OneVoice Movement

OneVoice trainees of Generations For Peace spark community action

OneVoice Palestine youth leaders put their training with Generations For Peace to practice, working with children in the West Bank city of Jenin.

New York, June 12, 2012—On a snowy day in March, Malaka Samara and two other senior OneVoice Palestine (OVP) youth leaders sat anxiously in a conference room at the Rocky Hotel in Ramallah, eagerly waiting for the others to arrive. Scheduled for that day, and already running late, was a Generations For Peace training seminar and refresher course for OVP participants.

“As the snow came down, we thought we were going to be forced to postpone the meeting,” recalls Samara. “The roads were bad and transportation from cities across the West Bank wasn’t safe.”

Slowly, though, all 90 participants filtered into the room, lured as much by the scheduled events – team building exercises and trust games along with a review of their individual progress and a discussion of upcoming projects – as by the promise of time in the snow.

OVP has been working with Generations For Peace in differing capacities for over three years, but this training session marked the first time that volunteers from all five cities where the two host joint programs – Jenin, Qalqilya, Nablus, Bethlehem and Jericho – had come together at the same event.

“Everyone is engaged in the same overall project, but everyone is used to working in their own city,” said Mohammad Asideh, OVP’s outreach coordinator and one of the other trainers organizing the events that day. “It was a much needed opportunity to connect everyone with each other for the first time.”

Any organization’s success at breaking the lethargy and advancing a solution to the conflict – precisely OVP’s goal as they engage Palestinians and promote the two-state solution – depends as much on the commitment and dedication of its members as it does on the relationships they cultivate in local communities. And, by that standard, the well-attended training in Ramallah is indicative of the huge strides OVP has taken through their partnership with Generations For Peace.

In 2009, OneVoice members joined 77 other delegates from 17 different countries at a Generations For Peace international training camp in Amman, Jordan. Generations For Peace’s mandate – providing mentorship and training to youths from divided communities around the world, who then return to their communities and pass on their skills to others – made it a natural ally for OVP and their formal partnership was born the following year.

“We have many common values with Generations For Peace,” said Asideh, himself a participant in Generations For Peace’s advanced-level training camp earlier this year. “Peace-building, advocacy, partnerships, working with youth. These are all shared values between our organizations.”

The structure of Generations For Peace lends itself particularly well to OneVoice Palestine’s project of mass mobilization. Generations For Peace’s cascading structure – whereby youth leaders trained with Generations For Peace unique curriculum then cascade their skills, transmitting them to others – involves two levels of participation: delegates, who have completed Generations For Peace training, received extensive mentorship and begun to transmit their knowledge and skills to others; and Peace Pioneers, who are experienced in implementing events on the ground and have met mutually agreed upon targets.

That snowy day in Ramallah, Asideh and Samara were training delegates to add to the 150 OVP members across the West Bank already equipped to lead seminars on everything from public speaking and facilitation to the role of sports in peace-building. These 150 Generations For Peace-OVP delegates have, in turn, shared their joint message of conflict resolution with an additional 1000 participants.

“The partnership has grown over the years as both of our organizations have grown,” said Samer Makhlouf, executive director of OneVoice Palestine. “In the first phase we both maintained our own systems of training and targeting, and our own general outlooks. After reevaluating our work though, we have both adopted components of each other’s models.”

The latest phase of the partnership between OneVoice Palestine and Generations For Peace, dating to March 2012, marks the third chapter of their relationship and has seen the scope of their joint programs expand greatly, bringing events to five West Bank communities.

The programs are tailored to address the needs of concerns of each specific community. This means that the events vary from community to community – from seminars on the role of religion in politics complete with field visits to churches and mosques in Nablus, to initiatives to address gender issues and empower women in Qalqilya, and social programming with disadvantaged children in Jenin – providing practice and invaluable experience to OneVoice youth leaders eager to hone their public speaking, advocacy and engagement skills.

“For the community members participating in the events, the goal is to build bridges between people,” said Asideh. “But for us – for the OneVoice Palestine members leading the events – we get the chance to work in the field, to implement what we have learned in training.”

Beyond that, the events introduce OVP members to a wider cross section of Palestinian society, allowing them to interact with, learn from, and eventually speak with greater authority about all Palestinians.

