OneVoice Movement

Ahmad Omeir reflects on New England tour

OneVoice Palestine's Ahmad Omeir during the New England IEP tour in September.

New York, September 27, 2012 – The International Engagement Program (IEP) wrapped up its first tour of the fall semester, visiting schools, houses of worship, and social justice groups throughout New England from September 10-13.

IEP Director Ahmad Omeir of OneVoice Palestine shared with over 800 participants his most memorable experiences working on the ground and called on Americans to help him achieve a viable two-state solution.

We recently spoke Ahmad over the phone and asked him about his tour.

OneVoice: What was your most memorable part of the tour?

Ahmad: I think the event at Eitz Chayim Synagogue was the most memorable for me because I knew going in that I would receive most of the questions, and I wanted to let them see a sense of hope from the Palestinian side. Many of the participants said this was an eye-opening experience and it allowed them to see a new face of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 

OneVoice: What can average Americans do to help you on the ground?

Ahmad: There are two things Americans can do. First, have an open mind in how they see the conflict and not be biased based on what is in the media. Second, they need to realize that to answer their interests they need to see the conflict in a balanced way. Therefore, Americans need to urge their leadership to be balanced in its moderation of the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations; saying what needs to be said and taking the necessary steps that will permanently end the conflict.

OneVoice: Did this tour reinforce your belief in the two-state solution and how will it motivate you to continue your work?

Ahmad: There is a very high sense of skepticism and despair [surrounding the resolution of the conflict], and I have my own stories that reflect these feelings. But my experiences with the occupation push me and keep me going forward and I shared that with the audiences. For instance, as we spoke to the school-aged children, I noticed they were asking very good questions, which shows that on the educational level there is an important, positive step taken in regards to teaching them about the conflict. And in the end, this helps us on the ground.

OneVoice: What do audiences have to look forward to in the final tours of this academic semester?

Ahmad: They can expect to see more devoted youth leaders committed to ending the conflict. They will see it is a personal responsibility and comes out of a sense of urgency. I hope that the new audiences can see the two-state solution as in the international community’s interest to resolve ASAP.

IEP’s New England tour kicks-off U.S. election-themed semester, Part 2

Ahmad Omeir, center, of OneVoice Palestine, tells a student group about his work on the ground.

New York, September 25, 2012 – When Carl Hobert told a group of 50 students to stand if they’d ever lost a friend or family member to gun violence, nearly all of them stood.

Also standing were OneVoice staff members Israeli Adva Vilchinski and Palestinian Ahmad Omeir.

Hobert, of Axis of Hope Center for International Conflict Prevention, looked around at the students of Fenway High School. “Take how you relate,” Hobert told the students, “and build a bridge to how they relate.”

The time spent with Hobert and the students was just one of many impactful events of the International Engagement Program’s (IEP) New England tour. Over 200 people heard Adva’s and Ahmad’s message earlier in the week, and IEP continued to emphasize the parallel programs of their respective offices, as well as IEP’s “call to action” campaign, targeted at the next American president.

Day three of the tour saw the youth leaders at the Educating Global Citizens class at Boston University, the Harvard College Interfaith Council, and finally Tufts University’s J Street U group event.

“We have a common goal but we need to achieve it in different ways,” Adva said of OneVoice Israel and (OVI) and OneVoice Palestine (OVP) during the Tufts event. “What I see as the most important thing about our partnership is not that we need to do things together...but that we can separately do pragmatic things that will put more positive steps on the ground. I'm not trying to do dialogue. I'm trying to show there's a partner on both sides.”

The fourth and final day reached over 560 people, and included stops at Beaver Country Day School, Brandeis University, Brookline Workmen’s Circle, and the aforementioned Fenway High School. The dominant discussion was what Americans can do to help promote the two-state solution.

One comment from a Brandeis participant challenged American involvement in spearheading efforts to push parties to the table. IEP associate Shaina Low, in response to such criticism, reaffirmed America’s role in resolving the conflict.

“The American government has…a lot of influence,” Shaina said. “At OneVoice, we can say that all of our calls for the American public are coming directly from Israelis and Palestinians, who are in the majority of their societies. Maybe it’s not a vocal majority, maybe it’s a silent majority, but it is the majority.”

