission being run by the lunatic left and some brave people came forward to put a stop to it,” Gertz said. 

After the Corrie vote, Peace and Justice Commissioner Elliot Cohen said Gertz met with several colleagues and demanded that they rescind their votes. “He told us we had to reverse our vote or else,” Cohen said. 

For Gertz, his vendetta over the Corrie vote goes beyond the Peace and Justice Commission. He is focusing on future mayoral elections when two councilmembers who voted for the Corrie resolution, Linda Maio and Kriss Worthington, might run for the city’s top job. 

“The real political objective is that Maio is going down and so is Worthington,” Gertz said in a phone interview, but didn’t specify how he would ensure their defeat. “They refused to rescind their vote on Corrie. That’s it for them. They’re toast.” 

Last year Gertz also proposed arranging a meeting between Daily Planet editors and local Jewish leaders over an editorial cartoon he thought was anti-Semitic. 

Gertz said he knows three of the commissioners appointed in the last year, but didn’t push for any of them to be put on the commission. 

Moderate councilmembers and school board directors said they weren’t aware of any lobbying effort for them to appoint pro-Israel members to Peace and Justice. 

Councilmember Gordon Wozniak, who last year appointed Jonathan Wornick, one of the commission members hesitant to support resolutions not specifically dealing with Berkeley, said he had trouble finding volunteers for the post and that he had no intention of removing him. “I think the commission should be willing to tolerate diversity,” he said. 

Right after the commission voted to approve divesting from Israel and Palestine, School Board Director Joaquin Rivera filled his appointment on the commission with Thom Seaton, the former president of Congregation Beth El.  

Although Seaton’s appointment to the commission came the same week as those of two other staunchly pro-Israel residents, David Weinstein and Micki Weinberg, neither of whom still serve on Peace and Justice, Rivera said he didn’t need any lobbying effort to convince him the commission needed a wider range of opinions. 

“I thought the commission was out of control,” he said. “They needed people who would bring some balance.” 

“My view was that the city and the commission were mired in ideological orthodoxy,” said Seaton. “Everyone in Berkeley says to question authority. Now people are questioning authority and people don’t like it.” 

Over the past year, Seaton has found more kindred spirits on the commission. Since 2004, four councilmembers and school board directors have appointed new members, all of whom are bucking the commission’s traditionally internationalist agenda. 

Wornick, who identifies himself as “a solid Democrat and vegetarian” called the Department of Peace “a silly idea,” that would duplicate the work of the State Department. 

Although he has been active in AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby, he said the Israel issue was not a factor in his decision to seek a seat on the commission. 

“I had read about the commission when I lived in San Francisco and it seemed like it might be an interest of mine,” he said.  

Elisabeth Kashner, who replaced Moran, said that as an elementary school teacher she would fight hard for children’s and health issues. But when it comes to controversial matters, she doesn’t want the commission going too far out on a limb. 

“They clearly have a distressing effect in Berkeley and set people against each other,” she said. 

The divide between the new appointees to the commission and the old guard was evident at this month’s meeting. 

Among the five members opposing a resolution Monday calling for Gov. Schwarzenegger to recall state guardsmen from Iraq, three of them, Wornick, Kashner and Jessica Weddle, were appointed within the past year. The four most senior members of the commission backed the proposal, which didn’t get the eight votes needed for passage. 

The failure in back-to-back meetings to pass resolutions for a Department of Peace and to pull out the guard has some commissioners gunning for a counter offensive.  

“We’re not going to roll over and be doormats,” said Commissioner Phoebe Anne Sorgen. “We need to lobby the council and the school board to appoint true advocates of peace and justice as is their duty.” 

The commission was approved by voters with a mandate to advise the council on social justice issues across the globe. Ann Fagan-Ginger, a former commission chair, said anyone who didn’t believe in that mission shouldn’t sit on the commission. 

“It’s not the job of commission members to change the content of the ordinance and resolution that established it,” she said. “If they want to do that they should start an initiative petition.” 

Commissioner Cohen said he didn’t think the commission should have an ideological litmus test, but added that the new commissioners seemed bent on obstruction. 

“They want to defeat everything without giving reasons for their opposition,” he said. “These people are not interested in working with us, they’re interested in destroying us.” 

Cohen said the new members had not offered any proposed resolutions for the commission to consider. 

The new commissioners said the resolutions are often poorly researched and presented, giving them little choice but to object. 

Stuck in the middle of the divide is Commission Chair Steven Freedkin, who said he supports taking stands on controversial national and international issues, and has struggled to keep the peace at commission meetings. Freedkin has taken the unusual step of having commissioners take time to introduce themselves at meetings to build better rapport. 

The arrangement is still a work in progress. Members who supported pulling the guard troops from Iraq walked out of last week’s meeting after 10 p.m. rather than take up an item they knew they didn’t have the votes to carry.  

“It’s not realistic to think that if officials appoint people to the commission who don’t believe in its purpose that there won’t be some controversy,” Freedkin said. 

Nevertheless, he said the commission still functioned reasonably well. Over the past year, the commission passed 11 resolutions approved by council, he said. 

“Maybe, with some exceptions, having a commission to the right of mainstream Berkeley offers an opportunity,” Freedkin said. “When we get broader support here, we end up with something that has a bigger impact across America.” 

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