For their part, says Jadranka Stikovac Clark, a board member of Generations For Peace and director of its institute, Generations For Peace has “been very happy with the past nine months of intensive programming in Palestine, both in terms of numbers of participants and the feedback received.”

While they maintain constant communication with their volunteers in Palestine, Generations For Peace will be sending a researcher to the West Bank next month to better assess the impact of their work on the ground and the direction of the programming in the future. And, as OneVoice moves to reopen their offices in Gaza and reposition themselves amongst the actors within Gazan civil society, Generations For Peace is considering following OVP’s lead and expanding their partnership to Gaza as well.

“We’ll continue so long as there is a need for programs that are tailor-made using local communities’ assets and needs,” said Clark.

The ultimate goal in mind for both organizations is a cohesive society better able to represent its constituent parts and put forth a national vision. On the road to national unity, though, it’s all about smaller victories.

“We work hard to make connections between people, that’s what many of the events are about,” said Mohammad Qadi, an OVP youth leader and Generations For Peace Pioneer.

“In Nablus, we use non-competitive sports in order to build relationships and awareness,” said Qadi. “We put players from different communities – from the city, from villages and refugee camps – on the same team, girls and boys mixed, so they build trust.”

While the unity government may have stalled in recent months, this bottom-up approach has been paying dividends, both for the communities it has touched and the OneVoice members leading the way.

And the result Qadi sees among the boys and girls he works with?

“They all want to play – so they forget about where they are from and the color of their skin. They play together. This is how we bring people together, to learn how to trust, how to make leaders, how to support each other.”

“Peace building [is a] slow process,” Clark stressed. That “there is a positive individual behavioral change thus reassures us that we are on the right track.”

A Palestinian girl from the West Bank city of Jericho participates in the Sports and Peace Program.

OneVoice Palestine youth leaders work with disabled children in Beit Sahour, near the West Bank city of Bethlehem.

UK Muslim-Jewish Group connects over Skype with Israeli and Palestinian activists

Two dozen members of the Nottingham Muslim-Jewish Dialogue Group connect over Skype with an Israeli youth leader in Tel Aviv and a Palestinian youth leader in Ramallah at an event organized by OneVoice Europe's Outreach and Education Program.

London, May 29, 2012—Members of the Nottingham Muslim-Jewish Dialogue Group assembled at a local synagogue earlier this month to connect over Skype with an Israeli youth leader in Tel Aviv and a Palestinian youth leader in Ramallah. The session allowed them to learn firsthand about parallel grassroots efforts to achieve the two-state solution.

Two dozen members listened intently to a brief presentation by OneVoice Europe’s Outreach and Education Program Director Sharon al-Soodani, and then opened the floor for a question and answer session with Ben Ofer and Abeer al-Natsheh through video conferencing. Part of an ongoing series – the program has held 38 sessions so far and reached more than 900 individuals – the events allow UK communities vested in the Middle East conflict to address this often highly volatile topic in an intimate and safe environment, using a constructive approach.

“It was an excellent meeting,” said Jeff Cohen, co-chair of the dialogue group, after the session. “We not only gained an insight into what it is like for people living in Israel and Palestine, but it also helped to cement relationships in our group as well.”

Abeer, a 28-year-old Jerusalem resident who holds a bachelor’s in computer science, answered several questions about living conditions in the West Bank and freedom of movement between Jerusalem and other major Palestinian cities. Ben, a 24-year-old law student, spoke about the first-ever Two-State Solution Caucus in the Knesset, which OneVoice Israel co-conceived, and the recent successes of using social media to impact Israeli society.

“The Nottingham Muslim-Jewish Dialogue Group sets an example of how interfaith groups can explore both the comfortable and uncomfortable aspects of dialogue,” said Sharon. “By participating in a Q&A with two of our activists from Israel-Palestine, they have engaged together in a pragmatic approach that challenges the status quo and demands justice and peace for all those affected.”

Sharon explained to the group that her program focuses on forward-thinking and solutions to the conflict. The approach has allowed the program to successfully improve relations between Jewish, Christian and Muslim communities and promote a win-win scenario to conflict resolution in Israel-Palestine and in British communities, schools and campuses. OneVoice advocates for the two-state solution based on the pre-1967 borders, and resolving all final status issues according to international law and resolutions.

