OneVoice Movement

OV Youth Leaders Compare Notes on Conflict Resolution with Northern Irish Politicians

 

London, March 30, 2010—Youth leaders from OneVoice Israel and OneVoice Palestine visited the Northern Irish Assembly at Stormont on March 8 to discuss peace-building and conflict resolution with Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) from across the political and religious spectrum.

For most of the twentieth century, both communities were embroiled in a bloody conflict that most of the world thought utterly intractable. Now, Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionist Party - previously, the two most hard-line parties in the province - sit in a power sharing government together as coalition partners.

Dekel Canetti, an Israeli youth leader from Jerusalem, and Rinal Sader, a Palestinian youth leader from Ramallah, sat with representatives from most of the major political parties, and shared lessons and observations about the difficult process of ending conflicts.

Conall McDevitt from the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), Danny Kennedy from the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), Gerry Lynch from the Alliance Party, and Raymond McCarthy from Sinn Fein, all gave their varying perspectives on the key events and achievements that eventually led to peace in Northern Ireland.

Conall McDevitt struck a chord with both Rinal and Dekel when he spoke of the “exhaustion” people in Ireland felt after so much bloodshed, saying it was a key development in the cessation of violence.

Danny Kennedy emphasized that genuine peace required both communities to have trust in one another restored, a very difficult achievement after so much violence and bitterness on both sides.

Everyone present agreed on the central role that ordinary people play in ending any conflict, and commended the difficult work that OneVoice is engaged in.

The visit happened to come on an auspicious day, as there was an historic vote on whether to devolve responsibility for policing to the Assembly due to take place the very next day. Failure to reach agreement would likely lead to the collapse of the power-sharing agreement.

As the youth leaders left Belfast on Tuesday morning, they heard news over the radio that the vote had passed. Both Rinal and Dekel marvelled at how bitter enemies could become genuine partners for peace, and the will of the moderate majority could be translated into the genuine transformation of a seemingly entrenched conflict: valuable lessons to take back to the Middle East.

OneVoice Youth Leaders Visit Birmingham School

As part of their recent outreach tours in the UK, OneVoice Youth Leaders from Israel and Palestine have been invited to run a session with school pupils in Birmingham’s Moseley School. In November and March, different classes of school children have had the opportunity to hear from the ‘grassroots’ as part of their studies about world conflicts. The children were given a presentation and interactive session about Israel-Palestine and the issues that the ordinary people on the ground are facing. They had the opportunity to ask questions to the two Youth Leaders at each session and showed that despite their young years (11-12 years-old), they are already quite well-informed about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and are in the process of forming firm opinions of their own. Being exposed to authentic voices from the region broadened their educational experience in a way that they would not normally have the opportunity to benefit from.

 Comments from the pupils included:

 “I have learned a lot about Israel and Palestine.”

“From your presentation I have learnt that Israelis and Palestinians want peace.”

“I learned that... about 78% of Israelis and 74% of Palestinians want to live in their own two states.”

“I think that the visit was good because you gave us good questions.”

“When you visited I felt very happy because you came so far just to talk about yourself... so whoever asks me something about you I will tell them.”

“Thank you OneVoice for visiting Moseley School. I really enjoyed the presentation that you showed us and I hope you come and visit us again.”

OneVoice Urges Tackling Dispute over Jerusalem during Indirect Talks

New York, March 19, 2010—OneVoice urges Israeli and Palestinian leaders not to stall indirect talks and immediately tackle the dispute over Jerusalem.

Israel’s announcement of plans to build 1,600 Jewish homes in the Ramat Shlomo settlement in Arab East Jerusalem last week threatened to derail the resumption of negotiations with the Palestinians, which the United States has been eager to jumpstart.

“We encourage the Israeli and Palestinian leadership to sit down immediately as this is high time for them to deliver,” said Tal Harris, Interim Director of OneVoice Israel. “The United States can provide incentives, but ultimately, reaching an agreement is in the interest of the people living in the region.”

Palestinians demanded that Israel scrap the building project before holding any “proximity” talks. But the quartet -- comprising the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia -- placed their full support on Friday behind immediately launching indirect peace talks and the Palestinian leadership is unlikely to resist.

"Israel should cancel its settlement plans in East Jerusalem as a measure of good faith for resuming peace talks," said Samer Makhlouf, executive director of OneVoice Palestine. “It’s vital to quickly restore talks between Palestinians and Israelis on final-status issues.”

Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be their future capital. Israel deems the city its undivided and eternal capital, though that claim is not recognized by the international community.

“Unilateral actions, whether territorial withdrawals or settlement plans in East Jerusalem, result in increased distrust,” said Harris of OneVoice Israel. “We encourage the leaders to formulate a policy that is not demagogic, but rather cohesive and constructive and to work in parallel to end the conflict.”

Responding to U.S. pressure to restore faith in the “proximity” talks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's spokesman said the Israeli leader proposed "mutual confidence-building measures by Israel and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank" to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, without elaborating further, Reuters reported.

Netanyahu is set to meet U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday to discuss the tensions created by the announcement of settlement plans in East Jerusalem.

A poll conducted by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz this week found that less than 50 percent of Israelis support continued settlement building in Jerusalem and 41 percent believe in a complete halt until negotiations with the Palestinians conclude.

Editor’s Note:

 

This news release generated a lot of feedback highlighting the challenge in addressing the dispute over Jerusalem.

 

For Israelis, Ramat Shlomo is an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood in northern Jerusalem. The international controversy stirred by the Israeli interior ministry’s announcement of plans to build 1,600 Jewish homes left many Israelis perplexed. Israel should be free to build in Jewish neighborhoods of Jerusalem.

 

For Palestinians, Ramat Shlomo is a settlement in East Jerusalem encroaching on their land. It did not exist prior to the mid-90sand its further expansion threatens their aspiration to establish a viable capital in part of the city.

 

In geographic terms, Ramat Shlomo falls east of the Green Line (please click hereto see map). OneVoice acknowledges that the Green Line forms the basis for negotiating permanent borders with any modifications to be agreed upon by both parties.

 

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton proposed that Arab neighborhoods in East Jerusalem would come under Palestinian sovereignty, while Jewish neighborhoods would remain under Israel. Former Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak accepted this compromise at the time.

 

“But today, Jewish settlers are moving aggressively into Arab neighborhoods while Arabs, denied permits to build in their own suburbs, are quietly buying residences in Jewish neighborhoods. If these trends continue, Clinton's Solomonic solution will become unworkable,” said Ambassador Martin Indyk, OneVoice board member, in a recent analysis he wrote.

 

OneVoice firmly believes the dispute over Jerusalem should be resolved during final-status negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians. The movement emphasizes pragmatic solutions over impossible ideals and considers the two-state solution as the only viable option.

Achinoam ‘Proud to add my voice to OneVoice’

Following OneVoice Israel’s activities in Tel Aviv at Vice President Joe Biden’s public address singer AchiNoam says that she is proud to add her voice to OneVoice.

http://noa-the-singer.blogspot.com/2010/03/hello-all.html

Biden Responds to OneVoice Israel

With the country watching, OneVoice Israel gives voice to the moderate majority

 

New York, March 11, 2010—OneVoice Israel staff and youth leaders urged hundreds of people attending United States Vice President Joe Biden’s speech at Tel Aviv University on Thursday not to let the extremists on either side seize the peace process.

 

Eight youth leaders joined OneVoice Israel Interim Director Tal Harris and Coordinator Guy Lupo in distributing nearly 1,000 flyers to attendees in support of the renewal of talks between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority.

 

“The agenda in Israel is being hijacked by extremists who work to undermine our government's strategy for peace,” said Harris. “Today, we witnessed 700 students at Tel Aviv University eager for change, who disagree with the appeasement of extreme settlers.”

 

OneVoice Israel’s staff and youth leaders wearing the movement’s t-shirts stood out from the audience during Biden’s talk. Noticing their presence, the vice president gave the first question to our youth leader Danny Shaket.

 

Shaket asked Biden for his opinion on what the U.S. administration, the Israeli government, and the Palestinian Authority would need from the moderate majority in order to reach an agreement.

 

“The United States cannot want peace more than the Palestinians want it or more than the Israelis want it,” Biden said. “You have got to get to the point where the leaders are actually able to sit and hopefully what we can do in these proximity talks, being available to both parties, we can be a bridging mechanism.”

 

Throughout his speech, Biden voiced his commitment to end the conflict through a two-state solution.

 

“For Israel, then, this is about both preserving your identity and achieving the security you deserve, lasting security,” Biden said. “For Palestinians, statehood will not just fulfill a legitimate and long-sought aspiration common to all peoples; it will restore the fundamental dignity and self-respect that their current predicament denies them.”