Ahmad jumped on this theme when he addressed the Workmen’s Circle later that day. “You [as Americans] do have a role,” he said. “Help the American leadership say what needs to be said, and to support Israelis and Palestinians with our work on the ground.”

IEP’s New England tour kicks-off U.S. election-themed semester, Part 1

Adva Vilchinski (far right) of OneVoice Israel explains to Middlebury College students her role in ending the conflict.

New York, September 25, 2012 – Professor Tamar Mayer believes that the world lives in the “seventh day” of the 1967 or Six-Day War, and will continue to unless something is done to change the dynamic.

“The majority of the population on each side [of the conflict] has been born into this unacceptable status quo,” said Mayer, director of the Rohatyn Center for International Affairs at Middlebury College. “And it is wholly appropriate that those who were born during the “seventh day” of the 1967 War lead [the change]. Our guests today fit this bill.”

Middlebury was just one of the many stops in the first tour of the International Engagement Program’s(IEP) fall semester. Staff members Adva Vilchinski of OneVoice Israel (OVI) and Ahmad Omeir of OneVoice Palestine (OVP) told over 800 New England participants – from schools to community members – that Americans can support their efforts on the ground while helping impact American foreign policy and help achieve Middle East peace.

From Sept. 10-13, Adva and Ahmad explained that Americans can play an important role in solving this conflict by participating in IEP’s “call to action,” which pressures the presidential candidates to put the conflict high on the agenda when one of them is elected.

The tour started with a visit to Middlebury and then Dartmouth College on the first day, followed by a Middle East Politics class at UMass-Lowell and a J Street event at Eitz Chayim Synagogue on day two.

“We believe at OneVoice Israel that solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not something which belongs to the left or right,” Adva said when asked about partisanship during the Dartmouth event. “It's something for all the people because ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is good for all Israelis no matter how you vote.”

Ahmad told audience members that the US has a continued role to play in reviving the two-state solution.

“When you try to work with change, and try to bring change into [Palestinian] society, it’s a long and difficult process,” said Ahmad. “You need to mobilize people. You’re shocking people out of their apathy, out of their despair and skepticism…by trying to show them that by creating positive facts, by getting them invested personally, that there is chance to actually achieve that solution. [And] what we need from the moderator [the US] is to be honest and neutral and help us have the right environment to move forward with the negotiations in a limited timeframe.”

Throughout the events, Adva offered her experiences in activist mobilization, outreach, and countering the pro-settlement expansion agenda, while Ahmad spoke about what a successful two-state solution needs: an end to the occupation and of all final status issues based on international resolutions, along with the creation of an independent Palestinian state.

Adva and Ahmad’s message was not lost on the days’ participants, but rather echoed and enhanced early and often.

Professor Mayer told the Middlebury audience that Adva, Ahmad, and their OneVoice peers “are engaged in peace and consensus-building efforts, working within their national communities to end the conflict.”

“They are committed to a two-state solution based on the June 4th, 1967 lines that will guarantee an end to the occupation,” she said. “They are Israeli and Palestinian activists who have dedicated themselves to working towards change and a better future for their societies.”

Christians, Muslims, Samaritans on their role promoting civil peace

Youths from the Christian, Muslim and Samaritan faiths on a field visit to the West Bank city of Bethlehem, part of a pilot program initiated by OneVoice Palestine titled The Role of Religion in Promoting Civil Peace.

New York, September 12, 2012—On a Wednesday evening in early July, the conference room at the historic Al-Yasmeen Hotel in the Old City of Nablus was bustling with chatter. A mixed group of 45 youths from the Christian, Muslim and Samaritan faiths had convened for a discussion on Islam’s role in promoting civil peace.

Mayor and Imam Omar Ishtayeh of nearby Tal village kicked off the conversation by briefly introducing some of Islam’s major precepts, before delving into comparisons to Christianity and Samaritanism in fostering interfaith understanding. After more than two hours of discussion, the event concluded with the young participants highly anticipating their next meeting. This was the third session of its kind under a pilot program titled The Role of Religion in Promoting Civil Peace, which OneVoice Palestine initiated in partnership with Generations For Peace to promote the co-existence of the three religions in Nablus.

