Next Thursday Canadian rocker Bryan Adams will headline a peace concert in the West Bank city of Jericho. The concert is sponsored by One Voice, a New York-based NGO dedidcated to promoting understanding between Israelis and Palestinians. (See Dion Nissenbaum’s post on the concert for more background on OneVoice and its founder). The concert is part of the organization’s One Million Voices campaign, an ostensibly noble effort to get one million Israelis and Palestinians to sign a petition urging their leaders to conduct immediate negotiations to reach a peace deal. The concert is free, but attendees have to sign the petition.
Rosy as it all sounds, the concert, which is endorsed by Brad Pitt, Natalie Portman, Muhammad Ali, and Jordan’s Queen Noor, among numerous other Israeli and Palestinian prominents, is being targetted for boycott. Already one of the Palestinian rap groups that had agreed to perform, DAM (aka, Da Arab MCs), has reportedly pulled out.
The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) announced the boycott in an October 4 press release titled “Celebrating Peace or Camouflaging Apartheid?”. Writes PACBI:
According to the widely accepted boycott criteria advocated by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), the event falls under the category of normalization projects and violates the call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), endorsed by over 170 Palestinian civil society organizations, trade unions, political parties, and grassroots movements, for the following reasons
The group’s principal objection to the concert is that the content of the petition is too vague and “assumes equal responsibility of ‘both sides’ for the ‘conflict,’ and suspiciously fails to call for Israel’s full compliance with its obligations under international law through ending its illegal military occupation, its denial of Palestinian refugee rights (particularly the right of return), and its system of racial discrimination against its own Palestinian citizens.”
Judge for yourself. Here’s the full petition One Voice is asking people to sign:
- Recognize the right of both peoples 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, fulfilling the consistent will of the overwhelming majority of both populations.
A friend of mine who works for One Voice had this to say in response to the boycott:
The Peoples’ Summits present a real chance for Palestinians to clearly and peaceably but effectively show the world that there is a partner who agrees on the wide parameters in the mandate and who is willing to accept a solution of two states and recognize Israel when their own needs (for independence, freedom, security, and the acknowledgement of refugee suffering and rights) are also met.
On the Israeli side, the Peoples’ Summits are a clear way to show the Palestinians that while not every Israeli will pick up and go demonstrate at Bil’in, many more who consider themselves part of the mainstream want an end to the occupation and are willing to live alongside an independent Palestinian State in Gaza and the West Bank.
Personally, I’m a bit dismayed by the boycott. Across the Middle East, the hard Arab left generally suscribes to a policy of boycotting anything and everything Israeli in order, they argue, to stave off “normalization.” The group of PACBI academics and intellectuals who launched the boycott initiative in 2004 I think belong to this same school. It’s a wrongheaded policy that ignores the fact that there are a lot of Israelis who are doing substantive work on behalf of Palestinians. To paint the ISM’s Neta Golan or human rights lawyer Danny Seidemann with the same brush as you’d paint a Kiryat Arba settler is just absurd.
At the end of the day One Voice is on the right team and is working toward a noble goal that any pro-peace Israeli or Palestinian should be sympathetic with. To take umbrage with their petition because they didn’t adequately flesh out the fine print details of a final status agreement is unreasonable. Far more reasonable would be to boycott the concert because who the hell wants to sit through a freakin’ Bryan Adams show.
UPDATE: I just got word (Friday morning GMT) that the Jericho concert has been cancelled after more bands joined the boycott and Abbas dissociated himself from the event. Apparently the Israelis have made the puzzling decision to go ahead with their half of the show in Tel Aviv despite the cancellation of the Jericho concert.
41 responses so far ↓
1 Flo // Oct 11, 2007 at 11:24 am
Dear Charles,
I love your blog and usually find you very well informed. Unfortunately this is not the case here.
After writing the One Voice media officer, here is an important document I got. I quote her:
“You can find the 10 pillars on our website at http://www.onevoicemovement.org/wps/wcm/resources/file/eb06e2420922ece/pillars.pdf (this is our original website, and we are still in the process of migrating all the information on it to the OneMillionVoices site which was only completed at the end of August 2007).”
Now check point 3: “Do you agree that any peace agreement will be based on the principle of evacuating the settlements, excluding settlement blocks? ”
So when you say “At the end of the day One Voice is on the right team and is working toward a noble goal”, I’m sorry but I beg to differ.