 

Israel’s announcement of plans to build 1,600 Jewish homes in the Ramat Shlomo settlement in Arab East Jerusalem marred Biden’s visit and was condemned by the United States.

 

“[T]hat decision, in my view, undermined the trust required for productive negotiations,” Biden said on Thursday. “I -- and at the request of President Obama condemned it immediately and unequivocally.”

 

The vice president’s comments were met with applause from the mainly Israeli audience, many of whom were students at Tel Aviv University.

 

“It's unfortunate and dangerous that the Israeli government’s actions are not in sync with their two-state strategy,” said Tal Harris of OneVoice Israel.

 

Click here to listen to Danny Shaket’s question and U.S. Vice President Joe Biden’s response, starting at 37 minutes and 35 seconds.

 

Click here to listen to BBC World Service interview with OneVoice Israel Interim Director Tal Harris and youth leader Daniella Shlomo.

 

Interim Director Tal Harris engages crowd before U.S. Vice President Joe Biden's talk at Tel Aviv University.

 

Mika Vies handing out OneVoice Israel flyers outside Tel Aviv University.

 

OVE unites Israeli and Palestinian delegations in historic EU meeting

London, March 5, 2010—OneVoice presented to a historic joint meeting of the delegation for relations with Israel and the delegation for relations with Palestine at a special session of the European Parliament in Brussels on Wednesday.

 

About 150 people attended the meeting, held in the iconic European Parliament building and chaired jointly by Proinsias De Rossa, head of the Palestinian delegation, and Sari Essayah, member of the Israeli delegation. It was simultaneously translated into four languages, allowing observers from across the continent to hear OneVoice’s message of pragmatic engagement.

 

 

OneVoice Europe Executive Director John Lyndon was joined by Joel Braunold, media and political outreach coordinator, Palestinian youth leader Rinal Sader, and Israeli youth leader Dekel Canetti. Lyndon opened up the meeting, explaining the movement’s ethos and core philosophy, and running through some of OneVoice’s programmes and landmark achievements.

 

“Listening to these young people, I am really encouraged,” said Kyriacos Triantaphyllides, vice chair of the Palestinian delegation. “They are using tools that are really important, like their town hall meetings, which bring people together.”

 

Sader spoke passionately about the struggles she and her family experienced under Israeli occupation and the reasons behind her commitment to OneVoice. Canetti talked about some of the events in his life that led him to join the movement and explained the complexities within Israeli society, which OneVoice uniquely addresses.

 

“It’s really heart-warming to see three young people working daily trying to overcome the taboos that surround this conflict,” said De Rossa. “Their methodology is quite extraordinary and it has been proven to have worked elsewhere.”

 

Both delegations had been at loggerheads for some time, unable to jointly participate in parliamentary sessions discussing the conflict. OneVoice’s presence provided a mechanism by which representatives from both delegations could sit side-by-side, hearing about the genuine efforts of OneVoice activists from both sides of the Green Line to permanently end this toxic conflict.

 

Building consensus between parties in opposition to one another is OneVoice’s modus operandi, and the day’s meeting proved no different.

 

Members of both delegations asked the OneVoice staff and youth leaders present questions about the nature of the conflict and the current lack of trust between both parties.

 

“Youth from both sides are showing us a way that politicians often can’t see,” said Ioannis Kasoulides, vice president of the European People’s Party (EPP) and former foreign minister of Cyprus. “Let me congratulate OneVoice from the bottom of my heart.”

 

The meeting was preceded by a special session of the Middle East Working Group, where MEPs quizzed Danny Taub, the chief legal officer of the Israeli Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

 

Taub urged members to stay for the OneVoice meeting. “I encourage the European Union to support the excellent organization OneVoice,” he said. “It is vital that members stay to hear how they are working with moderates on both sides to end the conflict.”

 

Chair of the Middle East Working Group and former European Union President Hans Pottering also lent his support to the movement. “I encourage everyone interested in the Middle East to stay and hear the excellent presentation by OneVoice Europe,” he said.

 

The meeting marked a milestone in the progress OneVoice has been making in Europe, continuing in the rich tradition the movement has had in connecting the wishes and feelings of the grassroots to leaders in the corridors of power across the globe.

 

From meetings at the British Houses of Parliament, to the US Senate, and the World Economic Forum in Davos, OneVoice has consistently engaged and challenged those international leaders who can hasten the pace of progress in the region, bringing grassroots representatives from the region to be heard at the highest levels.