One Voice Palestine has been developing a relationship with Generations For Peace for over three years, but this year has expanded the scope of their joint programs greatly, bringing events to five West Bank communities. The programs are tailored to address the needs of each specific community – from initiatives addressing gender issues and empowerment of women in Qalqilya, to social programming with disadvantaged children in Jenin, and interfaith dialogue in Nablus.

“Nablus is a melting pot with three religions mixed together, each promoting tolerance and acceptance of the other,” said Samer Makhlouf, executive director of OneVoice Palestine. “We wanted to shine a spotlight on the civil peace that residents enjoy, while also emphasizing that Palestinian national identity should prevail regardless of any religious background.”

African novelist Chinua Achebe first coined the term “civil peace” in 1971, which he used to title one of his short stories on life after the Nigerian Civil War.  The concept of civil peace and the necessary conditions to achieve it have since become central to conflict resolution and peace-building. In Nablus, the unique co-existence among the three religions has become a model of civil peace. While the majority of residents are Muslim, there are several hundreds of Christians and Samaritans living there today.

Samaritans consider themselves the true Israelites, with strict religious observances closely related to Judaism. Their total population stands around 750, roughly split between Mount Gerizim, near Nablus city, and Holon, south of Tel Aviv in Israel. It is believed that many Muslim families in Nablus are descendents of Samaritans.

To further the experience for the participants, OneVoice Palestine organized field visits in the city to the Greek Orthodox Saint Photina Church at Jacob’s Well, the Samaritan synagogue in the Old City, and the Great Mosque of Nablus, among others. The high attendance and enthusiasm shown by the youth motivated OneVoice Palestine to expand the field trips to Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity and Hebron’s Old City and Ibrahimi Mosque. The sites join the Samaritan synagogue as casualties of the conflict, sustaining at times extensive damage.

Two members of OneVoice’s local chapter in Hebron joined the group during their tour of the Old City to highlight the unique political situation they face, with a few hundred Jewish settlers occupying the city center and making life for its quarter of a million Palestinian residents unbearable. “It was very important to show our youth the urgency and need for creating political solutions to solve the current problems before we devolve from a political conflict to a religious one,” said Mohammad Asideh, OneVoice Palestine’s outreach coordinator.

The group, which grew to more than 50 by late July, also enjoyed an iftar, the evening meal that breaks the fast during the holy month of Ramadan, together and used the opportunity to evaluate the program and plan future activities. “Watching youth from different religious backgrounds come together and celebrate an iftar proved to me the importance of programs that emphasize religious tolerance and understanding,” said Asideh, who planned the evening. “Equally important, we engaged a large mixed group of youth eager for further involvement with OneVoice.”

As the peace process remains deadlocked, keeping the two-state solution alive across the occupied Palestinian territories has required an infusion of creative initiatives by OneVoice Palestine. By combining social and cultural activities with their political work, they have been able to grow in reach. With 18 active chapters, from Bethlehem to Qalqilya, OneVoice Palestine's Youth Leadership Program has expanded by more than 120 members in the first six months, with a total of nearly 600 youth leaders working across the West Bank. The 50 plus youths who participated in the civil peace program are ripe to join OneVoice Palestine’s two chapters in Nablus.

Youths from the Christian, Muslim and Samaritan faiths on a field visit to Hebron's Old City, part of a pilot program initiated by OneVoice Palestine titled The Role of Religion in Promoting Civil Peace.

Abdullah Hamarsheh, director of OneVoice Palestine's Youth Leadership Program, introduces the pilot program titled The Role of Religion in Promoting Civil Peace to youths from the Christian, Muslim and Samaritan faiths.

The group from Nablus, which grew to more than 50 by late July, enjoy an iftar, the evening meal during the holy month of Ramadan, together and use the opportunity to plan future activities.

J14 movement joins OneVoice in protesting stalled peace talks

OneVoice Israel erected a massive ice wall, symbolizing the "freeze" in peace talks and containing posters with information on dozens of under-funded social programs in Israel.

New York, August 28, 2012—The #J14 movement joined OneVoice Israel on Tuesday in Tel Aviv to draw for the first time the inextricable link between calls for social justice and demands for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Hundreds congregated in Rothschild Boulevard around a massive ice wall, symbolizing the "freeze" in peace talks and containing posters with information on dozens of under-funded social programs in Israel, while the government bleeds money toward conflict management over resolution. The Knesset's Two-State Solution Caucus, led by MK Yoel Hasson and MK Amir Peretz, backed the event and spoke critically about the Netanyahu government's growth of investments east of the Green Line over good faith negotiations with the Palestinians.