School students, university students and members of communities who are most affected by the Middle East conflict are finding a space, through the Outreach and Education Program, where they can be heard and understood. The program enables them to channel their energy and passion to be active toward ending the occupation and finding a just solution to the conflict.

“Grassroots understanding here in the UK of the needs of both sides in the process and how their experiences have shaped their positions is what will eventually lead them to take a realistic and pragmatic attitude toward resolving conflict and divisions both in their own societies and back in the Middle East,” Sharon explained.

Interfaith groups have been particularly keen to invite Sharon to work with their participants on this issue, where they are failing to deal with it effectively. A connection with five synagogues, three mosques and nine churches has been established. A network of nine Muslim organizations, two Christian organizations and six Jewish organizations has been built, and extended into 22 other organizations, including interfaith, community development and local councils.

Ben Ofer spoke to members of the Nottingham Muslim-Jewish Dialogue Group about the first-ever Two-State Solution Caucus in the Knesset as well as successes in social media activism to impact Israeli society.

Abeer al-Natsheh spoke to members of the Nottingham Muslim-Jewish Dialogue Group about living conditions in the West Bank and freedom of movement between Jerusalem and other major Palestinian cities.

WATCH: OneVoice activists share why they joined the movement

New York, May 14, 2012—Marking the 10th anniversary of the OneVoice Movement, some of OneVoice Palestine's most senior youth leaders - activists who have shown their dedication to the two-state solution, who have engaged Palestinians in town hall meetings and creative campaigns, and who have met with Palestinian politicians - answer the question, 'Why did I join OneVoice?'.

We want to know why YOU joined the movement! Share the stories of how you became involved with OneVoice and why you believe in the two-state solution with us on Facebook and Twitter. OneVoice is made up of individuals - but all of our voices, taken together, make a movement! Add your voice.

OneVoice Israel launches campaign: Netanyahu, will you sign?

OneVoice Israel poster, part of their new campaign focused on the Arab Peace Initiative, reads: "Bibi, meet Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, emir of Qatar: In exchange for a divided Jerusalem, he offers us normalization, diplomatic relations, and peace. He calls it the Arab Peace Initiative. So what do you say? Worth it?”

New York, April 3, 2012—OneVoice Israel unveiled a new campaign last Wednesday, intended to highlight the Arab Peace Initiative (API) to the Israeli public and raise it within the political agenda.

Ten years ago at the Beirut Summit of the Arab League, the API was proposed as a regional attempt to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict while ending the wider Arab-Israeli conflict as well. It offered a comprehensive and peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the normalization of relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors. The API represented an abrupt about-face in the regional political field: from the Arab League's refusal to negotiate or recognize Israel, the API ushered in a new era in Middle East relations and the potential for regional stability and cooperation.

In a press release published in Hebrew on their Facebook page, OneVoice Israel outlined the intention of the campaign: "The Arab Peace Initiative embodies the spirit of the Arab moderate camp [...] For the past 10 years, successive Israeli governments have refused to address it formally or negotiate based on its content. The Arab Peace Initiative is still alive, though, and we believe that Israel's leaders need to respond to the initiative with a resounding 'Yes'."

The campaign, designed to put the initiative back on the peace-process map, will be unrolled in three phases: the first phase consists of raising public awareness about the initiative and the historic opportunity for compromise it embodies; in the second phase, this awareness will be turned into mass mobilization around the initiative as a means of restarting the fledgling peace process; the campaign will conclude by channeling the public's demands for a government response to the API to Israeli politicians.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, addressing the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, said: "If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then what is it? That's right, it's a duck — but this duck is a nuclear duck. And it's time the world started calling a duck a duck." The strategic threat a nuclear Iran presents is not the only political issue being misinterpreted; "the Arab Peace Duck," wrote OneVoice Israel Executive Director Tal Harris in an op-ed piece, "has been waiting for Israel for 10 years now. It is time it too receives the appropriate response."

To mark the beginning of the OneVoice campaign, 80 toy "Arab Peace Ducks" were sent to Members of the Knesset and senior media correspondents along with the text of the Arab Peace Initiative — a friendly reminder that a potential partner for peace has yet to be given a real chance.

