« September 2008 | Main | November 2008 »
On 25 October 2008, Anna Geary (Aberdeen), Sara Aboud (Stornoway, Western Isles) and Tara Fisher (Edinburgh) spread the OneVoice message to participants and guest speakers at Scotland’s for Peace Rally.
New signatories to the OneVoice Movement include:
David Hayman, Actor
Bruce Kent, CND
Thanks to everyone at OneVoice Aberdeen and our partner organization Article 12 for their hard work!
Representatives from OneVoice Israel travelled to Akko in light of the current tensions in the city. Meeting with 80 kids from the city high school and 40 other residents and visitors in the "Peace Tent" that had been built by area youth movements, OVI gave the kids a chance to speak about their dreams and hopes for "Akko in 2018" through a workshop.
Many kids spoke of their dreams for a peaceful and open city for all its residents, and talked about how a handful of extreme individuals should not ruin coexistence between Arabs and Jews in the city. At the end of the workshop everyone released green and blue balloons as a sign of this desire to live in peace with one another.
OneVoice conducted this activity to highlight the way that extreme actions are hurting the majority of people, and to promote peaceful coexistence between Akko's Arabs and Jews. The activity was part of OneVoice's larger "Imagine 2018" project which has inspired thousands of Israeli and Palestinian school children to write their visions for Israel and Palestine in 2018.
Rami, Yaniv, China (IEP Coordinator) and Laurel (IEP Director) at Guilford College
After several days of successful events in Washington DC, the IEP crew awoke early the next morning to drive to North Carolina, where we were received warmly by the North Carolina Hillel Director. Rami and Yaniv spoke at Guilford College that night in an event sponsored by both Hillel and the Palestinian students association. The next day, Rami and Yaniv addressed a younger audience at a nearby Quaker day school. After that, the Youth Leaders spoke to an audience of 70 at Elon University, receiving sponsorship from Hillel, the Truit Center for spiritual and religious life, and Students for Peace and Justice. That afternoon, Rami and Yaniv concluded their speaking tour with a roundtable meeting with Middle Eastern Exploratory group at UNC-Chapel Hill.
Rami and Yaniv addressing students and faculty at Elon University
Rami and Yaniv on Capitol Hill
The past week presented our speakers with a wide range of audiences – from Capitol Hill to university lounges, lecture halls, hip cafés, mosques, classrooms, to roundtable discussions. We kicked off the tour with a small event at the Busboys and Poets “Peace Café,” where Rami and Yaniv addressed a crowd of seasoned activists. That evening, they spoke alongside religious figures, activists, and community members at an Iftar dinner at the All Dulles Area Muslim Society. The next day, Rami and Yaniv took Congress by storm. During the course of the day, they met with Senator Ted Kennedy’s Foreign Policy Legislative Assistant, Senator Joe Biden’s Senior Staffer, Senator Richard Lugar’s Senior Staffer, Representative Robert Ackerman, and Tim Reiser of the Appropriations Committee. That evening, they addressed an audience of 50 students George Mason University, in an event sponsored by GMU Amnesty International.
Rami and Yaniv outside of Representative Steve Israel’s office
The next day was full of meetings with important people, from the assistant to Dennis Ross to Representative Steve Israel to Dr. Ziad Asali of the American Task Force on Palestine. That afternoon, Rami and Yaniv spoke at Georgetown, with the sponsorship of both the Israel Alliance and Students for Justice in Palestine. In the evening, they presented at George Washington University in an event sponsored by the College Democrats and the Muslim Students Association. At both Georgetown and GWU, the Youth Leaders were asked to defend their advocacy of the two-state solution, given the failure of the Gaza withdrawal. Rami and Yaniv responded confidently about the pitfalls of the Gaza withdrawal and the steps that should be taken to ensure a secure and just solution in the near future.
The following morning, Rami and Yaniv addressed an audience of 70 students at American University in an event coordinated by the OneVoice chapter at AU, Movement for Global Justice, Hillel, the International Development Program Student Association, and Project Nur. That evening, they spoke at University of Maryland – College Park, receiving sponsorship from Community Roots and the Roosevelt Institution. In an idiosyncratic moment, Rami grabbed two students from the audience and sat them down at the front of the room. One of the students was wearing a shirt that read: We will not be silent. The other student was wearing a shirt that read: You know you want it. Rami creatively employed these two slogans to represent what the activities of OneVoice aim to achieve: OV-Israel and OV-Palestine run public awareness campaigns to break the silence, and they sustain these activities because they know they want an end to the conflict.