“Our social needs are being frozen along with the peace process,” said Tal Harris, OneVoice Israel executive director. “People forgot over the last 20 years that the peace process impacts their day-to-day life. We want to remind them of the need to freeze settlements and end the conflict once and for all by committing to serious negotiations.”

The #J14 protest movement originally wished to avoid politicizing their social justice drive, but could no longer ignore the hard facts. The government’s defense budget ballooned to $14.5 billion in 2012, much of it to maintain the occupation, while education and health suffer serious deficits. Israeli taxpayers have so far bankrolled the occupation and settlement of Palestinian land to the tune of $50 billion while struggling to make ends meet.

“The State of Israel cannot continue its economic prosperity while also maintaining the freeze in the peace process,” said Yossi Yona, a leading member of the #J14 movement. “We must present an integrated approach that includes the just and moral solution of two states, which ultimately translates to social justice for all.”

Singers Noa (Achinoam Nini) and Mira Awad, MKs Avishay Braverman, Nitzan Horowitz, Akram Hasoon, Dov Khenin and Raleb Majadele, and Ambassadors Ilan Baruch, Alon Liel and Daniel Shek, among others, participated in the headline-grabbing event.

"In life there is no status quo, if you don't move forward you go backwards," said MK Dov Khenin. "The government of Netanyahu speaks of two states, but acts on a daily basis to make this solution harder. The price? It’s not only for the Palestinians, we too are paying greatly."

OneVoice's activists in Israel are demanding halting settlement construction to restore confidence in the peace process and restart negotiations. In parallel, OneVoice Palestine is leading community initiatives to transform the frustration and hopelessness on the street into a mass unified call for a peace agreement that ends the occupation, establishes an independent Palestinian state and ends all claims.

Noa (Achinoam Nini) joins OneVoice and #J14 at Tel Aviv protest, linking calls for social justice and ending the conflict.

OneVoice's Tal Harris, The Brief's Nimrod Nir, and Peace Now's Yariv Oppenheimer pose in front of ice wall in Tel Aviv, symbolizing the link between social justice and ending the conflict.

OneVoice Europe trains British students in Middle East peace advocacy

OneVoice Europe offers 20 British students a three-day intensive training program on conflict resolution in the Middle East in July.

London, August 27, 2012—Academics, faith leaders and politicians joined OneVoice in London to offer 20 British students a three-day intensive training program on conflict resolution in the Middle East last month.

The sessions, the first of their kind to be organized by OneVoice Europe’s Outreach and Education Program, mirrored the training given to the movement’s youth leaders in Israel and Palestine. The diverse pool of participants, ages 18-26, from across the United Kingdom underwent a vigorous recruitment process to ensure representation of all views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“We've equipped and empowered a group of highly-qualified students with knowledge and skills on this specific issue that would be hard to obtain elsewhere," said Sharon Alsoodani, Outreach and Education Program director."With the potential to take influential positions within their communities and wider society, they embraced OneVoice's pragmatic win-win approach and left with the motivation to mobilize others."

OneVoice Palestine’s Executive Director Samer Makhlouf in Ramallah and OneVoice Israel’s Executive Director Tal Harris in Beersheba joined the students over Skype video conferencing and gave them an introduction on the movement and the grassroots power that fuels its work. This was followed by an open discussion with Rabbi Natan Levy, Canon Robert Reiss, and Imam Usama Hasan on the religious aspects of the conflict.

Sam Gross, an Orthodox Jew, commented how rare it was to see an Imam and a Rabbi interact with respect and understanding on such a controversial topic and felt privileged to have witnessed it.

Sessions with MP Ian Lucas, shadow minister for Middle East and Africa, academic Rory Miller, business leader David Levin, among others, covered everything from the Arab Peace Initiative to the economics of the conflict and the difference between the European Union and the United States on the issues.

“I arrived with preconceptions formed from looking at a single side of the conflict," said Ahmad Bismillah, a 19-year-old student at the London School of Economics. "Now, I realize that several issues like the economy and relations between the US and Europe have to be taken into account.”

Among the perks of the training program was a guided tour of the House of Lords, which the students were treated to after chatting with Lord Michael Levy about the challenges of achieving Middle East peace in the current climate.

