OneVoice Movement

IEP’s New England tour kicks-off U.S. election-themed semester, Part 2

Ahmad Omeir, center, of OneVoice Palestine, tells a student group about his work on the ground.

New York, September 25, 2012 – When Carl Hobert told a group of 50 students to stand if they’d ever lost a friend or family member to gun violence, nearly all of them stood.

Also standing were OneVoice staff members Israeli Adva Vilchinski and Palestinian Ahmad Omeir.

Hobert, of Axis of Hope Center for International Conflict Prevention, looked around at the students of Fenway High School. “Take how you relate,” Hobert told the students, “and build a bridge to how they relate.”

The time spent with Hobert and the students was just one of many impactful events of the International Engagement Program’s (IEP) New England tour. Over 200 people heard Adva’s and Ahmad’s message earlier in the week, and IEP continued to emphasize the parallel programs of their respective offices, as well as IEP’s “call to action” campaign, targeted at the next American president.

Day three of the tour saw the youth leaders at the Educating Global Citizens class at Boston University, the Harvard College Interfaith Council, and finally Tufts University’s J Street U group event.

“We have a common goal but we need to achieve it in different ways,” Adva said of OneVoice Israel and (OVI) and OneVoice Palestine (OVP) during the Tufts event. “What I see as the most important thing about our partnership is not that we need to do things together...but that we can separately do pragmatic things that will put more positive steps on the ground. I'm not trying to do dialogue. I'm trying to show there's a partner on both sides.”

The fourth and final day reached over 560 people, and included stops at Beaver Country Day School, Brandeis University, Brookline Workmen’s Circle, and the aforementioned Fenway High School. The dominant discussion was what Americans can do to help promote the two-state solution.

One comment from a Brandeis participant challenged American involvement in spearheading efforts to push parties to the table. IEP associate Shaina Low, in response to such criticism, reaffirmed America’s role in resolving the conflict.

“The American government has…a lot of influence,” Shaina said. “At OneVoice, we can say that all of our calls for the American public are coming directly from Israelis and Palestinians, who are in the majority of their societies. Maybe it’s not a vocal majority, maybe it’s a silent majority, but it is the majority.”

Ahmad jumped on this theme when he addressed the Workmen’s Circle later that day. “You [as Americans] do have a role,” he said. “Help the American leadership say what needs to be said, and to support Israelis and Palestinians with our work on the ground.”

IEP’s New England tour kicks-off U.S. election-themed semester, Part 1

Adva Vilchinski (far right) of OneVoice Israel explains to Middlebury College students her role in ending the conflict.

New York, September 25, 2012 – Professor Tamar Mayer believes that the world lives in the “seventh day” of the 1967 or Six-Day War, and will continue to unless something is done to change the dynamic.

“The majority of the population on each side [of the conflict] has been born into this unacceptable status quo,” said Mayer, director of the Rohatyn Center for International Affairs at Middlebury College. “And it is wholly appropriate that those who were born during the “seventh day” of the 1967 War lead [the change]. Our guests today fit this bill.”

Middlebury was just one of the many stops in the first tour of the International Engagement Program’s(IEP) fall semester. Staff members Adva Vilchinski of OneVoice Israel (OVI) and Ahmad Omeir of OneVoice Palestine (OVP) told over 800 New England participants – from schools to community members – that Americans can support their efforts on the ground while helping impact American foreign policy and help achieve Middle East peace.

From Sept. 10-13, Adva and Ahmad explained that Americans can play an important role in solving this conflict by participating in IEP’s “call to action,” which pressures the presidential candidates to put the conflict high on the agenda when one of them is elected.

The tour started with a visit to Middlebury and then Dartmouth College on the first day, followed by a Middle East Politics class at UMass-Lowell and a J Street event at Eitz Chayim Synagogue on day two.

“We believe at OneVoice Israel that solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not something which belongs to the left or right,” Adva said when asked about partisanship during the Dartmouth event. “It's something for all the people because ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is good for all Israelis no matter how you vote.”

