The OneVoice team with Ed Miliband,
Leader of the Labour Party.
As Ed Miliband, the UK’s Leader of the Opposition, joined 10,000 other delegates in Brighton for this year’s Labour Party conference, Israel-Palestine was high on the agenda. No less than 7 fringe events focussed on the conflict, with varying points of view ranging from BICOM’s Israel advocacy to the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC). Alongside them, a team of volunteers and staff from OneVoice Europe (OVE) were there to make the case for ending the occupation and the conflict now, through a two-state solution.
It’s perhaps no surprise that the Middle East is a hot topic right now, following July’s much-heralded launch of new negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis. These talks are critical. In the last few months, US Secretary of State John Kerry, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Robert Serry, and UK Foreign Secretary William Hague have each stated that the window of feasibility for a two-state solution in Israel and Palestine has only 18 – 24 months left.
Poll after poll has demonstrated that two sovereign states, Israel and Palestine, based on the pre-1967 borders, is the only acceptable solution to the majority of Palestinians and Israelis. However, while support for two states remains high, time is running out for the two-state solution, a thought echoed by Ben Bradshaw MP at the Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East (LFPME) event, who wanted to send out a clear message that “Western governments, and the Labour Party, are growing impatient.”
The urgency of securing a two-state solution in order the end the occupation and the conflict was the theme of each of OneVoice’s three innovative campaigns at the conference, engaging hundreds of delegates. Delegates recorded video clips for the #2StatesNow campaign, which calls on British citizens to raise their voice in support of a two-state solution. MPs were lobbied for the second campaign, to sign a parliamentary motion that challenges the negotiators, in order to ensure the talks are serious and successful. Lastly, hundreds of delegates were delighted to be offered a date (a Palestinian Medjool date), as part of a campaign to promote Palestinian produce. As Anthony Silkoff, OVE’s Advocacy and Outreach Coordinator explained, “statebuilding cannot wait until the negotiations are complete; we can help build Palestine now.”
These campaigns, and those of OneVoice Palestine and OneVoice Israel, found a huge level of support from across the conference. From the stage at the PSC debate, Andy Slaughter MP (Vice-Chair, LFPME) implored the audience to back OneVoice. At both of Labour Friends of Israel’s conference events, Israeli MK Hilik Bar was proud to name OneVoice as “the most important partner” of his Knesset caucus to end the conflict. At LFPME’s packed reception, Shadow Middle East Minister Ian Lucas led the whole room in a round of applause for OneVoice’s grassroots campaigns.
As so many delegates told the OneVoice team at our stall, it is only right that these organisations are showing unity in their support for a two state solution. The negotiators should see this as a challenge from both friends of Israel and friends of Palestine. These negotiations must not just be a talking shop, as many fear. This is the time for action; no more excuses.
RAISE YOUR VOICE: UK CITIZENS CAN CLICK HERE AND ASK THEIR MP TO SIGN OUR EARLY DAY MOTION.
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