Waleed Hafeez
On Sunday, WLU played host to representatives from OneVoice New York, Israel and Palestine. The OneVoice movement is a youth-based initiative to bring peace and stability in the Middle East and end the decades-long Israel-Palestine conflict.
The grassroots movement has transcended borders and has offices in New York, London, Ottawa, Tel Aviv and Ramallah. Through its various offices, the movement has asked that supporters sign the OneVoice mandate that asks that the rights of both Palestinians and Israelis to “independence, sovereignty, freedom, justice, dignity, respect, national security, personal safety, and economic viability” are respected and recognized.
The public talk, held on Sunday, January 20, brought two field officers from the organization’s Tel Aviv and Ramallah branches to Waterloo to talk about their experiences and the challenges they have faced in spreading the word about the OneVoice movement.
Adi Labad and Smadar Cohen represented OneVoice Palestine (OVP) and OneVoice Israel (OVI) respectively, and each brought with them experiences and stories to share with the audience.
From the outset, Labad made it clear that the goal of OneVoice was not to make “Palestinians and Israelis love each other.” The goal rather was to make each side understand the common ground they shared – a want for a ceasefire and a two-state agreement.
OneVoice New York’s International Education Program Manager Laurel Rapp led the talk and spoke of the dynamics of the organization and how it is run. Furthermore, she highlighted that each office works independently of the other and, as such, OVI and OVP do not communicate with each other.
The reasoning behind this, as explained by Rapp, is that, “Israelis have very particular concerns about the conflict that they’re hoping to secure and in Palestine they want an independent Palestine that exists viably beside Israel.”
This difference in needs is also reflected in each of their mandates, which share main demands but have very different preambles that highlight their varying requirements.
Cohen has worked with OVI in getting people to sign the organization’s mandate, a task she says has not been an easy one. “The problem we face in Israel is that the people are apathetic.… Stopping them on the street is the challenge. In Palestine, they want to do something but have no means.”
Furthermore, the act of signing the mandate was often preceded by statements like, “I’ll do it, but the Palestinians would never do it.”
However, Cohen was quick to assure them that “actually over 300,000 Palestinians have signed – and there was a complete switch and it was interesting to see the start of building trust between both societies.”
The OneVoice movement aims to mobilize the modern moderate strata of Israeli and Palestinian society who are the majority. However, as Labad affirms, “the moderate majority is often silenced by the violent minority…. The moderate majority in Palestine wants to be able to speak, but they are afraid. OneVoice allows them to share their opinion.”
Cohen adds that “the people who are not the majority are often heard because they use violence, and today violence sells. It’s interesting to see them killing each other; it’s not interesting to see them loving each other or at least respecting each other.”
An interesting aspect of the OneVoice movement is that they renounce actual specific political blueprints to ending the conflict. Rather, they aim to get voters to demand that the ceasefire and a peace agreement is initiated and outlined by the government. As Cohen says, “We’re not politicians; we’re just trying to get people to voice their opinions. Our leaders need to get in a room and not come out until the white smoke comes out.”
She added that even within OVI there are arguments over borderlines, but that “this is the job of the government.”
Since OneVoice’s inception in 2002, the organization has taken steps to start a clear, respectful stream of dialogue between the two governments.
The organization also realizes that “when we talk about ending the conflict, we don’t mean tomorrow – we mean in the next few years. The process requires time and commitment and support from both sides.”
The support they have received thus far has been enormous – as of now, they have 600,000 signatories who support their mandate, with an almost equal split between Israelis and Palestinians.
The OneVoice movement has garnered considerable support from North America and Europe as well as within the Middle East. Its funding comes primarily from grants and funds from the US such as the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Ford Foundation and many other independent donors. The organization is also waiting on charity status from the Canadian government.
The movement and its people are especially passionate about diminishing the gap between the high-level negotiations, such as the ones recently held in Annapolis, Maryland in November, and the people these negotiations really affect.