October 15, 2007
OneVoice Press Release: TEL AVIV ONEVOICE SUMMIT CANCELLED IN SHOW OF SOLIDARITY
TEL AVIV ONEVOICE SUMMIT CANCELLED IN SHOW OF SOLIDARITY, Adams Reaffirms His Support
Fringe Extremists Threatened Palestinian Staff, Performers
"A setback for 600,000 Moderates"
EXPERIENCE THE IMPACT OF ONEVOICE ON CIVIL SOCIETY IN PALESTINE AND ISRAEL: WWW.ONEMILLIONVOICES.ORG
Jericho/Tel Aviv, October 15, 2007 - In a show of solidarity with OneVoice Palestine, the OneVoice Movement, and artists and celebrities engaged with them, have decided to cancel the OneVoice Summit due to take place this Thursday in Tel Aviv. Security threats late last week prompted the cancellation of a parallel OneVoice Summit planned for Jericho.
Fringe groups waged a slanderous campaign to incite threats against OneVoice staff and supporters claiming that a survey OneVoice release[d] five years ago represented a policy document on final status negotiations.
The OneVoice Peoples' Summits, the first effort of its kind, offered an unprecedented opportunity for the Israeli and Palestinian people, in parallel, to propel and support their leaders in the quest to resolve the conflict in the wake of the Arab Peace Initiative and in the build up to the November Annapolis Conference. The Summits, and the work of OneVoice, are not an attempt to define the content of those negotiations, but to demand progress thereon.
OneVoice Palestine President, Dr. Fathi Darwish, has vowed to go on with the mission, "We are heartened by this show of solidarity. Now more than ever, we are determined to fulfill the OneVoice mission. I think that most Palestinian and Israeli moderates want to send a message, one message from both sides: We are fed up with the situation. We are facing a fringe minority of loud extremists, but they cannot stop our struggle to end the occupation through a two state solution—the only solution for two peoples."
Gil Shamy, Executive Director of OneVoice Israel, summarized the OneVoice approach, "The public does not have the power to implement resolutions, but it has the imperative to hold their leaders accountable—and to demand immediate, ongoing negotiations until an agreement is reached."
Over the past six years, OneVoice has gathered the support of over half a million Israelis and Palestinians. The organization remains committed to achieving their goal of uniting all moderates in the region and empowering the process from the grassroots.
A campaign of lies against OneVoice was launch by radical groups, including PFLP, who oppose the goal of Israel and Palestine living side by side. This then evolved into an intimidation campaign against those due to take part in the OneVoice Summit.
Nisreen Shaheen, of OneVoice Palestine, confirmed, "These lies are completely unfounded and the Palestinian people are being deceived by fringe movements whose existence is premised on the conflict. OneVoice is standing behind the President's platform."
Daniel Lubetzky, President of the PeaceWorks Foundation that helped conceive the OneVoice Movement, added "We are very heartened by the steadfast support of all the dignitaries and celebrities, like Bryan Adams, who committed to stay on board and join us as soon as we can re-group to fulfill our vision—for him to perform both in Israel and Palestine. This was a setback for 600,000 moderates. But our work will not cease till we achieve our mission of breaking the shackles of extremism and seizing back the agenda for moderates to live in peace."
In the meantime, as a response to the postponement, the group has already aligned a partnership with Yahoo! to highlight the power of the people. "We invite people across the world to join us on October 18, 2007 at 7pm Jerusalem time (1pm EST) at video.yahoo.com/onevoice to experience something they have not seen before," said Lubetzky.
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About the OneVoice Movement:
The OneVoice Movement is a mainstream nationalist grassroots movement with over 584,000 (as of 10/13/2007) Israeli and Palestinian members, and 3,000 highly-trained youth leaders. It aims to amplify the voice of the overwhelming but heretofore silent majority of moderates who wish for peace and prosperity, empowering them to demand accountability from elected representatives and work toward a two state solution. OneVoice counts on its Board over 60 foremost dignitaries and business leaders across a wide spectrum of politics and beliefs, joining as OneVoice against violent extremism and for conflict resolution. Learn more by visiting our website at www.onemillionvoices.org.
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Dear All,
All of you have been targeted by a campaign based on hatred and a commitment to hide issues from the people.
This is the truth: OneVoice does not seek to dictate final status negotiations, it does not have a political agenda. It is an organization whose work in building civil society can add massive value to the conflict resolution process precisely because it is not so arrogant as to dictate answers. You and I sitting together now and defining resolutions doesn't do any good because we have no power to implement them - it is outside the real political world and symptomatic of political naivety and the fact that we have lost hope of actually changing anything, so we just row theoretically amongst ourselves.
In the November conference next month, the leaders will sit just as powerless because no one is standing up and saying that it is time to raise expectations. It is time for the world to know that the people of the region will accept the deteriorating status quo no longer.
If a million Israelis and Palestinians take to the streets tomorrow and say 'we want answers found' then maybe, just maybe, we will change this feeble political dynamic and not lose this opportunity and that provided by the Arab peace initiative.
What has happened is that people with an absolutist agenda, have taken a survey that OneVoice did years ago to gauge public opinion on different issues and changed questions into statements and claimed that it was a policy document for final status negotiations. This is simply a lie. If I had received it with all its lies, I would turn against the organization. But that's because of the lies that mask the truth about an incredible attempt to galvanise civil society to empower the process to deliver the two-state solution that most people want.
Instead we face the reality that this opportunity will be missed, that Palestinians will be fdismissed as 'extremists and terrorists' and that the truth will be lost.
I ask everyone on this list to forward this email so that the Israeli and Palestinian people know both that they have a partner on the other side, and that they have foul sinister enemies who would seek to use the refugees as a pawn in their political game in order to try to con us all out of a chance to end the situation – a chance that the people deserve.
Forward this message, publish this message, relay this message. You have the power between truth and lies now, between progress and regression.
Jake
Jake Hayman
International Program Coordinator
OneVoice Movement
jake@onevoicemovement.org
http://www.OneMillionVoices.org
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