Check out their ‘10 pillars’, see how International Law is never mentioned, think through them and see if you still have the same opinion after that.
I trust your good sense and excellent journalistic wits.
All the best,
Flo
2 Pappe // Oct 11, 2007 at 1:45 pm
What exactly is the problem with making some changes to the green-line ?
Children who were born in each have never done anything wrong ? they should not be kicked out of their homes and the simplest solution is for a border that would include Israelis in Israel and Palestinians in Palestine.
3 Charles Levinson // Oct 11, 2007 at 1:56 pm
Flo — i don’t find anything objectionable in that document. It more or less mirrors the Clinton parameters and Geneva. And international law is meaningless if your goal is to solve the conflict.
Israel has its own arguments and not always convincing interpretations of international law. But the best and most convincing summary I’ve found of how international law applies to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a 2002 essay by Northwestern Law School professor Anthony D’Amato (http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/world/israelborders.php).
Writes D’Amato: :”Thus after all the wars, the bloodshed, aggressions and counter-aggressions, acts of terror, reprisals, and attendant UN resolutions, nothing has changed the legal situation as it existed after Resolution 181 in 1947.”
Guess what. Israel is not going back to the UN partition borders of 1947, so to expect Israelis to negotiate on this premise, or to ask 500,000 Israelis to sign a petition with this premise is dooming the peace process before it begins.
4 Robin // Oct 11, 2007 at 4:19 pm
“Guess what. Israel is not going back to the UN partition borders of 1947, so to expect Israelis to negotiate on this premise, or to ask 500,000 Israelis to sign a petition with this premise is dooming the peace process before it begins.”
So in other words, are you saying they will never sign such an agreement? Peace will be dictated by Israel irregarless of international law on record defining the border? Israel will dictate the peace? The settlement blocks as Flo pointed out in #3 will stay, COMPLETE with the Jewish only roads going to them cutting through what is SUPPOSED to be a Palestinian state? How are these roads protected? Wouldn’t Israel still need a presence in what is SUPPOSED to be a Palestinian state? Sorry, but I agree with Flo 100%, a feel-good grouping of people which accepts the unacceptable in establishing again, what is SUPPOSED to be a Palestinian state is nothing but a bunch of blinded appeasers. It’s absolutely wonderful that all parties can get together and demand peace, but this 10 pt agenda they offer is just an empty show of sentiment based on the Palestinians accepting what NO nation would accept.
5 Pappe // Oct 11, 2007 at 4:30 pm
Robin,
It seems you don’t understand what are the “UN partition borders of 1947″ - suggest you try to understand first. Palestinians rejected those borders while BG accepted them. They made a mistake.
as for “Israel will dictate the peace” - do you honestly think so ????
6 Nana Poku // Oct 11, 2007 at 5:01 pm
“Across the Middle East, the hard Arab left generally suscribes to a policy of boycotting anything and everything Israeli in order, they argue, to stave off “normalization.””
Actually, this isn’t the view of the ‘Arab hard left’, but it’s what 90% of Arab public opinion thinks, including in countries that have signed peace agreements with Israel.
A cursory glance through the Arab blogosphere or a simple conversation with taxi drivers, shop keepers etc in Egypt or Jordan shows this is so.
This, and not the refusal of Israel to accept a two state solution, is one of the main stumbling blocks to an agreement.
The Arab street still hasn’t got its head around the fact that Israel is here to stay and by using the ‘apartheid South Africa’ line groups like the one you mention hope that Israel as we know it will vanish, being swallowed up in a single Palestinian state.
Remember that time and time again, it isn’t actually Jerusalem or settlements that pose the deal breaker, but rather Arab insistence that Israel accepts “right of return.”
I use that phrase in quotation marks deliberately as most of these people have never been to Palestine / Israel, having instead been born in, and left to fester in, refugee camps in neighbouring countries.
7 Brian // Oct 11, 2007 at 5:51 pm
Charles,
It was nice to meet you the other night.
I do agree with you that the OneVoice folks are on the right team. I think their motives are genuine and that they genuinely want to see an end to the suffering caused by the occupation.