Ahmad told audience members that the US has a continued role to play in reviving the two-state solution.

“When you try to work with change, and try to bring change into [Palestinian] society, it’s a long and difficult process,” said Ahmad. “You need to mobilize people. You’re shocking people out of their apathy, out of their despair and skepticism…by trying to show them that by creating positive facts, by getting them invested personally, that there is chance to actually achieve that solution. [And] what we need from the moderator [the US] is to be honest and neutral and help us have the right environment to move forward with the negotiations in a limited timeframe.”

Throughout the events, Adva offered her experiences in activist mobilization, outreach, and countering the pro-settlement expansion agenda, while Ahmad spoke about what a successful two-state solution needs: an end to the occupation and of all final status issues based on international resolutions, along with the creation of an independent Palestinian state.

Adva and Ahmad’s message was not lost on the days’ participants, but rather echoed and enhanced early and often.

Professor Mayer told the Middlebury audience that Adva, Ahmad, and their OneVoice peers “are engaged in peace and consensus-building efforts, working within their national communities to end the conflict.”

“They are committed to a two-state solution based on the June 4th, 1967 lines that will guarantee an end to the occupation,” she said. “They are Israeli and Palestinian activists who have dedicated themselves to working towards change and a better future for their societies.”

J14 movement joins OneVoice in protesting stalled peace talks

OneVoice Israel erected a massive ice wall, symbolizing the "freeze" in peace talks and containing posters with information on dozens of under-funded social programs in Israel.

New York, August 28, 2012—The #J14 movement joined OneVoice Israel on Tuesday in Tel Aviv to draw for the first time the inextricable link between calls for social justice and demands for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Hundreds congregated in Rothschild Boulevard around a massive ice wall, symbolizing the "freeze" in peace talks and containing posters with information on dozens of under-funded social programs in Israel, while the government bleeds money toward conflict management over resolution. The Knesset's Two-State Solution Caucus, led by MK Yoel Hasson and MK Amir Peretz, backed the event and spoke critically about the Netanyahu government's growth of investments east of the Green Line over good faith negotiations with the Palestinians.

“Our social needs are being frozen along with the peace process,” said Tal Harris, OneVoice Israel executive director. “People forgot over the last 20 years that the peace process impacts their day-to-day life. We want to remind them of the need to freeze settlements and end the conflict once and for all by committing to serious negotiations.”

The #J14 protest movement originally wished to avoid politicizing their social justice drive, but could no longer ignore the hard facts. The government’s defense budget ballooned to $14.5 billion in 2012, much of it to maintain the occupation, while education and health suffer serious deficits. Israeli taxpayers have so far bankrolled the occupation and settlement of Palestinian land to the tune of $50 billion while struggling to make ends meet.

“The State of Israel cannot continue its economic prosperity while also maintaining the freeze in the peace process,” said Yossi Yona, a leading member of the #J14 movement. “We must present an integrated approach that includes the just and moral solution of two states, which ultimately translates to social justice for all.”

Singers Noa (Achinoam Nini) and Mira Awad, MKs Avishay Braverman, Nitzan Horowitz, Akram Hasoon, Dov Khenin and Raleb Majadele, and Ambassadors Ilan Baruch, Alon Liel and Daniel Shek, among others, participated in the headline-grabbing event.

"In life there is no status quo, if you don't move forward you go backwards," said MK Dov Khenin. "The government of Netanyahu speaks of two states, but acts on a daily basis to make this solution harder. The price? It’s not only for the Palestinians, we too are paying greatly."

OneVoice's activists in Israel are demanding halting settlement construction to restore confidence in the peace process and restart negotiations. In parallel, OneVoice Palestine is leading community initiatives to transform the frustration and hopelessness on the street into a mass unified call for a peace agreement that ends the occupation, establishes an independent Palestinian state and ends all claims.