On the third day, Debate Mate, a London-based social enterprise, led the sessions with the students. A set of challenging exercises helped the students focus their arguments and develop their public speaking. They then split up the group into two teams to debate such topics as the viability of the two-state solution and military intervention in Syria.

Debate Mate, which also runs international programming in countries such as the Nepal, Israel, Palestine, and the United States, had held successful training sessions with OneVoice’s youth leaders in Israel and Palestine.

Each day ended with a debrief session, allowing the students to reflect on the talks they heard and resolve any concerns. Individuals from different backgrounds were paired together for 30-minute walks to discuss the sessions and try to understand each other’s viewpoints.

OneVoice Europe’s Executive Director John Lyndon gave the closing presentation, highlighting some of the activism of OneVoice’s Israeli and Palestinian offices and injecting a massive dose of inspiration for what's possible when young people collaborate under the banner of conflict resolution.

“Many participants felt inspired by seeing the sheer scale and ambition of OneVoice’s work in the region,” said Lyndon. “They expressed interest in joining our student network to show solidarity with these efforts and help build a network of OneVoice activists from the US to Europe capable of supporting the chapters across Israel and Palestine.”

OneVoice Europe’s student network offers participants additional training, advocacy tools, and reunion activities. The student activists represent OneVoice at speaking and panel events, networking and outreach activities, and help organize Outreach and Education tours across the UK.

Rabbi Natan Levy, Canon Robert Reiss, and Imam Usama Hasan led an open discussion on the religious aspects of the conflict.

OVE's John Lyndon gave the closing presentation, highlighting some of the activism of OneVoice’s Israeli and Palestinian offices and injecting a massive dose of inspiration.

J14 movement and OneVoice to protest stalled peace talks

OneVoice Israel's Facebook ads titled The Cost of the Freeze promotes their upcoming protest in Tel Aviv, drawing for the first time the link between calls for social justice and demands for resolving the conflict.

New York, August 24, 2012—The occupation on the other side of the Green Line did not concern the #J14 movement until now.

No longer able to ignore the facts:

1. Israeli taxpayers have so far bankrolled the occupation and settlement of Palestinian land to the tune of $50 billion while struggling to make ends meet.
2. Settlers receive 22% more in subsidies for education, mortgages, and land purchases, while 90% of Israelis living in Israel proper face the soaring cost of living.

Stav Shaffir, leading member of the #J14 movement, will join OneVoice Israel and the Knesset's Two-State Solution Caucus, led by MK Yoel Hasson and MK Amir Peretz, at 5 pm local time next Tuesday in Tel Aviv to draw for the first time the inextricable link between calls for social justice and demands for resolving the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Yossi Yona, also of the #J14 movement, and actress Etsi Zackheim, among others, will participate in the protest.

The Netanyahu government favors expanding settlements and growing investments east of the Green Line over good faith negotiations with the Palestinians. It's time to say, No more! The protest is expected to draw large crowds to Rothschild Boulevard (between Herzl and Nachlat Binyamin streets), the site where the #J14 movement took off last year. OneVoice Israel is aggressively promoting the event through traditional and new media. Their youth leaders have been postering major cities with the details.

The protesters will congregate around a massive, transparent ice wall, symbolizing the "freeze" in peace talks and containing posters with information on dozens of under-funded social programs in Israel as the government bleeds money toward conflict management over resolution.

Backed by the Two-State Solution Caucus, OneVoice's activists in Israel are demanding halting settlement construction to restore confidence in the peace process and restart negotiations. In Palestine, OneVoice is leading community initiatives to transform the frustration and hopelessness on the street into mass unified call for a peace agreement that establishes an independent Palestinian state and ends all claims.

OneVoice warns Knesset members of Palestinian economic collapse

MK Yoel Hasson (Kadima), MK Amir Peretz (Kadima), Dr. Gershon Baskin, Gilead Sher, MK Avishay Braverman (Labor) discuss the Palestinian Authority's economic crisis in the Knesset on Wednesday.

New York, July 25, 2012—Members of the Two-State Solution Caucus in the Knesset heard a presentation by OneVoice Israel on Wednesday, warning that the Palestinian Authority was on the verge of economic collapse.