However, I can see the resistance to backing a movement that seems to be all about publicity without much real substance or power to effect change. I can also understand the suspicion people have of new negotiations without being fully aware of what sort of deal they are getting out of it. Olso was a “peace deal” that certainly changed the situation between Palestinians and Israelis — but falls far short of any sort of sustainable and lasting agreement. I put it in quotations because peace seems no closer now than it did back in 1993.
I also think it’s interesting that you mentioned Neta Golan in your post. I think she is one of the organizers working on Another Voice, the protest movement against OneVoice. I’m curious to hear your thoughts on that…
-Brian
8 flo // Oct 11, 2007 at 6:16 pm
Two things:
1) The consensus position for the Palestinians when it comes to a 2 states solution is a state within the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as a capital. This is clear, the concession of renouncing the 1947 borders was made a long time (and got the Palestiians nothing in return).
2) the settlements blocks are actually severing the West Bank and their existence prevents any viable contiguous Palestinian state. If the settlements blocks stay, there can be no Palestinian state within the 1967 borders. This means more land dispossession and no hope whatsoever of true independence for the Palestinians.
Being naive (at best) or manipulative (at worst) like the One Voice redactors of these 10 points that fail to take into account International Law is not conducive to any peace.
Flo
9 Pappe // Oct 11, 2007 at 6:54 pm
“Viable contiguous Palestinian state”
I love the use of slogans.
Any Palestinian state will never be “contiguous” as Gaza and the west bank are seprate.
Ask any Nablusi about people from Al-Khalil and they would never want any interaction with them (or let their daughter marry one)
What actually preventing the “”Viability of a Palestinian state” is the inability to give up false ideas such as “Right of Return”
I truly wish the Palestinian will smarten up and test Israelis willingness to give up land (something most Israelis say they are willing to do for peace). All that is needed is to say:
“Sorry we voted for hamas which is a terror organization that wants to cancel the only homeland the Jewish people have and kick the Jews out of the sovereignty on a tiny piece of land in the Middle East. We also are not serious about the demand to fill Israel with Palestinian refugee ? we will take care of them in our own country”
If Palestinian will say those things we can see if Israel really willing to give up land for peace. Israel gave land to any country that truly negotiated peace and gave up the idea to destroy Israel. Palestinian should do the same.
10 Pappe // Oct 11, 2007 at 7:08 pm
Brian,
Interesting post. I would generally agree with you that “one voice” is useless.
I never heard of “another voice” and but if Neta Golan (ISM founder) is there and over here we have Flo (another long-term ISMer) coming against “One Voice” maybe just maybe One voice is doing something right ….. ? After all people in the ISM are those that never try to create real cooperation between Arab and Jews (except for a fringe group of anarchists) Flo, a Jewish girl, most likely spend more time in Tul Karem than she did in Tel-Aviv which show little willingness to actually understand the Israeli side a bit better.
11 greenmamba // Oct 11, 2007 at 8:27 pm
D’Amato is a bit of an oddball and I don’t entirely trust his interpretations of international law on this subject - for whatever any interpretations are worth.
He tends to gush on about Jews for one thing and has a bee in his bonnet about Israeli “land grabbing.” He issued an analysis of 1701 here:
http://tinyurl.com/nr872
(They had a 2nd opinion by another jurist and there were some remarkable differences as I recall, illustrating how tricky this branch of law is.)
His Postscript contains gratuitous opinions that are suspicious in themselves. At the end, answering a respondent, he starts on about morality and taking things that do not belong to one. He even mentions the Talmud: i.e. Jews should follow the Talmud and not steal land.
I wish the guy had written back to ask what Jews (Israel) should do given that according to their religion, Israel is a lot bigger than the land it now occupies - ‘territories’ included.
12 Charles Levinson // Oct 11, 2007 at 8:44 pm
Hi Brian: regarding Palestinian mistrust of negotiations, your point is fair. But what’s the option? Perhaps the Palestinians will never get a fair shake as the weaker party to any negotiation and their best strategy is to endure the status quo for the long haul and hope that 10, 20, or who knows how many years bring significant changes in global power balances, Israeli and international attitudes, or some other sea change that causes a fundamental shift in the conflict’s dynamics. I think it’s clear that it’s not going to be resolved militarily by either side. So that leaves negotiations.
