MAAN NEWS AGENCY
Date: 24 / 01 / 2007
Ma’an - On Thursday 25th January, an unprecedented event will take place. At the World Economic Forum, taking place in the Swiss Alpine resort of Davos, a group of ordinary Israelis and Palestinians, representing civil society, will have the opportunity to question their leaders, Palestinian President Abbas and Israeli Vice Premier Shimon Peres and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni ? simultaneously and live on videocasts ? about how they intend to end the conflict in 2007.
Organized by the grassroots mobilization campaign, OneVoice, this unprecedented event will enable ordinary citizens from both sides to jointly condemn extremism and demand progress on the peace process.
This unique opportunity will take place in front of over 2,000 global leaders attending the World Economic Forum and be broadcast live to rallies planned in Tel Aviv, Ramallah and Jerusalem, a press release from the OneVoice movement has revealed.
According to the BBC, this year’s World Economic Forum, which takes place in Switzerland every year in order to discuss how to improve the state of the world, will bring together some 2,400 business leaders, politicians and campaigners, including the heads of more than 70 of the world’s 100 largest companies. Participants will include dignitaries and personalities from over 90 countries, including Bill Gates, Tony Blair, Bono and Claudia Schiffer.
The OneVoice movement, which has offices in both the West Bank city of Ramallah and in Tel Aviv, as well as in London, New York and Ottawa, reveals in their press release that Thursday’s podium will be launch of a $5 million dollar campaign entitled, “What Are You Willing to Do to End the Conflict?”. This campaign, which will be accompanied by a series of global events, intends to mobilise the largest possible number of Israelis and Palestinians to take concrete individual steps to end the conflict.
In addition to aiming to empower Palestinian and Israeli civil society to take a more assertive role in ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the OneVoice movement also aims to accumulate the largest framework of friends at an international level.
Already with 1/4 million Israeli and Palestinian members and 2,000 highly trained youth leaders, OneVoice intends to make a major impact on how global leaders address the intractable Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
For more information, visit their website: www.onevoicemovement.org
Source: http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=18927