Over 100 concerned citizens joined a dozen parliamentarians, including Caucus chairmen MK Yoel Hasson and MK Amir Peretz, in a discussion with OneVoice Israel about the implications of an ailing Palestinian economy and stalled peace talks on Israeli politics and security. The report, prepared by Gershon Baskin, an expert on Israeli-Palestinian relations, revealed how the economic crisis dangerously interconnects with negatively shifting Palestinian public opinion on the possibilities of ending the occupation and achieving the two-state solution.
» Click here for the complete report (available in Hebrew only)

“This dangerous combination increases chances of a change in Palestinian leadership when, for many, there’s never been a more ideal leadership for peacemaking” said Baskin. "Increasing numbers of Israelis and Palestinians are losing confidence that there remains a possible two-state solution, which creates urgency for positive political movement on both sides,” he added.

The Palestinian economy witnessed a sharp drop in growth so far in 2012, falling from 9% during the first quarter of last year to 5.4% this year, according to the report, which relied on data from the Palestinian Finance Ministry, high-level Palestinian security officials, and the World Bank. The Palestinian Authority accumulated a national debt of $1.5 billion, in addition to its debt of $1.2 billion to local private banks.

With restrictions on Palestinian exports and half of the Authority's budget contingent on the transfer of tax revenues that Israel collects — though often punitively withholds — for them, the Palestinian government has struggled to pay 153,000 public sector employees, including 30,000 security personnel.

“Prospects for ending the occupation are narrowing while the growth of the Palestinian economy lags behind, creating conditions for another round of bloodshed,” said Tal Harris, executive director of OneVoice Israel. “The alternative to peace is not the status quo; the alternative to peace is war. The solution lies in reducing Palestinian dependence on Israel and allowing them to establish an independent state at peace with all its neighbors.”

The report also noted the Palestinian Authority’s inability to seek assistance from the International Monetary Fund because it lacks internationally recognized country status. The Knesset's Two-State Solution Caucus members in attendance, representing Kadima, Labor, Meretz, and Hadash, found the facts eye-opening and stressed the urgency of returning to negotiations.

"The Palestinian Authority's severe financial crisis and the implications presented in the discussion should disturb everyone's sleep," said MK Yoel Hasson (Kadima). "The prime minister must cease his policy of inaction on the political status quo, which does not serve Israel's interests."

The 35 members of the Two-State Solution Caucus, conceived and co-created by OneVoice Israel and MK Hasson, ensure the two-state solution remains a top priority on the Israeli government's agenda and maintain pressure to end the conflict.

Adjusting to the Middle East’s Unpredictability

By Darya Shaikh*

Whenever OneVoice enters a strategic planning process, we always recite the phrase: the only thing predictable about the Middle East is just how absolutely unpredictable it is.

This notion of a constantly shifting ground upon which we are building our movement is true in the immediate sense, but fails to account for the remarkably – and tragically – constant overarching paradigm Israelis and Palestinians find themselves in. Make no mistake, the past two decades have been defined by an entrenched status quo in which an ongoing conflict and occupation have stymied any progress toward the two-state solution.

In response to this intransigence, activists and organizers intent on creating a better future for Israelis and Palestinians can often get caught up in being reactive to an immediate opportunity.

This is what led OneVoice to join the chorus of commentators, politicians and UN officials in resurrecting the Arab Peace Initiative.

Crafted by the 22 Arab League member states 10 year ago, the Arab Peace Initiative was – and remains to this day – a unique starting point to end the conflict. It proposed a comprehensive resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict within a broader framework of normalization of relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors.

Representing an abrupt about-face, it contained the potential for a new era of regional stability and cooperation in the wake of the League’s historical refusal to engage with Israel. It was designed to give Israelis the confidence to take risks for peace with the Palestinians through the promise of a stable Middle East while providing Arab backing for Palestinians to make the necessary compromises to finally establish a Palestinian state.

Thomas Friedman and MK Meir Sheetrit (Kadima) were among the first to stand up in support of the Arab Peace Initiative. They saw what we see, an opportunity to break the political deadlock, trying something new to solve this old, entrenched conflict. However, Israel’s leadership never engaged with the plan or with the leaders who proposed it. Worse yet, was the failure of the government or anyone, for that matter, to effectively present the document to the Israeli people.