Playing on Netanyahu's reference to Iran as a nuclear duck, OneVoice Israel inundated Israeli MKs with 'Arab Peace Ducks' and copies of the Arab Peace Initiative to get them to see the API for what it really is: a historic chance for peace.

From tents to town halls, Ahmad Sholi volunteers for national unity

OneVoice Palestine's Ahmad Sholi was recognized last month for his community organizing and volunteer work with an award from the Sharek Youth Forum.

New York, January 9, 2012—With the world's attention still rapt by the waves of unrest, protest and political upheaval gripping Egypt, Algeria and the region as a whole, Ahmad Sholi was busy trying to bring change to Palestine.

Ahmad was among those in the first surge of Palestinians who emerged in the leaderless and nameless movement, taking over city centers around the West Bank and Gaza Strip in makeshift camps on March 15 to demand reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas and a unity government.

"We felt, we still feel, like we were part of something great," Ahmad says, excitement in his voice as he recalls the atmosphere and camaraderie of the movement. "People around us may have thought it was pointless at first, but we believed."

The movement was, like other Arab Spring protests around the region, a youth driven initiative, with many of the people involved looking for a new form of political expression. Ahmad's involvement in the Palestinian national movement, though, began long before the tents went up on March 15.

Walking into a OneVoice session in Nablus three years ago, he was skeptical of the organization. "I heard talk of the two-state solution, of 1967 borders," he remembers of his understanding of OneVoice before the town hall meeting, "and I thought, what are we going to do about the other Palestine, about Haifa, about Yaffa?"

That meeting changed Ahmad's mind. "The Palestinians I met there told me to think long and hard about what I want and about what is possible," he remembers. "We have all lost people. In the second intifada we lost a lot of our youth. I lost many friends. We didn't gain anything. When I thought about that, I realized there must be another solution. We won't forget Palestine – but we need to live in peace, we need to end the occupation, we need our country."

And so Ahmad got involved: having completed OneVoice's advanced youth leadership training program, he led town hall meetings across the West Bank and recruited others to join the OneVoice network as well. Beyond his OneVoice involvement, he volunteered with a community service center in Nablus, working with children and the disabled community, before recruiting 30 people from his own community to volunteer and establish a local center in his own town.

His community organizing efforts were recognized last month when, along with OneVoice Palestine's Ibrahim Mubarak, he received an Awnah award for youth development and empowerment at a national ceremony organized by the Sharek Youth Forum in honor of 30 Palestinian volunteers and presided over by Salam Fayyad.

Underlying Ahmad's community work is a belief in the importance of individual engagement. This same idea, of getting youths politically involved, is what inspired his efforts with the March 15 movement. The camps, which sprung up in Nablus, Ramallah, Jenin and Tulkarem in the West Bank and in Gaza City in Gaza, borrowed much in organizational structure from similar movements in neighboring countries. But the impetus behind the movement, and thus the content, was markedly different.

"I wouldn't call it anger," says Ahmad, reflecting on the atmosphere in the camp, comparing it with more violent uprisings in Egypt and Syria. "We shared food and blankets. It was festive. But people were definitely frustrated."

The frustration that Ahmad refers to stems from the political division between Fatah and Hamas. Families, communities, towns, cities and the entire Palestinian national identity have been pulled apart by it.

And what happens when that division cuts too deep?

"We took to the streets to pressure Hamas and Fatah to reconcile," says Ahmad. "We came together on Facebook, built camps in the center of cities, we organized."

In other words: March 15 happens.

That the story of the March 15 movement – Ahmad's story – is not better known is understandable, if not excusable. In a region which saw four longstanding autocrats fall from power within 10 months, a preliminary agreement between rival political factions to work together may seem paltry in comparison. Yet, in many respects, the Palestinian movement was remarkably successful, no matter the field of comparison.

"In the first days in Nablus there were less than 10 of us. We draped a big flag like a tarp and slept under it," recalls Ahmad. "That first night was very cold. It rained. We could have ended the campaign and gone home right then. But we didn't – we stayed."