And I think the people should have some idea of what is going to come out of negotiatons this time around. Unlike Oslo, and unlike Camp Daivd seven years ago, on both sides of the conflict today there seems to be a basic understanding of what a final status settlement is going to look like. It’s going to be something in between Geneva and Camp David. As Haaretz journalist Akiva El Dar said some weeks ago, “there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. Now all we need is a tunnel.” Negotiations are that tunnel.
As for Neta Golan, I didn’t know she was rallying against the OneVoice concert, but I’m not surprised. I know much of what’s dubbed here the “radical Israeli left” is joining the boycott. It doesn’t change the point I was trying to make. If anything it highlights it.
As you know, I lived in Cairo for three years and I knew people there who if they discovered they were sitting at a table with an Israeli would get up and leave, regardless of whether that Israeli was Neta Golan or Ariel Sharon. I tend to view the boycott of the OneVoice concert as a less extreme example of that sort of attitude.
13 Pappe // Oct 11, 2007 at 9:10 pm
Charles:
This is so true:
“I think it?s clear that it?s not going to be resolved militarily by either side. So that leaves negotiations.
And I think the people should have some idea of what is going to come out of negotiatons this time around. Unlike Oslo, and unlike Camp Daivd seven years ago, on both sides of the conflict today there seems to be a basic understanding of what a final status settlement is going to look like.”
14 Mike Nargizian // Oct 11, 2007 at 9:37 pm
Very interesting post and very interesting replies…. I’m glad Robin and Flo said what they did… as well as Nana Poku…. I’d like to fully reply to many of the great points made here… and what a shocker, Charles actually replied TWICE..
Mike
PS Instead of Bryan Adams, who is ok, how about just having Natalie Portman and Jennifer Anniston on stage… they can just talk and take questions, well at least Natalie could… Anniston couldn’t handle that.
15 tsedek // Oct 12, 2007 at 7:41 am
I want Bryan, don’t you dare to try to change the casting GRRR…
Btw: Charles, I am desperately trying to get to Jericho on that event. No luck so far as how to get there and what difficulties I might experience on the way over. Any suggestions?
16 Shual // Oct 12, 2007 at 12:10 pm
Tsedek,
I thougth the Jericho event was cancelled? AP: A West Bank peace concert for supporters of a two-state solution to the conflict with Israel has been called off because of security concerns, the organizer said late Thursday.
PS: Brian Adams sucks.
17 tsedek // Oct 12, 2007 at 9:13 pm
“have you ever really
- really really ever loved a woman?
No sucks. Mr. Romance doesn’t suck. GRRR.
I know. It was cancelled. Very bad. Very, very bad. Very discouraging as well…..
18 Shual // Oct 12, 2007 at 9:51 pm
Dear Tsedek,
because I don’t know much about the figures in the background of the festival, I have no opinion about the cancelled Jericho event. The press release is not very convincing. Its not the first time a festival was cancelled in the region cause of “extremists”. They have not prepared, or they have not the money to organize it. [Very sad for young people, yes.]
And about B.A. let an old fox tell you that he still shivers, cause he was traumatized in the 80ties, cause all of his girl-friends loved this wimp and what they thougth was a romantic evening with nice music was an endless terror for me.
It had cut like a knife and it still hurts. Wait some 10 years and you will understand.
19 Mike Nargizian // Oct 12, 2007 at 10:43 pm
Real quick….
Palestinians Want Western Wall as Part of Any Settlement
http://www.nysun.com/article/64482
Any questions???………. it’s never going to matter… the Jews and Israelis will NEVER learn.
Also…. listened to Pavarotti and friends on youtube.. at his past annual charity concerts….
Nessun Dorma…. Bryan Adams sings with him on a song and is ok, well not very good…
Surprisingly though Michael Bolton sings Nessun Dorma with Luciano and other “stars”…. and is awesome - no really -
He doesn’t even smile or hug big Luciano bcs he’s an uptight prick…. but that’s another story…
Reply to the rest later…
20 tsedek // Oct 13, 2007 at 2:08 pm
Hah
I’m an old fox myself although my name is not Shual, and I love his music (never did when I was younger) - only now I get shivers when I hear the words that I know are fantasy but a nice fantasy -
I think it did have something to do with ‘hostile’ opposition Shual. Don’t know in how far ‘threats’ were made if at all, but I wouldn’ t take a chance either. (and I was planning on going to Jericho).
