Washington, May 20, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) - A coalition of US and international groups plan a peaceful demonstration against Israel next week when a pro-Israeli group holds its annual conference in Washington.

The American-Israel Public Affairs Committee’s (AIPAC) conference will seek to keep its members focused on the important issues facing Israel and maintaining support in Congress if the Gaza pullout, planned for this summer, goes awry.

Attempts to keep attention focused on Iran’s presumed drive for nuclear weapons is also high on its agenda, according to Jewish Journal Web site. AIPAC has earlier pushed for Washington to impose sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

The future of Syria, now under sanctions approved by US Congress last year, and democratic changes in the Middle East would also come up on the conference.

The conference would discuss a decision by Britain’s main university teachers’ union to boycott two major Israeli universities to protest against the endorsement of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories in April.

AIPAC is a special interest group that lobbies the US Congress on behalf of Israeli interests as it sees them. It describes itself as “America's Pro-Israel Lobby”.

At the same time the conference is to begin in AIPAC headquarters, US and international activists will make their own statements in front of the pro-Israeli group’s headquarters.

The protesters would make up a broad base of groups that call for halting the $ 2.2 billion US annual aid to Israel, the coalition said in a statement sent to IslamOnline.net.

They would also call for Israel to end 38 years of occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and attempts to seize Eastern Jerusalem and Syria’s strategic Golan Heights.

Dismantling the separation wall Israel is building in the West Bank, deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice in 2004, would be also one of their demands.

According to the statement, the activists would push their protest for Israel to dismantle all Jewish settlements in Palestinian territories, end aggressive policies against Palestinians and allow the return of refugees driven out by the creation of Israel in 1948.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is expected to give a CCTV speech on the conference talking about the Iranian nuclear threat and the Gaza pullout.

While senator Hillary Clinton, former presidential candidate Howard Dean, the Republic Majority leader in Congress Bill Frist and Israeli official Natan Sharansky would also make a presence.

The coalition also warned against an Israeli or American invasion of Syria or Iran or attempting to do, urging rather to walk a peaceful path to dismantle nuclear weapons in the Middle East including those of Israel.

Further to their support, Israeli nuclear whistle blower Mordachai Vanunu welcomed the protest, saying in a statement: “I welcome such a crowd which challenges Sharon and AIPAC”.

“The world should rather search for nuclear bombs in Israel, and not in Iran. The world peace requires a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction,” added Vanunu.

The coalition includes prominent congressmen as Paul Findley, a Republican Congressman from Illinois, who said the US strategic relations with Israel discredit the image of the US and drag Washington into unnecessary wars with Iran and Syria.