From less than 10 people during the first week, the camp in Nablus soon swelled to over 50. The camp site became a makeshift community center resembling the ones Ahmad volunteers in as protesters, mostly students like Ahmad, used their time in between studying for their own university exams, to hold classes for neighborhood children.

All of this changed how people saw the movement in Nablus: indifference turned to engagement. "The police," Ahmad remembers, "were suspicious of us in the first week and told us to go home. By the second week they joined us, sitting in the camp with us during the daytime."

The movement grew from a trickle of disaffected youths, something easily dismissible, to a torrent of frustration, calling for action, demanding change. In the months since the preliminary agreement was announced there have been further talks toward a unity government and elections in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 2012, as well as murmurs of incorporating Hamas into the PLO, thereby including the entire Palestinian Diaspora in future elections.

Looking back on the movement, it's impossible to miss the pride in Ahmad's voice. "We did that – as youths, as people committed, as people involved in simple actions and community activities – we made a difference and pushed our politicians to end the division."

The next question – where is the movement heading – is more difficult to answer. "People are unsure of what will come next. There is mistrust that has been built up over years that is not easy to break," says Ahmad Omeir, OneVoice Palestine's communications officer and a participant in the Ramallah camp. "But the point of the movement remains: to have people gather around one flag. By bringing people together and demanding a national conversation and national representation, the movement compliments our efforts in OneVoice Palestine."

And, on April 27, as Fatah and Hamas announced an outline for reconciliation?

"Celebrations in the camp," recalls Ahmad. "But I went home to shower."

OneVoice message reaches politicians at UNAOC forum

OneVoice's John Lyndon, Tal Harris and Samer Makhlouf lead a discussion on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the fourth annual United Nations Alliance of Civilizations Forum in Qatar.

New York, December 21, 2011—OneVoice delegates led a session at the fourth annual United Nations Alliance of Civilizations Forum in Qatar last week, taking the opportunity to present a united Israeli and Palestinian vision of the two-state solution.

Attended by political, corporate and civil society leaders, activists, journalists and academics, the forum brought over 2,500 participants together to present and debate actions to improve cross-cultural relations as a means of building lasting peace.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict was a dominant topic during many of the events, with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, among others, mentioning the urgency for a solution to the conflict in their remarks. The forum, with delegates from 130 countries, involved one of the most diverse audiences OneVoice has ever engaged.

"This conflict is everyone's business, and its shockwaves are felt far beyond the borders of Israel and Palestine," John Lyndon, executive director of OneVoice Europe, reiterated to the 50 attendees at the OneVoice workshop. "All heads of state at the opening sessions of the forum spoke about it. We need to ensure that we channel this interest and concern toward pragmatic and constructive ends."

OneVoice has cultivated a close relationship with the UNAOC in recent years. This was the third UNAOC forum OneVoice has participated in, having attended previous conferences in Istanbul and Rio de Janiero, and High Representative of the UNAOC Jorge Sampaio, visited OneVoice Palestine's offices in Ramallah in October.

Sampaio endorsed OneVoice's grassroots activism as the greatest avenue to effect change. "Watching your presentation," he told OneVoice Palestine staff and youth leaders in Ramallah, "I was thinking about what kind of work and activities our organizations can do jointly. There is a huge range of opportunities for cooperation."

OneVoice's presentation, focusing on the urgency and potential of the two-state solution, the threats it currently faces, and the international and diplomatic actions needed to herald it, did not go unchallenged by audience members, some of whom espoused alternative approaches to resolving the conflict. Yet, for many of the delegates from across the Arab world, the workshop presented an all-too-rare opportunity to hear an Israeli moderate's perspective on ending the conflict and to see Israelis and Palestinians share a common vision for the two-state solution.

OneVoice representatives were also invited to attend a closed door briefing on the state of the conflict. The meeting was attended by politicians from around the world, including Sampaio, former president of Portugal, Miguel Ángel Moratinos, former EU special representative for the Middle East peace process, and Riyad Maliki, Palestinian foreign affairs minister.

Tal Harris, executive director of OneVoice Israel, used the platform to urge the leaders to broaden their engagement with voices in Israel opposed to the conflict and to remain open to partnerships with Israeli organizations trying to break the status quo.