21 Shual // Oct 13, 2007 at 3:43 pm
[A fox that calls himselve justice. People may laugh now, cause they are full of strange and incongruos mythologies about foxes. Real thinkers, like the Kuwi know better. Once upon a time a tiger was catched in a trap and he was freed from a brahmin, but after that the Tiger wanted to eat the brahmin. The brahmin said: “Wait a second: I fred you so it is very unfair to eat me.” The tiger understood, but cliamed ihis nature and so they searched for a judge to solve the case. After several tries they found a fox and the fox sais: “I can not really decide the case. Show me how it happened!” They walked to the trap and they explained the situation. But the fox said: “Listen, I still can not figure it out. Please, Tiger, give me a proove that you action was not a fake and a trap for the brahmin!” So the tiger craweled again into the trap… and was catched again. The brahmin thanked the fox for saving him and the fox-judge … took the common bribe … a chicken … and everybody was happy. …. ok, the chicken was not happy, I guess.]
Dear Tsedek,
I have prepared a list of several Israeli-chicks. Maybe you can send me one of them, cause I want to see the Bryan-Adams-Case clearer.
Ok, serious: I am the last one that wants to “destroy” other ones music-taste. I have my own and very controversial taste but I am open for good music and if anyone says BA is good music for him it can happen that I express my dissatisfaction. Music has some “sacred” state for me, I can not hear music cause it wants to be political, or romantic, or whatever. I like music. But I don’t like BA. No problem, I think, even that I think his try to become Bono for the poor is … a forget about that!
As I said: I have no overview over the orginisators and so I can not say if they are amateurs, or amateurs.
PS: “Old Fox”? How old are you, dear Tsedek? I was born in 68 with the burden of several centuries history on my back. [A true story] The first thing I did was fall in a two weeks lasting coma but several angels persuaded me to take the step into the actual world. Music! Music is the real thing that gives me the power to act in this world and I nerver explored why I am searching to hear those angels sing again. Good woman voices attract me. Punishing beats, too. Bryan Adams has no room in that space, but several hundreds of musicans have.]
22 tsedek // Oct 13, 2007 at 9:28 pm
Ach nein. You really mean you prefer Bono over Bryan Adams? *_*
I don’t like Bono. Full stop.
Apart from that, I love music - all music (except for ‘heavy’ jazz) - and music is my world, my best friend, my photo-album and mood-uplifter. So don’t dare to flirt with what’s mine, LOL.
I am older than you ‘old’ fox
Only my problem (or rescue, depends on how one looks at it) is that I don’t seem to be able to grow up.
Nice story about the judge-fox.
What do you mean you were born with a few centuries on your back? What happened you fell into coma? I must have been your mother singing to you those times that makes you love good women singers now
23 Shual // Oct 14, 2007 at 12:33 am
Dear Tsedek,
this is great! I REALLY thougth you are 20something!
Only Scarlatina. And it was not my mother, it were angels. [”Velveteen Rabbit”-effect, if you know that book] I saw them very often, as a child I had some fascinating fevers per anno and my “visions” were famous.
And you don’t like Bono? Hey, this is very good. So you can send me a list of all Bobo-loving-chicks of Israel and you can keep the Bryan-Adams-loving chicks. Two foxes in one stable …. not a good idea.
24 Dima // Oct 14, 2007 at 2:36 am
I think this is a good post. I am too disappointed by this attempt to sabotage what seems like a really big and innovative step towards finally focusing on the future and not on the past.
25 tsedek // Oct 14, 2007 at 5:38 am
Shual I have nothing with ‘chicks’ - I prefer roosters -if you don’t mind. I wonder what a female fox is called? Anyway, whatever that is, that’s me
26 Shual // Oct 14, 2007 at 10:50 am
Its getting more and more fascinating.
And now the Bryan Adams-thing has found a new sense: “traumatized in the 80ties, cause all of his girl-friends loved this wimp”. [I think you did not attend festivals like “Pinkpop” in the 80ties, so the chances are really low that you were a part of that conspiracy against me. :-)]
I don’t know what the correct female form of “fox” in hebrew can be. I think [like here] there is no special form, except those assigned into human-world: ??? ?????, ?????; ?????