Noa (Achinoam Nini) joins OneVoice and #J14 at Tel Aviv protest, linking calls for social justice and ending the conflict.

OneVoice's Tal Harris, The Brief's Nimrod Nir, and Peace Now's Yariv Oppenheimer pose in front of ice wall in Tel Aviv, symbolizing the link between social justice and ending the conflict.

J14 movement and OneVoice to protest stalled peace talks

OneVoice Israel's Facebook ads titled The Cost of the Freeze promotes their upcoming protest in Tel Aviv, drawing for the first time the link between calls for social justice and demands for resolving the conflict.

New York, August 24, 2012—The occupation on the other side of the Green Line did not concern the #J14 movement until now.

No longer able to ignore the facts:

1. Israeli taxpayers have so far bankrolled the occupation and settlement of Palestinian land to the tune of $50 billion while struggling to make ends meet.
2. Settlers receive 22% more in subsidies for education, mortgages, and land purchases, while 90% of Israelis living in Israel proper face the soaring cost of living.

Stav Shaffir, leading member of the #J14 movement, will join OneVoice Israel and the Knesset's Two-State Solution Caucus, led by MK Yoel Hasson and MK Amir Peretz, at 5 pm local time next Tuesday in Tel Aviv to draw for the first time the inextricable link between calls for social justice and demands for resolving the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Yossi Yona, also of the #J14 movement, and actress Etsi Zackheim, among others, will participate in the protest.

The Netanyahu government favors expanding settlements and growing investments east of the Green Line over good faith negotiations with the Palestinians. It's time to say, No more! The protest is expected to draw large crowds to Rothschild Boulevard (between Herzl and Nachlat Binyamin streets), the site where the #J14 movement took off last year. OneVoice Israel is aggressively promoting the event through traditional and new media. Their youth leaders have been postering major cities with the details.

The protesters will congregate around a massive, transparent ice wall, symbolizing the "freeze" in peace talks and containing posters with information on dozens of under-funded social programs in Israel as the government bleeds money toward conflict management over resolution.

Backed by the Two-State Solution Caucus, OneVoice's activists in Israel are demanding halting settlement construction to restore confidence in the peace process and restart negotiations. In Palestine, OneVoice is leading community initiatives to transform the frustration and hopelessness on the street into mass unified call for a peace agreement that establishes an independent Palestinian state and ends all claims.

OneVoice warns Knesset members of Palestinian economic collapse

MK Yoel Hasson (Kadima), MK Amir Peretz (Kadima), Dr. Gershon Baskin, Gilead Sher, MK Avishay Braverman (Labor) discuss the Palestinian Authority's economic crisis in the Knesset on Wednesday.

New York, July 25, 2012—Members of the Two-State Solution Caucus in the Knesset heard a presentation by OneVoice Israel on Wednesday, warning that the Palestinian Authority was on the verge of economic collapse.

Over 100 concerned citizens joined a dozen parliamentarians, including Caucus chairmen MK Yoel Hasson and MK Amir Peretz, in a discussion with OneVoice Israel about the implications of an ailing Palestinian economy and stalled peace talks on Israeli politics and security. The report, prepared by Gershon Baskin, an expert on Israeli-Palestinian relations, revealed how the economic crisis dangerously interconnects with negatively shifting Palestinian public opinion on the possibilities of ending the occupation and achieving the two-state solution.
» Click here for the complete report (available in Hebrew only)

“This dangerous combination increases chances of a change in Palestinian leadership when, for many, there’s never been a more ideal leadership for peacemaking” said Baskin. "Increasing numbers of Israelis and Palestinians are losing confidence that there remains a possible two-state solution, which creates urgency for positive political movement on both sides,” he added.

The Palestinian economy witnessed a sharp drop in growth so far in 2012, falling from 9% during the first quarter of last year to 5.4% this year, according to the report, which relied on data from the Palestinian Finance Ministry, high-level Palestinian security officials, and the World Bank. The Palestinian Authority accumulated a national debt of $1.5 billion, in addition to its debt of $1.2 billion to local private banks.