The IEP tour to Washington D.C. and North Carolina last week was an unprecedented experience on a number of levels. On an organizational level, this tour stands out because very few IEP tours have included such a diversity of speaking opportunities and audiences, which presented a unique chance for our speakers to learn about the inner workings of American grassroots and public policymaking. On a personal level, this was an unprecedented opportunity for me (a recent addition to the OneVoice team) to spend a week with two young activists who harbor radically divergent opinions about history and even facts on the ground, and yet share an overarching sense of purpose and mutual respect.
Yaniv Sasson, 29, emphasized that he joined OneVoice not because he loves peace, but because he loves Israel. Born and raised in Yahud, Israel, Yaniv Sasson is the head of the OneVoice chapter at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzeliya. He is currently completing a B.A. in Government with a concentration in Middle Eastern Studies and Conflict Management. Yaniv also volunteers with the police patrol units in Tel Aviv and the Juvenile Diabetic Research Foundation as a supervising instructor of the youth activities.
As a juvenile diabetic, Yaniv was not required to join the IDF. However, he insisted on joining, viewing military service as a crucial defining component of Israeli identity. After completing voluntary army service as a recruitment officer, he spent seven months traveling in South and Central America, which was a very enlightening and unforgettable experience for him. Through his interactions with young people outside of Israel, Yaniv began to reevaluate many aspects of his life that he had once considered ‘normal’. His exposure to other perspectives helped him realize that the sense of fear that governs Israeli daily life – the security checks at every entrance, the fear of public transportation, and the thrust of the Israeli military – is not really ‘normal’ at all. He considers these conditions and fears to be symptoms of the enduring conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, a conflict that has lasted for so long that many Israelis have given up on trying to improve their situation. As a Zionist, Yaniv wishes to reinvigorate Israeli consciousness by showing his peers that they can improve the status, safety, security, and legitimacy of their nation by ending, rather than sustaining the Israeli military presence in the West Bank.
After returning from South America, Yaniv received an email from OneVoice asking him "What are YOU willing to do to end the conflict?" and he realized that he had an active role to play. Since receiving that email two years ago, Yaniv has been an active member of the One Voice Movement, both as a member and leader of the Herzeliya chapter.
Rami Rabayah, 30, is from a rural family long‐established in Jenin. He was born in Beirut mere months before Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin signed the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty. He made a point of acknowledging this peace agreement as a significant milestone in his family’s life, after which his father – a former Palestinian fedayeen resistance militant – committed himself henceforth to the peace movement.
Rami and his family were able to return to Palestine after the 1993 Oslo Agreement was signed. Upon finally seeing his family’s historic land, he became deeply attached to Palestine, and decided to continue his grandfather’s mission as a farmer. Rami studied rural development and engineering at Birzeit University, and has devoted himself to helping marginalized and poor communities since graduating in 2002. In his work, he focuses on rural communities and on improving private sector performances in Palestinian agriculture. As a farmer, he takes care of his family’s property producing extra virgin olive oil. He also works as a senior project manager of the Horizon for Sustainable Development, a private company in Ramallah. Moreover, he created the first sheep selection and multiplication unit in the West Bank.
Rami’s commitment to achieve peace and eradicate violence is an important component of his life, though it has never been easy. Particularly after the collapse of the Camp David II accords and the rise of the second Intifada, Rami began to lose many friends to the thrust of violent resistance. When Rami embarked on his professional life, he realized even more fully the barriers posed by living under occupation. Unable to export his olive oil or drive more than 15 kilometers without being stopped, Rami’s commitment to ending the conflict was only further deepened. He joined OneVoice because he wishes to empower his people to reach a solution, rather than submit to the despair which fuels violence. Out of his belief in the national will of the Palestinian people to live in freedom and justice, Rami has volunteered with OneVoice Palestine, and encourages both Israeli and Palestinian leaders to achieve peace through a two‐state solution, believing that “this is the most realistic and comprehensive possible outcome for the Israeli‐Palestinian struggle.”