"The window of opportunity is closing," Samer Makhlouf, executive director of OneVoice Palestine, told the delegates. "We now feel the support of the people in Tahrir Square, and across the Arab world. But the Arab states and the Arab people can help us by engaging pragmatically, like, for instance, with the Arab Peace Initiative."

Tal Harris, executive director of OneVoice Israel, presents a OneVoice pin to Riyad Maliki, Palestinian foreign affairs minister.

OneVoice Palestine's Samer Makhlouf shares OneVoice's vision of the two-state solution with Hamas political advisor Ahmad Yousef at the UNAOC forum in Qatar.

OneVoice Europe's Outreach and Education Program top highlights of 2011

London, December 21, 2011—OneVoice Europe’s Outreach and Education Program is a new, and rapidly expanding, project aimed at engaging and influencing thousands across the United Kingdom.

Since May, OneVoice has brought four Israeli and Palestinian youth leaders to 15 schools and 14 diverse communities to share their stories with over 1,200 British students and community members. Additionally, OneVoice has set up video conferences to connect youth leaders in Israel and Palestine with over 200 people around the country. What follows are highlights from the 2011 tours:

1. Running two events with women’s communities during our November tour focusing on the essential role women need to play in conflict resolution and the positive response youth leaders Shir Lachish and Thuraya Aghbar generated.
2. Bringing an Israeli narrative of pragmatism and peace to 25 Muslim girls at the Islamia Girls Secondary School, many of whom had never been exposed to an Israeli moderate’s perspective or to a joint Israeli-Palestinian proposal for a two-state solution.
3. Eating baklava and other Arabic sweets on Edgeware road with Shir and Thuraya to celebrate Eid.
4. Seeing the level of interest and knowledge St. Paul’s student exhibited during the school session with Thuraya and Shir, and the prospect of running a joint school tour in Israel and the West Bank with students from St. Paul’s and OneVoice activists.
5. The obvious impact Uri Fishelson and Antwan Saca made on the girls at Handsworth Wood Girls School, Birmingham, and witnessing how the two youth leaders encouraged the students to open up the discussion to more diverse viewpoints.
6. Seeing OneVoice youth leaders Shir Lachish and Ahmad Omeir use a live video conference to help build bridges between faith communities at an event with Makki Masjid and St. Agnes’ Longsight Parish Church.
7. Taking Thuraya to eat her first dish of noodles on Carnaby Street in London and teaching her to eat with chopsticks.
8. Watching Thuraya and Shir tell their personal stories in conjunction with Robi Damelin and Seham Abu Awwad from the Bereaved Families Forum. It was an emotional moment seeing the two generations of women come together for the same cause.
9. Seeing the connections made between youth leaders Uri and Antwan and the sixth formers they spoke with during the May tour, who will in turn take OneVoice’s message to polarized university campuses.
10. Hearing Foreign Affairs Shadow Minister Stephen Twigg mirror OneVoice’s Tal Harris and Rami Rabayah in his calls for increased pressure from civil society and increased grassroots mobilization in pushing for a two-state solution.

International Education Program top highlights of 2011

New York, December 19, 2011—Since September, OneVoice's International Education Program has brought six incredible Israeli and Palestinians youth leaders to 14 university campuses to share their stories with over 1,600 students and community members across four states. What follows are highlights from the 2011 tours:

1. Seeing the enthusiasm of Penn State students following our IEP event in October – and reading their emails the next day, anxious to start their own OneVoice chapter.
2. Meeting high school students through our buildOn partnership at events in New York and San Francisco and seeing the students make larger connections between youth activism in Israel and Palestine and the occupy protests going on around them.
3. Sharing our youth leaders’ stories with policymakers in Congress, the State Department and White House.
4. Partnering with the American Task Force on Palestine, Americans for Peace Now, and the Foundation for Middle East Peace in a briefing on Capitol Hill with Eyal Shapira and Obada Shtaya about the future of the two-state solution. Watch a video of our Capitol Hill briefing here!
5. Being invited to lead a discussion at the prestigious Council on Foreign Relations in New York.
6. The delicious homemade brunch we ate over fruitful conversation at Temple Beth El in San Mateo, co-sponsored by St. Andrew’s Church.
7. Seeing Gabi Avner and Anas Ashqar prepare their statements and questions before meeting Israeli MK Shlomo Molla and seeing how energized MK Molla was by the enthusiasm of Gabi and Anas.
8. Hearing Professor Joshua Davis’ inspiring personal story of his time in experiences during the first intifada at our OneVoice event at the University of San Francisco School of Law.
9. Hearing the tremendously positive feedback after our events at Temple Sinai in San Francisco from a Jewish community, previously depoliticized, eager and excited to engage with the issues.
10. Participating in a live online skype discussion on youth activism and the role of social media with the Movements.org.

