Left to right at top: OVI Youth Leadership Program
Director Adva Vilchinski, Youth Leader Maya Peretz-Ruiz, YL Elad Laor, Egyptian
activist Maikel Nabil Sanad, YL Nir Mekler, YL Gal Raij, and YL Livne Tslil. Left to right at bottom: YL Gabriel
Avner, YL Smadar Cohen-Chen, and YL Liat Leizer.
In an intimate meeting room in Tel Aviv on January 1, OneVoice Israel staff and youth leaders met with a man of peace, of justice, and of grassroots mobilization.
Maikel Nabil Sanad is an Egyptian military conscientious objector, a human rights activist, well-known blogger, and 2012 Noble Peace Prize nominee. He spent 302 days in prison for writing articles on the Egyptian military’s human rights violations, and engaged in a 130-day hunger strike. Maikel was released from prison on Jan. 24, 2012, and toured Europe, the U.S., Egypt, and now Israel, speaking about democracy.
“Everyone was really excited to meet him,” said Smadar Cohen-Chen, 29, an OVI youth leader in attendance. “It was a cooperative, but laid-back atmosphere – very much like ‘what do you need from me and what do I need from you to keep [our goals] going.’”
Maikel and the OVI team spoke about several topics, but the relationship between Egypt and Israel was the most popular. The Muslim Brotherhood, the fall of former President Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s new constitution, and the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty were all on the table.
Likewise, feelings and concerns about the apparent quashing of the liberal movement within the Egyptian revolution was an item for discussion.
Maikel assured his audience that Egyptians got rid of Mubarak and will not settle for another dictatorship – yet revolutions take time, as the American and French Revolutions did, Smadar said.
What the American and French revolutionaries did not have, however, is the Internet. Both OVI and Maikel utilize online communities to spark grassroots mobilization, disseminate information that governments may not want the population to have, and to speak out against prevailing feelings of apathy and cynicism.
According to Smadar, a PhD. candidate in political psychology at the University of Sheffield (U.K.), the cynicism found in Israeli society tends to make people think in terms of ‘what happens if it [peace] doesn’t happen?’ instead of the opposite. She said that Maikel explained the need for Egyptians to act in order to survive, so apathy is not in order. Instead, there is tremendous positivity for the future of Egypt.
“Maikel thinks differently,” she said. “He framed his message as, ‘I know it will work – I’m not sure when, but it will.’ It was a moment of pure optimism – and for someone who has suffered, a truly hopeful and positive scene.”
Hope is something Smadar is studying. Her dissertation focuses on emotions as a barrier to conflict resolution, specifically hope, and its alter ego, despair. She didn’t have to go far to get a glimpse of her work in action.
“In this meeting, Maikel proved what I am trying to prove academically: when people see the world as changing and dynamic, they tend to have hope for the future, and vice versa,” she continued. “Hope is universal, but we need individuals who can drive it into the heart of a larger society.”
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