With restrictions on Palestinian exports and half of the Authority's budget contingent on the transfer of tax revenues that Israel collects — though often punitively withholds — for them, the Palestinian government has struggled to pay 153,000 public sector employees, including 30,000 security personnel.

“Prospects for ending the occupation are narrowing while the growth of the Palestinian economy lags behind, creating conditions for another round of bloodshed,” said Tal Harris, executive director of OneVoice Israel. “The alternative to peace is not the status quo; the alternative to peace is war. The solution lies in reducing Palestinian dependence on Israel and allowing them to establish an independent state at peace with all its neighbors.”

The report also noted the Palestinian Authority’s inability to seek assistance from the International Monetary Fund because it lacks internationally recognized country status. The Knesset's Two-State Solution Caucus members in attendance, representing Kadima, Labor, Meretz, and Hadash, found the facts eye-opening and stressed the urgency of returning to negotiations.

"The Palestinian Authority's severe financial crisis and the implications presented in the discussion should disturb everyone's sleep," said MK Yoel Hasson (Kadima). "The prime minister must cease his policy of inaction on the political status quo, which does not serve Israel's interests."

The 35 members of the Two-State Solution Caucus, conceived and co-created by OneVoice Israel and MK Hasson, ensure the two-state solution remains a top priority on the Israeli government's agenda and maintain pressure to end the conflict.

Adjusting to the Middle East’s Unpredictability

By Darya Shaikh*

Whenever OneVoice enters a strategic planning process, we always recite the phrase: the only thing predictable about the Middle East is just how absolutely unpredictable it is.

This notion of a constantly shifting ground upon which we are building our movement is true in the immediate sense, but fails to account for the remarkably – and tragically – constant overarching paradigm Israelis and Palestinians find themselves in. Make no mistake, the past two decades have been defined by an entrenched status quo in which an ongoing conflict and occupation have stymied any progress toward the two-state solution.

In response to this intransigence, activists and organizers intent on creating a better future for Israelis and Palestinians can often get caught up in being reactive to an immediate opportunity.

This is what led OneVoice to join the chorus of commentators, politicians and UN officials in resurrecting the Arab Peace Initiative.

Crafted by the 22 Arab League member states 10 year ago, the Arab Peace Initiative was – and remains to this day – a unique starting point to end the conflict. It proposed a comprehensive resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict within a broader framework of normalization of relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors.

Representing an abrupt about-face, it contained the potential for a new era of regional stability and cooperation in the wake of the League’s historical refusal to engage with Israel. It was designed to give Israelis the confidence to take risks for peace with the Palestinians through the promise of a stable Middle East while providing Arab backing for Palestinians to make the necessary compromises to finally establish a Palestinian state.

Thomas Friedman and MK Meir Sheetrit (Kadima) were among the first to stand up in support of the Arab Peace Initiative. They saw what we see, an opportunity to break the political deadlock, trying something new to solve this old, entrenched conflict. However, Israel’s leadership never engaged with the plan or with the leaders who proposed it. Worse yet, was the failure of the government or anyone, for that matter, to effectively present the document to the Israeli people.

By rejecting it out right, the Israeli people never got the chance to see the Arab Peace Initiative for what it is and what it could be: a momentous initiative, a positive entry point for negotiations and an encouraging sign of untapped potential for peace.

It is for these reasons that when our Palestinian and Israeli youth leaders on the ground proposed the idea to launch parallel and complementary campaigns centered on the opportunity contained within the Initiative, we jumped at the chance.

Behind the campaigns was a sense of urgency. If we could show the people the latent potential of the Initiative and compel them to push the Israeli government to reconsider the document, we could potentially break the stalemate. OneVoice youth leaders in Palestine and Israel held parallel educational events to spread the message of the document, organized media stunts to publicize it and launched social media campaigns to mobilize a groundswell of public support for it.