Innovators in Action: Daniel Lubetzky

OneVoice Founder Daniel Lubetzky was featured in TakePart's "Innovators in Action" series recently. He used the opportunity to talk about what inspires him, and ultimately OneVoice, to work for peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

“The overwhelming majority of Israelis and Palestinians are ordinary citizens, moderate people, who just want to move on with their lives... We are trying to help both people rise up, so they see and they connect and they build a human infrastructure of moderates to propel their political leaders to end the conflict."

TakePart is the digital division of Participant Media, whose slate of films includes An Inconvenient Truth, The Cove, Food, Inc., Waiting for Superman, and Page One: Inside the New York Times.

If we can't talk here, where can we talk

San Francisco Law School professor Joshua Davis shows students gathered at the OneVoice event the rose he was given 25 years ago while in Palestine.

New York, December 1, 2011—"Lesson number one," Professor Joshua Davis said, as he opened a thick book and showed the roughly 55 students gathered at the OneVoice event at San Francisco Law School a dried rose from between the pages, "is don't give up."

That rose, he told the class, is over 25 years old. He was given it by a woman in Palestine as an apology. Studying in Palestine during the first intifada (uprising), his presence as an American Jew during a time of suffering angered one of his host's friends. One night in particular, he told the students, a fight broke out ending with the friend storming off.

She came back later that night to apologize and gave him the rose he still has to this day. "I took it and pressed it into the book," he told the class, gesturing to the thick tome A Complete Guide to William Shakespeare, "and in my head, this is cheesy, I thought as long as those rose petals survive there is hope for peace."

A hushed giggle spread through the students in response to Professor Davis' admittedly romantic sentiment. What he said next, though, recaptured the students' complete attention. As she handed him the rose, he recalled, she said "that it was right for me to be in that house, in Palestine, because if we can't speak to one another about these difficult issues than there really is no prospect for peace."

And with that, Professor Davis introduced OneVoice youth leaders Abigail Gottlieb and William Salameh.

Sharing their stories with people at San Francisco State University, Netivot Shalom, St. Andrews, Temple Beth El, Temple Sinai, the Kehilla Synagogue, Mills College, and a buildOn high school classroom in Oakland on the Northern California speaking tour, Abigail and William's stories began and ended in parallel. They both spoke about their grandparents: William's were forced to leave Jaffa for Ramallah during the Nakba and Abigail's survived the Holocaust. They proceed on divergent paths from there, with Abigail sharing her experiences as an activist working to maintain the character of the state of Israel and William sharing his experiences working to end the occupation and establish an independent Palestine.

Yet in the end, they come to the same conclusion in much the same fashion: a two-state solution, they agree, remains in both of their peoples' best interest.

And, like the Palestinian woman who confronted Professor Davis 25 years ago, they are willing to have the difficult conversations needed to get there, even within the extremes of both societies. "We were invited into a settlement," Abigail told the roughly 40 people gathered at the Kehila event hosted in St. John's Presbyterian Church, "to explain what we do because the settlers wanted to engage with us and we wanted to engage with them."

Likewise, William affirmed that OneVoice Palestine works with all Palestinian stakeholders. "Hardliners," he said, "are our largest challenge. We work to bring those groups under our umbrella."

"We see photos of suicide bombers and settlers in the media," Abigail continued. "We don't see photos of William and I. That's why we work to amplify the voice of the moderate majority – we are larger than the extremists yet they seem louder."

Before he handed the floor to Abigail and William, Professor Davis recalled what was going through his mind as the Palestinian woman gave him the rose. "I thought it was incredible that with so much understandable anger she could come to that conclusion," he told the class. "I hope that will be a theme for tonight. If we can't talk here then how can anyone talk and how can there be progress."