OneVoice Blog, Empowering Israeli and Palestinian Citizens toward a Two State Solution

First regional IEP event brings Palestinian youth leaders to Tel Aviv University

OneVoice Israel collaborated with student organizations at Tel Aviv University to put on the first regional IEP event, bringing OneVoice Palestine youth leaders to speak before Israeli students.

There were around 25-30 participants at the event, many of them OV supporters. The crowed was very silent during the presentations; they were very thirsty to know the background of these students. It was a moving experience for the Israeli students to meet people from the other side who speak about the future in such a constructive way. Questions from the audience were regarding what normal life in Palestine is like, how relations with Hamas work, the details of the PA security force in Jenin, and the reaction of the general Palestinian public to the work of OVP.

One student in the audience said that if it was between he and the OVP leaders, the conflict could be solved in one hour.

More meetings like this one will be organized in the coming months - the next will be at the Herzliya IDC.

OVP is silver sponsor of women's football championship in West Bank

For a period of two months, OneVoice Palestine will be a silver sponsor of the Yasser Arafat Women's Football Championship in Ramallah and Bethlehem. The OneVoice logo will remain hanging as long as the games are taking place, and will appear in the Palestinian Sports Magazine, of which over 40,000 copies will be circulated throughout Palestine, Jordan, the UAE, and a number of other Arab countries.

OVP Gaza launches youth leadership program in Gaza

The OV team in Gaza is in the process of preparing to start a Youth Leadership Program in Gaza. Ezz & Mowaffaq, our co-Directors there, have held a meeting with 20 students from Al Quds University in Northern Gaza and from Al Azhar University in Gaza City. During the meeting, they were introduced to OneVoice, its mission and its methodology. The first training seminar series will include a total of 30 hours of training - 15 hours on public speaking and 15 hours on conflict resolution. Once the students have concluded the training they will be asked to become official Youth Leaders for the Movement.

Congratulations to our team in Gaza! And more details to come as this program takes off.

OV welcomes John Lyndon to OVE

OneVoice is happy to welcome John Lyndon to the OneVoice Europe team as our new Director of Development. Having focused on the Middle East conflict during his MA studies in International Relations, John has an excellent understanding of the conflict we aim to end, and of the region we hope will prosper with peace.

We would also like to take this opportunity to thank and recognize our outgoing OVE Director of Development, Sayyeda Salam, for her years of dedication and hard work at OneVoice. We will miss her and wish her the best.

OV Glasgow coordinator wins Scotland's Young Thinkers Award

OneVoice is pleased to announce that Anthony Silkoff, the head of our OneVoice chapter at Glasgow University, has won the 2008 Young Thinkers award in Scotland for his work with OneVoice. He participated with a paper describing OneVoice and our work in the UK. This is an excellent achievement that shows much appreciation for OneVoice’s approach and work. Anthony has shown tremendous leadership and dedication that embodies what we aspire to achieve with our youth leaders.

Anthony’s winning paper can be found here. He has now qualified for the 2008 UK Young Thinker’s Award. Congratulations Anthony and best of luck!

Building a human infrastructure: OVI & OVP youth leadership trainings

November was a busy month for OV's youth leaders in Palestine and in Israel.

OVP held two initial training workshops in Jericho and Qalqilya, recruiting 35 new youth leaders from the workshops. Additionally, an advanced training seminar was held on how to represent the OneVoice Movement in the media.  The youth leadership networks in Bethlehem, Nablus, and Jericho are now working on arranging town hall meetings with a series of Palestinian experts, officials, and OVP board members to discuss the political situation and next steps "one year after Annapolis."

In Israel, OV kicked off the start of the university school year with OV stands at Tel Aviv University, the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center, Haifa University, Ben Gurion University, and Hebrew University in Jerusalem. OVI also held a basic training seminar for new youth leaders, and took part in a Youth Summit organized by the National Student Association. Hundreds participated in the summit, where Tzipi Livni, Ehud Barak, and Benyamin Netanyahu served as keynote speakers, along with a number of other high profile panelists.