Here in the United States, we launched our own call to action complementing their work. We asked all of you to get involved and help us put the Initiative back on our politicians’ radars.

Many of you immediately responded to our call. Using Twitter and Facebook, you messaged your elected officials and reminded them of their responsibility in resolving the conflict and the role the Arab Peace Initiative could play. Thank you.

Despite this initial momentum, in early May, a shift occurred. Shaul Mofaz’s opposition Kadima party agreed to join Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government, creating one of the strongest government’s in Israeli history. The political reshuffling that has resulted has not yet subsided and no one is quite sure how the Israeli political landscape will look once the dust settles.

We thought long and hard about the best course of action. We agreed that given this significant shift, the Arab Peace Initiative was no longer the best vehicle for OneVoice to push for the two-state solution.

One thing is certain, though: this government, should it choose to, now has the mandate and the majority needed to take huge strides toward peace. OneVoice’s job – and it has already begun – is to ensure that they do.

The Arab Peace Initiative remains a potent symbol of potential regional stability, and we will continue to draw on the language and precedent it set. The coalition government, however, presents new possibilities and new challenges that demand new tactics.

*Darya Shaikh is acting CEO of the OneVoice Movement.

ACT NOW: Raise American support for the Arab Peace Initiative

New York, May 3, 2012—The International Engagement Program (IEP) launched a call to action last month, asking Americans to support OneVoice activists in Israel and Palestine by engaging their own politicians to revive the Arab Peace Initiative. ACT NOW.

Exactly 10 years ago, the 22 Arab League member states came together in Beirut to propose a peace plan to end the Arab-Israeli conflict. The Arab Peace Initiative offered a comprehensive resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the normalization of relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors. It represented an abrupt about-face, from the League's refusal to engage with Israel to the potential for a new era of regional stability and cooperation. While not an end-point for negotiations, the document sets a positive new starting point.

Unfortunately, Israel never accepted the Arab Peace Initiative as a basis for peace discussions.

The timing of the call to action coincides with parallel campaigns taking place in Palestine and Israel, both of which have the Arab Peace Initiative as their focal point.

Using social media, community programming and appeals to political leadership, OVI and OVP are mobilizing their communities around the regional peace plan. While OVI is raising awareness and demanding a response to this historic opportunity, OVP is using the revitalized discussion about the document to transform popular frustration into a unified call for the two-state solution.

The call to action, unveiled during IEP's recent Southern California tour, is designed to complement these campaigns, using social media to reinsert the Arab Peace Initiative into the American political parlance concerning the conflict. ACT NOW.

Americans are being asked to bombard the social media feeds on Twitter and Facebook of Members of Congress who exert influence on foreign affairs and hold a tremendous responsibility toward resolving the conflict.

Leaders of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Subcommittees that focus on the Middle East are being targeted, using the hashtag #EndtheConflict.

Learn more about the Arab Peace Initiative and what you can do to support this historic document and break the deadlock here. UK supporters can also highlight the initiative to their Members of Parliament by visiting ACT NOW UK.

Twitter user @YonahLieberman fulfills the call to action, messaging Senator John Kerry to ask him to support the Arab Peace Initiative.

OneVoice’s Palestinian activists urge Israeli response to Arab Peace Initiative

Hundreds of OneVoice youth activists and locals, wearing flag caps of countries supporting the Arab Peace Initiative, released into Israel hundreds of helium balloons carrying the text of the regional peace plan.

Ramallah, April 28, 2012—From a village near Jenin that borders on the 1967 line, OneVoice Palestine youth activists and locals released into Israel hundreds of helium balloons carrying the text of the Arab Peace Initiative on Saturday, drawing attention toward this historic opportunity.

