New York, U.S.A. – 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, April 28 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 “The document has never been withdrawn or rejected by any Arab state, but despite its apparent resilience, we cannot expect it stay on the table forever.”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.

OneVoice is an international grassroots movement that aims to amplify the voice of Israeli and Palestinian moderates, empowering them to demand a two-state solution. The movement educates and trains Israeli and Palestinian youth in leadership skills, non-violent activism, and democratic principles.

Image Courtesy of   Ryan Rodrick Beiler / Shutterstock.com

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As talks in Amman, Jordan continue, Christians for Fair Witness on the Middle East urges Israel and the Palestinian Authority to summon historic political courage and take the steps that are necessary to return to direct peace talks and the successful negotiation of a final status peace agreement.  On the Israeli side, this would include freezing settlement construction on the West Bank.

“The status quo is not neutral,” according to Rev. Dr. Peter A. Pettit, of Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA and Fair Witness Executive Committee member.  “It eats away at the dignity and hope that must ground a peace agreement.  Therefore, we strongly urge Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to refrain from continued settlement building.

We also strongly urge Palestinian President Abbas to engage in direct peace talks without pre-conditions, as the Quartet has proposed, and Israel has agreed.  That is the only way to reach a final status agreement and peace.”

“Both Palestinians and Israelis continue to suffer while their respective leadership appears locked in a ‘lose-lose’ pattern of obstinacy,” lamented Rev. Dr. Bruce Chilton, Bernard Iddings Bell Professor of Religion at Bard College and Fair Witness Executive Committee member.   Rev. Chilton added that “continued Israeli settlement building creates facts on the ground while peace talks are delayed.

However, the Palestinian refusal to engage in direct negotiations without a settlement freeze is equally unhelpful.  The way to stop settlement building is to create a mutually agreed upon border.  And that cannot happen until the parties sit down and negotiate.”

“As the New Year begins, we bring the message of peace and goodwill to all people,” says Rev. Pettit.  “We pray especially that peace will finally come to the people of Palestine and Israel.”

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A recent controversial agreement between Israelis and Palestinians has led to the release of one Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, in return for 1,000 Palestinian prisoners. Gilad Shalit, now 25 years old, was captured by Hamas at the age of 19. He was held captive in Gaza after his 2006 kidnapping.

The decision of releasing 1,000 Palestinian prisoners came just one week ago, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided it to be imperative for the return of Shalit. Shalit returned to Israel on October 18. Gilad Shalit was taken by Hamas militants to Egypt, where the swap was finalized.

Shalit was welcomed back into Israel by hugs from his family, as well as Prime Minister Netanyahu and Lieutenant General Benny Gantz, Israel’s military chief. He was seen to be thin and frail. After medical examinations, Shalit has shown to have malnutrition signs and a lack of exposure to the sun.

Shalit stated in an interview of the conditions of the prison he was held in, stating that he was in solitary confinement most of the time. Shalit’s father explained in an interview that his son received harsh conditions at the beginning of his imprisonment, but the conditions improved as time went on.

“I knew all along that my family and many people in Israel are doing everything possible in order to release me,” said Gilad Shalit in an interview with Egyptian television.

Thousands of Israelis descended onto the streets to celebrate the arrival of Shalit. Israelis were singing, cheering, and opening bottles of champagne upon his release. People waved the Israeli flag as Shalit was ushered to his home to be with his family.

Although there was a large support for Shalit’s release and return to Israel, many Isarelis do not agree with the recent events. The unbalanced proportion of released Palestinian prisoners comes as a shock to many. Many family members of those who were killed by Palestinian prisoners are opposed to their release.

Many of those who were released for Shilat were imprisoned for life sentences. Their charges include the deaths of Israelis through a number of attacks. Nasser Yateima killed 30 Isarelis in a hotel bombing in 2002, occurring on the Jewish holiday of Passover. Abdel Aziz Salha assisted in the deadly stabbing of two Israeli soldiers when they made a wrong turn into the West Bank.

An overwhelming crowd of support greeted the Palestinian prisoners as they returned home. As per the agreement of the prisoner swap, 450 Palestinian prisoners were released from Israeli captivity. The second group of prisoners which total 550, will be released in two months time.

The West Bank and Gaza lit up with jubilation as people celebrated in the streets. Thousands of supporters greeted the newly released prisoners with green flags, the dominate color associated with Hamas. Hamas has controlled Gaza through militant tactics. The release of these 1,000 prisoners in exchange for one Israeli soldier comes as an undeniable success in the viewpoint of Palestinians.

Palestinian crowds loudly chanted “The people want a new Gilad.” This message displays the idea that if more Israeli soldiers are kidnapped, future prisoner swaps can be created, potentially leading to the release of hundreds more Palestinian prisoners.

Image Courtesy of   http://www.flickr.com/photos/idfonline/

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The Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told reporters on Saturday that he expects the Palestinian application for full United Nations membership to be seriously considered by the Security Council members. At a speech to the General Assembly on Friday, Abbas pressed for the recognition of an independent Palestinian State alongside the Israeli State.

The Palestinian leader has been expressing his government’s desire to move forward on the matter of independence for some time, to the great irritation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The bid for statehood reflects Abbas’s lack of confidence in the US-sponsored peace talks after 20 years without tangible results, and he is now taking a diplomatic step without the oversight of the Israel-American alliance. Furthermore, the continued expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied land that Palestinians hope to constitute their future state is another strong incentive for Abbas’s request to act now.

In an interview with the pan-Arab newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat, Mahmoud Abbas is quoted for saying that Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu is the ‘most inflexible Israeli leader he had ever known’. “With Rabin, Peres, Sharon, Olmert, and Livni, negotiations were possible,” Abbas stated according to Haaretz.com

In response to the Palestinian statehood bid, the so-called Mideast Quartet proposed an immediate restart of peace talks. The Quartet, which comprises the US, United Nations, the European Union and Russia, laid out a timeline for peace talks in which a final status agreement would be reached by December 2012, said Businessweek.com.

But the Palestinians are unlikely to accept the conditions of the proposal because it’s based on negotiations without specifying preconditions. “The Palestinians cannot negotiate any proposal that is not based on 1967 borders and does not ensure a settlement freeze in the West Bank,” said Mahmoud Abbas.

However, the president did not reject the idea of renewed direct negotiations but said he would need to consult his government in Ramallah.

In recent years, the Palestinian people have received growing sympathy from the world community as their objection to the occupation by Israel has moved from terrorist campaigns to nonviolent resistance. Especially in the West Bank has civil demonstrations secured the world’s focus on the plight of Palestinians as opposed to the negative imagery of suicide bombers.

Foreign governments and powerful NGOs have been monumental in the organization of for example “the ‘Nakba’ and ‘Naksa’ day border marches, the weekly Bil’in and Na’lin security fence protests, and, perhaps the most prominent example, the Gaza Flotilla movement,” wrote Daniel Nisman, an Argov Fellow for leadership and Diplomacy at the Inter-Disciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel for The Jerusalem Post.

This development has placed the Israeli government in a tough spot. Recently they were criticized by the UN for using ‘excessive and unreasonable’ violence during the 2010 raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla and more importantly, with the rise of non-violent movements in the West Bank, the Israeli argument against Palestinian statehood loses credibility.

Speaking of which, the Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman warned that the Palestinian application would “bring us to an altogether new situation and this would have repercussions, severe repercussions,” according to Businessweek.com. Who the recipient of these repercussions will be was unclear.

Image Courtesy of   http://www.flickr.com/photos/worldeconomicforum/

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