Northampton nuclear weapons activist Ira Helfand wins peace award

Helfand said the two biggest threats to the planet are climate change and nuclear weapons, which has a much simpler solution.

“I think we can absolutely do it in 10 years,” he said. “It will take two to three years of talks and six to seven years to dismantle the weapons.”

Apr. 09, 2023,

By Jeanette DeForge | jdeforge@repub.com

NORTHAMPTON — After 45 years of fighting for the worldwide elimination of nuclear weapons, a local physician believes the solution could be no more than 10 years away.

Dr. Ira Helfand, a retired doctor who most recently worked at the Family Care Medical Center in Springfield, is the recipient of Morehouse College’s Gandhi-King-Ikeda Community Builder’s Award for his creation and activist work with the Back from the Brink.

While honored by the award, which is designed to recognize someone who promotes peace and social transformation in a positive and non-violent way, Helfand said he is hoping the prize will help call attention to the effort to end nuclear weapons. He will be the keynote speaker at the April 13 awards ceremony at the college in Atlanta.

“Nuclear weapons don’t make us safe. They are the greatest threat to security and we have to get rid of them,” he said. “Our message is the problem never went away after the Cold War.”

The issue has returned to the forefront this year with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. A week ago, President Vladimir Putin announced he would move nuclear weapons close to the border of Belarus and in February he delivered a warning to the West over Ukraine by suspending a landmark nuclear arms control treaty.

“The Russian invasion of Ukraine has made it clear that we can no longer afford to deny the danger of nuclear war,” Helfand said. “We have a very short window of opportunity to eliminate these weapons—before they eliminate us. But we can do that. We made these weapons with our own hands. We know how to take them apart. We just need to create the political will to do that.”

A precedent has already been set. Negotiations over nuclear weapon disarmament, even among hostile countries, have had successes in the past, he said.

The threat of nuclear war in the 1980s initiated Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev to propose talks with U.S. President Ronald Regan. More than two years of negotiations and ups and downs led to the historic 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty that had both countries reduce nuclear arms.

The 2017 International Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was signed, bringing the world another step toward eliminating nuclear weapons.

The world has about 13,000 warheads across nine countries. Leaders have already destroyed 50,000 over different treaties, he said.

But that simply isn’t enough. There have been at least six different real threats to nuclear war in the past that are known and the consequences of one will be horrific and felt worldwide, he said.

Helfand said the two biggest threats to the planet are climate change and nuclear weapons, which has a much simpler solution.

“I think we can absolutely do it in 10 years,” he said. “It will take two to three years of talks and six to seven years to dismantle the weapons.”……………………………………………… https://www.masslive.com/news/2023/04/northampton-nuclear-weapons-activist-ira-helfand-wins-peace-award.html