Hundreds of locals, wearing flag caps of countries supporting the regional peace plan, participated in the activity, which was co-sponsored by Jenin’s governor and the municipality, to mark the document’s tenth anniversary. They called on all Israelis to pressure their politicians into accepting the initiative as a framework for serious regional negotiations to achieve the two-state solution and end the Arab-Israeli conflict. Jenin Deputy Governor Ahmad al-Qassam, Minister of Prisoner Affairs Ashraf al-Ajrami, Fatah spokesman Mahmoud Labadi, and other municipal officials also attended the headline-grabbing event.

“We're urging the Israeli public to demand from their government a real response to the Arab Peace Initiative,” said Samer Makhlouf, executive director of OneVoice Palestine. “The document has never been withdrawn or rejected by any Arab state, but despite its apparent resilience, we cannot expect it stay on the table forever.”

Exactly 10 years ago, the 22 Arab League member states came together in Beirut to propose a peace plan to end the Arab-Israeli conflict. The Arab Peace Initiative offered a comprehensive resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the normalization of relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors. It represented an abrupt about-face, from the League's refusal to engage with Israel to the potential for a new era of regional stability and cooperation. While not an end-point for negotiations, the document sets a positive new starting point.

Unfortunately, Israel never accepted the Arab Peace Initiative as a basis for peace discussions. Among Ariel Sharon’s 14 reservations to the 2003 Road Map, reservation #10 explicitly rejected the Arab Peace Initiative. Since then, it has lain dormant.

“Accepting the Arab Peace Initiative as a framework for serious regional negotiations is a far better approach than outright rejection wrapped in unsupportable assertions that Israel has done everything it can for peace over the past 64 years and the Palestinians have only been obstructionist,” said OneVoice CEO Howard Sumka.

The event is part of OneVoice Palestine's campaign, launched in February, demanding the Israeli government to halt its settlement policy and return to negotiations on the basis of the Arab Peace Initiative. From tree plantings in Hebron and Bethlehem and distribution of flyers and bumper stickers across the West Bank, to an online campaign with banners on top local news sites – OneVoice Palestine is creating momentum for the peace plan.

Separately, OneVoice Israel is complementing the effort though parallel action, igniting conversations about the Arab Peace Initiative across their eight university chapters, from Haifa to Sderot. Next month, they will mobilize people in the heart of Tel Aviv, bringing prominent public figures to make soap-box speeches while a giant ice cube containing the Arab Peace Initiative text slowly melts away. Working with the growing Two-State Solution Caucus, they will then deliver their message loudly in the Knesset.

Local and international media covered OneVoice Palestine's Jenin activity marking the tenth anniversary of the Arab Peace Initiative.

From a village near Jenin that borders on the 1967 line, helium balloons carrying the text of the Arab Peace Initiative were released into Israel by OneVoice activists and locals during the media-grabbing event.

OneVoice Israel launches campaign: Netanyahu, will you sign?

OneVoice Israel poster, part of their new campaign focused on the Arab Peace Initiative, reads: "Bibi, meet Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, emir of Qatar: In exchange for a divided Jerusalem, he offers us normalization, diplomatic relations, and peace. He calls it the Arab Peace Initiative. So what do you say? Worth it?”

New York, April 3, 2012—OneVoice Israel unveiled a new campaign last Wednesday, intended to highlight the Arab Peace Initiative (API) to the Israeli public and raise it within the political agenda.

Ten years ago at the Beirut Summit of the Arab League, the API was proposed as a regional attempt to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict while ending the wider Arab-Israeli conflict as well. It offered a comprehensive and peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the normalization of relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors. The API represented an abrupt about-face in the regional political field: from the Arab League's refusal to negotiate or recognize Israel, the API ushered in a new era in Middle East relations and the potential for regional stability and cooperation.

In a press release published in Hebrew on their Facebook page, OneVoice Israel outlined the intention of the campaign: "The Arab Peace Initiative embodies the spirit of the Arab moderate camp [...] For the past 10 years, successive Israeli governments have refused to address it formally or negotiate based on its content. The Arab Peace Initiative is still alive, though, and we believe that Israel's leaders need to respond to the initiative with a resounding 'Yes'."