By rejecting it out right, the Israeli people never got the chance to see the Arab Peace Initiative for what it is and what it could be: a momentous initiative, a positive entry point for negotiations and an encouraging sign of untapped potential for peace.

It is for these reasons that when our Palestinian and Israeli youth leaders on the ground proposed the idea to launch parallel and complementary campaigns centered on the opportunity contained within the Initiative, we jumped at the chance.

Behind the campaigns was a sense of urgency. If we could show the people the latent potential of the Initiative and compel them to push the Israeli government to reconsider the document, we could potentially break the stalemate. OneVoice youth leaders in Palestine and Israel held parallel educational events to spread the message of the document, organized media stunts to publicize it and launched social media campaigns to mobilize a groundswell of public support for it.

Here in the United States, we launched our own call to action complementing their work. We asked all of you to get involved and help us put the Initiative back on our politicians’ radars.

Many of you immediately responded to our call. Using Twitter and Facebook, you messaged your elected officials and reminded them of their responsibility in resolving the conflict and the role the Arab Peace Initiative could play. Thank you.

Despite this initial momentum, in early May, a shift occurred. Shaul Mofaz’s opposition Kadima party agreed to join Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government, creating one of the strongest government’s in Israeli history. The political reshuffling that has resulted has not yet subsided and no one is quite sure how the Israeli political landscape will look once the dust settles.

We thought long and hard about the best course of action. We agreed that given this significant shift, the Arab Peace Initiative was no longer the best vehicle for OneVoice to push for the two-state solution.

One thing is certain, though: this government, should it choose to, now has the mandate and the majority needed to take huge strides toward peace. OneVoice’s job – and it has already begun – is to ensure that they do.

The Arab Peace Initiative remains a potent symbol of potential regional stability, and we will continue to draw on the language and precedent it set. The coalition government, however, presents new possibilities and new challenges that demand new tactics.

*Darya Shaikh is acting CEO of the OneVoice Movement.

OneVoice Activists Warn Against Report Promoting Settlement Expansion

A blindfolded Tal Harris urges the Israeli government to open their eyes and see the inherent dangers in adopting a report by a government-appointed committee that promotes West Bank settlement expansion.

New York, July 10, 2012—Dozens of OneVoice activists assembled outside the Defense Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv’s Kiriya Complex on Tuesday to protest against an Israeli government-appointed committee’s report, which recommended legalizing the majority of West Bank outposts.

Wearing blindfolds, OneVoice Israeli activists warned against government blindness toward the dangers inherent in adopting the report. They held up banners that read, “Enough with the blindness; enough with the freeze in negotiations,” and urged Defense Minister Ehud Barak to open his eyes.

“Adopting the Levy report is akin to shutting one's eyes,” said Tal Harris, executive director of OneVoice Israel. “We stand blindfolded in front of Defense Minister Barak’s office to scorn the government’s cowardly conduct.”

The committee of three jurists, led by retired Supreme Court judge Edmond Levy, argued the West Bank was not under Israeli military occupation given that “no other legal entity has ever had its sovereignty over the area cemented under international law.” They proposed legalizing unauthorized outposts on Palestinian land and regulating settlement construction to enable “natural growth.”

“Excuses, framed in legal terms, that promote settlement expansion and ignore the 1967 lines, do not excuse inaction toward ending the conflict,” said Harris. “Legal or not, the conflict is a risk to our state and invites the next round of bloodshed.”

The international community considers the territories that Israel conquered during 1967 Six-Day War to be under occupation, and accordingly views all settlements built on them as illegal.

Responding to the report, U.S. State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said, “We do not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity and we oppose any effort to legalize settlement outposts.”

Passersby showed support for the actions OneVoice youth activists were taking, and many of them signed their petition to stop settlement activity in the West Bank and restart stalled negotiations toward the two-state solution.

Since June, OneVoice’s Israeli activists have been mobilizing in a different major city each week by wearing heavy winter coats symbolizing the need to freeze the settlement policy and unfreeze peace talks. They’ve held protests outside the Israeli Presidential Conference in Jerusalem and annual education conference in Tel Aviv, grabbing local and national news headlines.

Dozens of OneVoice Israel's activists assembled outside the Defense Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv’s Kiriya Complex on Tuesday to warn against a government-appointed committee’s report, proposing to legalize the majority of West Bank outposts.