Statement from OneVoice Student Leaders in Ottawa
Statement given by Joel Tietolman & Sarah Auoiche of OneVoice Canada on behalf of their organizing team at the Ottawa Echo on Parliament Hill
October 18, 2007
Throughout my years of studying, working, and then studying again in Ottawa, I have been extremely involved in the Jewish community. From starting a Jewish Mens Fraternity, to serving as Hillel President, to representing Ottawa on the Multicultural University tract March of the Living trip in 2005.
My involvement was enough to have earned me an invitation to the House of Commons behind us in the winter of 2006 to join parliamentarians to view a presentation from this Conflict Resolution group that wanted to branch out into Canada – the OneVoice Movement.
While a skeptic at first, When I learnt about how OneVoice began in 2002, with two offices, one in Ramallah and one in Tel-Aviv. These offices trained so many young Israelis and Palestinians to go into their communities and try to mobilize so many moderates who, until then, had remained all too silent. It was then that I began to realize the importance of their goal. OneVoice itself does not have a political position; it simply wants to help empower the voices of the average Palestinian and Israeli. Too often we forget what actual Palestinians and Israelis really want, because the voices of most are never heard, all that we hear is from the hard-liners on each side, who are very vocal about what they want, but also generally unwilling to give anything up. OneVoice is helping to spread the message that an overwhelming majority of both Peoples really need their leaders and the world to hear, that they are willing to accept a two-state solution, and make compromises towards that goal, so that this conflict can end, and that the next generation can live without the burdens of occupation, or the fears caused by terrorism.
Having been raised to be politically aware, I have been exposed from a young age to the Middle Eastern conflict. My involvement, therefore, started early, from volunteering at local mosques and interfaith groups, to being the youngest board member of the North American Muslim Foundation. At the university level, my involvement was very diverse, from salam/shalom to being one of the middle eastern attaché at the Model UN to actually going to Israel and Palestine this past summer for 7 weeks. Upon starting Law school, I knew that unlike my undergrad, the time I could allocate to extracurricular activities was limited. I therefore had to find a group that would be worth spending my precious free time with. After having had several conversations with Joel, he then mentioned OneVoice to me. I was very interested with the idea of the group, since I have never heard of a movement that was essentially ran in Israel and Palestine, but yet still had a significant potential internationally. I told him that I would look more into it, but meanwhile, was willing to get involved. We then held the first official OneVoice Ottawa event in November at St-Paul University, where over 250 people came to hear from Palestinian and an Israeli youth leaders.
As OneVoice grew and branched out across so many communities, a dream was born. What if you were able to get 1 million people from both sides of the conflict to agree to one key statement? If 1 million people can agree to the creation of two viable states, one Palestinian and one Israeli, living side by side in peace and security, would this be enough to push their leaders to make actual and substantial progress the next time they sit down to negotiate? We at OneVoice believe that this landmark achievement really could make a difference. This idea became the “One Million Voices to End the Conflict campaign”, whose goal is to reach 1,000,000 signatures by the end of 2007. I am proud to announce that as of last night 598,964 people, in roughly equal numbers on each side, have signed the OneVoice Mandate as follows:
To our leaders, our fellow citizens, our neighbours, and the world:
We demand in one voice that our elected representatives work to achieve the following demands:
- Recognize the right of both Palestinians and Israelis to independence, sovereignty, freedom, justice, dignity, respect, national security, personal safety, and economic viability;
- Implement concrete confidence-building measures that will improve the lives of the Palestinian and Israeli people, including ensuring freedom of movement for ordinary civilians and fostering education against incitement on both sides.
- Immediately commence uninterrupted negotiations until reaching an agreement, no later than October 18, 2008, for a Two-State Solution, ending the occupation, terror and violence, fulfilling the consistent will of the overwhelming majority of both populations.
With responsibility and upon my honour, I pledge to accept the above guidelines, and will submit my vote.
This is what OneVoice was asking people to sign to attend the concerts planned in Jericho and Tel-Aviv – Unfortunately, there are those who seeked to distort the truth and make us look like we had a different agenda – they have taken a survey that OneVoice did years ago to gauge public opinion and demonstrate consensus and changed questions into statements and claimed that it was a policy document for final status negotiations. Due to the mistrust they caused, and efforts by others who did not want to see Palestinians Rallying for peace, the Planned Jericho Concert had to be called off, and subsequently Tel-Aviv cancelled theirs in solidarity. While very discouraging, this made our job all the more important, we needed to stand up tall and speak the truth about OneVoice’s message -OneVoice’s only mandate is to galvanize civil society to empower the process to work towards solutions that are acceptable to the majority of Palestinians and Israelis.
When you look at our Mandate cards that we encourage all of you here to sign as international supporters, and look at the reverse side you will see our “what are you willing to do to end the conflict?” Campaign. We here are excited and proud to announce the official Launch of OneVoice Canada on this day right here in our nations capital. Before all of you here we will answer the same question that we ask you – what are we willing to do to end the conflict – we as a group pledge to start as many chapters of OneVoice, on campuses and communities across this great country, so that Israelis, Palestinians, Jews, Arabs and people on all sides of the conflict can continue to spread the message of peace and moderation that so many Israelis and Palestinians are trying to express.
Thank you all for coming to join us today, we hope you enjoy what we think will be an exceptional program for you today.
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VOICES
SUPPORT AN END TO CONFLICT.
... ISRAELIS ... PALESTINIANS
... INTERNATIONAL SUPPORTERS
Help us get to one million voices. Pledge your support to the OneVoice Mandate.
