'One Voice': Israelis, Palestinians want Palestinian state
By The Associated Press
A grass roots initiative seeking common ground between Palestinians and Israelis has found a high degree of consensus among ordinary people on some key issues often presented by politicians as deal breakers, organizers say.
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However, other matters remain in contention, despite a structure that invites agreement.
Six months after its launch, the "One Voice" campaign - backed by Jewish and Arab community leaders, big business, and Hollywood stars - has signed up 113,852 people, 53 percent Palestinians and 47 percent Israelis.
The initiative asks respondents to accept or reject 10 statements on issues at the heart of the Mideast conflict.
In a unique element that separates the project from ordinary opinion polls, respondents are limited in how many statements they can reject out of hand, forcing them to compromise on propositions they somewhat disagree with if they wish to register strong opposition to others.
A drawback to evaluating the results is the inability to show how the One Voice supporters reflect opinion as a whole, since it does not represent a scientific sample.
Results analyzed since the project's launch at the end of February showed 72 percent of Israelis and 76 percent of Palestinians agree a viable Palestinian state should be established alongside Israel.
Fifty-nine percent of Israelis and 76 percent of Palestinians agreed that both sides should halt violence and that Israel should end "the occupation," though the questionnaire does not spell out whether this would entail a withdrawal from all lands Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war - the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem.
"It shows people are much more realistic than their leaders," said one of the organizers, Israeli Arab peace activist Mohammed Darawshe. "Politicians say that Israelis and Palestinians are too far apart from each other to reach a solution. Our data shows the opposite."
However, deal breakers still remain, even in this framework - the fate of Jewish settlements and the future of Jerusalem.
Only 22 percent of Palestinians agreed with the statement that Israel should be able to keep large settlement blocs in a final peace deal, and only 50 percent of Israeli respondents agreed that east Jerusalem should become the Palestinian capital - a key Palestinian demand.
While several unofficial peace initiatives have been launched in recent years, run by intellectuals on both sides, One Voice is a grass roots project, with responses collected from residents of poverty-stricken Israeli development towns and Palestinian refugee camps, as well as students and community activists.
One Voice trainers have even managed to sign up Israeli soldiers during long waits at West Bank checkpoints, Darawshe said.
Yariv Oppenheimer of the Israeli advocacy group Peace Now said any attempt to promote dialogue is welcome, but One Voice has drawbacks.
"It's not a very clear initiative ... It might have been more useful to have given its support for existing initiatives," he said.
Computer giant IBM is analyzing the results, and organizers intend to take the final conclusions to political leaders. One Voice has not set a date or number of votes for the completion of the project.
The next stage is to mobilize more activists.
Supported by a $400,00 grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, a one-year leadership training program for 1,000 Palestinians and 1,000 Israelis was due to start Wednesday but was postponed in the wake of Tuesday's twin suicide bombings in Be'er Sheva, in which two bombers and 16 victims were killed.
Since the outbreak of hostilities nearly four years ago, 3,070 people have been killed on the Palestinian side and 986 on the Israeli side.
Efforts to halt the carnage are spreading outside the Middle East, Darawshe said. Jewish and Palestinian members of the One Voice network in Britain have initiated dialogue and joint community activities. A meeting of Jewish and Palestinian students is expected to take place on the sidelines of the National Union of Students congress next spring in the English resort of Blackpool.
In the United States, James Zogby, head of the Arab-American Institute, and World Jewish Congress President Edgar Bronfman are supporting the program, Darawshe said, and Hollywood supporters include Brad Pitt, Jennifer Aniston, Rhea Perlman, Danny de Vito and Jason Alexander.
Darawshe said he wants to see about 15 percent of the Palestinian and Israeli populations - or about 900,000 Israelis and 700,000 Palestinians - active in One Voice. "That's the kind of critical mass that can make waves," he said.
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