The campaign, designed to put the initiative back on the peace-process map, will be unrolled in three phases: the first phase consists of raising public awareness about the initiative and the historic opportunity for compromise it embodies; in the second phase, this awareness will be turned into mass mobilization around the initiative as a means of restarting the fledgling peace process; the campaign will conclude by channeling the public's demands for a government response to the API to Israeli politicians.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, addressing the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, said: "If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then what is it? That's right, it's a duck — but this duck is a nuclear duck. And it's time the world started calling a duck a duck." The strategic threat a nuclear Iran presents is not the only political issue being misinterpreted; "the Arab Peace Duck," wrote OneVoice Israel Executive Director Tal Harris in an op-ed piece, "has been waiting for Israel for 10 years now. It is time it too receives the appropriate response."

To mark the beginning of the OneVoice campaign, 80 toy "Arab Peace Ducks" were sent to Members of the Knesset and senior media correspondents along with the text of the Arab Peace Initiative — a friendly reminder that a potential partner for peace has yet to be given a real chance.

Playing on Netanyahu's reference to Iran as a nuclear duck, OneVoice Israel inundated Israeli MKs with 'Arab Peace Ducks' and copies of the Arab Peace Initiative to get them to see the API for what it really is: a historic chance for peace.

OneVoice Europe hosts gala dinner with David Miliband

The Rt. Hon. David Miliband (center) with OneVoice Europe Executive Director John Lyndon (left) and OneVoice Palestine youth activist Rami Rabayah (right) at a pre-dinner reception with OneVoice Europe supporters.

London, March 21, 2012—Former UK Foreign Secretary, the Rt. Hon. David Miliband, told OneVoice supporters at a gala dinner in London that failing to establish an independent Palestinian state next to a secure state of Israel is the greatest diplomatic failure in 40 years.

“It’s the greatest diplomatic failure because actually it is one of those international problems to which there is a viable solution,” said Miliband.

Miliband delivered the keynote speech during OneVoice Europe’s event at St. Ermin’s Hotel in London before a captivated audience. On hand were two of the movement’s senior Israeli and Palestinian youth activists, Smadar Cohen and Rami Rabayah. Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, who has championed OneVoice Europe since it was established in 2006, was also in attendance to show his support for the movement.

Miliband spoke about the importance of OneVoice’s work, including reopening the movement’s Gaza branch, blocking the recent Outpost Bill, which proposed to transform outposts that have existed for over four years into permanent settlements, and outreach efforts in the United States and Britain among vested communities and interfaith groups.

“If OneVoice is about anything, it is actually about action first with hope as its product rather than a vain call to hope that one day might produce action,” said Miliband. “Action leads to hope because it achieves successes, however small, that inspire confidence in greater successes.”

Such action, Miliband said, was particularly important given that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the two-state solution have taken a backseat to Middle East revolutions and tensions over Iran’s nuclear program. He added that it was essential to widen any resolution to Israel’s relations with its Arab neighbors.

“We have to regionalize the political solution,” he said. “That was, after all, the vision of the Arab Peace Initiative in 2002. The 10th anniversary next month is a very significant moment of reflection.”

Addressing Rami and Smadar, along with the 4,500 youth leaders they represent, Miliband applauded their efforts to mobilize their communities behind the two-state solution and harness people power to end the conflict. He said they “defied conventional opinion” at a time when the “inevitability about a two-state solution had disappeared” and “it was no longer fashionable to be talking about a two-state solution in the Middle East.”

OneVoice Europe Executive Director John Lyndon thanked Miliband for his support, and in particular, his recognition of the situation's urgency.

“David recognizes the truth that we, at OneVoice, are working to convey in the region and internationally every day: the status quo is unsustainable," said Lyndon. "We can overturn the grim fatalism many seem to have adopted, build an independent, viable Palestine next to a secure State of Israel, and form the bedrock of a transformed Middle East.”

The event grabbed headlines in London media. Read the Jewish Chronicle's coverage here.