OneVoice Surpasses 100,000 Palestinian and Israeli Citizen Negotiators
Today marks an important milestone for the silent majority:
*** OneVoice Surpasses 100,000 Palestinian and Israeli Citizen Negotiators ***
*** Group of Fifteen-Year Old Israelis Volunteer, Sign Thousands of New Members ***
*** “You are selling out our land openly and overtly!!!” ***
*** 12 Hours under Mideast Sun: To Jericho At All Costs ***
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*** OneVoice Surpasses 100,000 Palestinian and Israeli Citizen Negotiators ***
July 21, 2004 – The third round of OneVoice citizen negotiations was completed ahead of schedule, with 113,852 Palestinians and Israelis signed up to date. 21,579 Palestinians participated in the OneVoice Public Negotiations Platform this round, bringing their total membership to 58,032. 23,800 Israelis joined the movement this round, bringing their total to 55,820.
Means of recruitment included focused workshops, door-to-door canvassing, voting booths at bus and train stations and other public places, internet voting, as well as recruitment by friends and colleagues at the workplace.
This last round began mid-June and was completed by July 10th, more than one month ahead of schedule, with over 40,000 new members.
The campaign extended across Israeli cities including Be'er Sheva , Ofakim and Ashkelon in the South, Tel Aviv, Ramat Gan, Ra'anana, Kefar Saba, Hod Hashron, Netanya, and Hadera in the Central Region, and Haifa, Kriot, Acco, and Nahariya in the North.
On the Palestinian side, campaigning was limited to the West Bank this round because voting ballots were twice disallowed through the checkpoint and time and financial constraints prevented further attempts. Recruitment span across cities, villages and refugee camps in the Bethlehem district, Hebron, Nablus, Jenin, Tulqarem, Salfeet, Ramallah, Qalqelia, and Jericho.
*** “People are starting to believe they can have an impact” ***
Recruitment during this third round proceeded at a remarkably faster pace. Early data seems to indicate that voting also yielded even greater consensus than in the prior round, though final data has yet to be tallied and will be unveiled in the next update.
“Seeing that the proposals are changing to reflect voters’ feedback makes the people feel that this is important,” said Roje Heinav, OneVoice’s Israeli Outreach Director.
“People are starting to believe they can have an impact,” added Nisreen Shaheen, OneVoice’s Palestinian Outreach Director.
Palestinian members of OneVoice took the initiative to create “Friends of OneVoice” membership cards and began distributing them.
The proposals are available at http://www.silentnolonger.org/wps/portal/_s.155/480
*** Group of Fifteen-Year Old Israelis Volunteer, Sign Thousands of New Members ***
Over 100 teenagers from ages 15 to 18 approached OneVoice and offered to recruit members in summer camps. The Israeli Employment Office, Youth and Educational Department, and the Youth Council facilitated the outreach. Several youth movements are driving the summer campaign on the Israeli front. Palestinian high school and university student groups are also very active with recruitment efforts.
*** “YOU ARE SELLING OUR LAND OPENLY AND OVERTLY!!!” ***
A Palestinian field worker approached a mid-aged man to join the citizen negotiations. Before seeing the voting ballot, the man reacted with shock and screamed at him: “You are selling out our land openly and overtly!!!” The field worker explained that OneVoice allows citizens to evaluate specific proposals and affirm or reject each of them. The man added, “Listen, nothing remains to be sold… …nothing can be done!” The field worker asked him to at least take a look at the ballot. After 20 minutes of reading the document and thinking about it, the man filled out the form. The field worker was surprised to note that the man had accepted every one of the 10 proposals.
The above story is remarkable because it demonstrates that there is far more common ground than meets the eye. Many Palestinians and Israelis don’t realize that there are concrete solutions to the seemingly “intractable” questions about how to achieve a resolution of the conflict.
*** 12 Hours under Mideast Sun: To Jericho At All Costs ***
While the campaign progresses, OneVoice field workers labor under enormous obstacles. Many people are skeptical of the process or of their ability to make a difference.
Three Palestinian field workers quit this month after being insulted and threatened, with the voting ballots shred on their faces. A number of Israeli field workers did not return any filled out voting ballots and just simply gave up. But most others persisted and prevailed.
Israelis faced skepticism from those who questioned their efforts at reconciliation amidst a terror attack in Tel Aviv, while Palestinian field workers risked barriers, checkpoints and curfews to reach their constituents. In one particularly poignant example of dedication, field trainers from Ramallah determined to reach a Jericho training seminar were denied passage through one checkpoint, switched routes and endured a two hour wait at Kalandia, waited again at the checkpoint to Jericho’s entrance for 2 hours, and finally persuaded the soldiers manning the checkpoint about the importance of the work (getting them to fill out some voting ballots in the process). The soldiers let them pass on foot, and asked them to leave the car at the crossing. They proceeded to walk to their destination, and successfully trained field workers in Jericho.
The most common complaint is that the questions are too long, or that they contain two clauses, one favorable to them and one favorable to the other side, forcing them to compromise on something they may not want to. Field workers are trained to explain this is the essential question before them: whether to achieve something they value, voters would accept conceding something the other side values. OneVoice teaches ordinary citizens about the art of negotiation.
See Pictures of outreach efforts in the OneVoice archive: http://www.silentnolonger.org/wps/portal/.cmd/cs/.ce/155/.s/404/.r/1 (select "pictures" and the date range).
*** Dare to Believe You Can Make a Difference ***
If you haven’t joined the movement and voted yourself, do so NOW at www.silentnolonger.org.
Get 10 other people to visit the website and vote. Be part of the solution.
Support this effort financially. Help us sign on one more citizen to participate in a constructive, concrete and non-violent process to establish an agreement among the peoples. Your tax-deductible contribution can be made online at http://www.silentnolonger.org/wps/portal/_s.155/505. To make a contribution via phone or mail to the Israeli, Palestinian, or American publicly-registered charities of OneVoice, contact darya@silentnolonger.org for information.