27 Shual // Oct 14, 2007 at 10:50 am
Its getting more and more fascinating.
And now the Bryan Adams-thing has found a new sense: “traumatized in the 80ties, cause all of his girl-friends loved this wimp”. [I think you did not attend festivals like “Pinkpop” in the 80ties, so the chances are really low that you were a part of that conspiracy against me. :-)]
I don’t know what the correct female form of “fox” in hebrew can be. I think [like here] there is no special form, except those assigned into human-world: ??? ?????, ?????; ?????
28 Shual // Oct 14, 2007 at 10:51 am
Its getting more and more fascinating.
And now the Bryan Adams-thing has found a new sense: “traumatized in the 80ties, cause all of his girl-friends loved this wimp”. [I think you did not attend festivals like “Pinkpop” in the 80ties, so the chances are really low that you were a part of that conspiracy against me. :-)]
I don’t know what the correct female form of “fox” in hebrew can be. I think [like here] there is no special form, except those assigned into human-world, like “vixen”.
29 Shual // Oct 14, 2007 at 10:51 am
uuups. Sorry.
30 tsedek // Oct 14, 2007 at 6:13 pm
Anyway, the only festivals I have been to were indoors (Ahoy-Hallen, R’dam) - nothing fancy, I’m afraid. I didn’t like Adams till a few years ago only…. sometimes time and music is a symbiose and from then on one is hooked
all your girlfriends?
:D 
31 Shual // Oct 14, 2007 at 9:33 pm
Now they cancelled the TA-event, too! [And the website has not been updated!] ABSURD!
Dear Tsedek, I am sorry, but you can see Bryan Adams in 2007 on palestinian and israeli-free Zones like Helsinki only.
All girlfriends? Of the Phase I, yes. [Phase I-girls, until 1994, were “daugthers of prosperity”, a class with a stable social background, stable family, a quite well own social position. In Phase I, I wanted to be a “normal german family-founder”, 8-hours-job, house, children, a.s.o., cause my father+mother were a quite attracting example of a rweal good family life.]
After ten years of not dramatic, but ineffective tries with “Bryan Adams girls” [hehehe] I said to myselve: “If you go on like this you will sit in 2007 very frustrated and alone in front of a computer and you will write frustrating things in discussion forums of group-therapy websites.” So Phase II, until 2001 was directed to the group of “not so respectable girls”, the “Anti-Bryan Adams girls”. The contain of Phase II must be censored, cause I don’t want to disturb the high moral concepts of readers here.
After some rest [:-)] Phase III: A very nice and beautiful german-turkish girl with absolutly NO relation to Bryan Adams + marriage + daugther [November, two years old]
And if its up to me, Phase III can last for the rest of my life.
32 Robin // Oct 15, 2007 at 3:14 am
The concert has been canceled as updated above first the one in Jericho, then the one in Tel Aviv which was canceled in solidarity according to the One Voice Website. But here’s the deal, the “Pillars” pdf link given above by Flo is GONE, woosh-disappeared.
I linked to it the other day by clicking, but now it goes directly to the home page. Now there is a letter statement from the folks on that site, claiming that a smear campaign was mounted against them NOTHING in that new statement on that website mentions #3- “excluding the settlement blocks” You can find their statement here
http://www.onemillionvoices.org/news/ But they sure have some things to say to those who were calling to boycott the concert and the campaign claiming people were threatened, yet not giving any specifics, ostensibly to “protect” those who were threatened. As I stated above, any call for “peace” which leaves settlement blocks is not a viable call for peace, for to maintain those settlement blocks, keeps in place the strangling apparatus rendering a viable contiguous Palestinian state impossible. The problem also as I see it is that while the One Voice movement STATES they don’t have a political agenda, indeed they do. As they say, “the devil is in the details” and in this case, this is certainly true. So in the long run, what was this whole campaign about is really the issue, led by Israelis, the pdf 10 points gone, and yet another claim there are so many non-peaceful Palestinians even their noble campaign was derailed. Offer a just peace, and as they say, “They will come”. Offer a “peace” with inherent problems such as this, and you will continue to end up with boycotts, justifiably so.
33 Shual // Oct 15, 2007 at 6:14 am
Ok, Robin,
they asked the settlement-bloc question and called it “Referendum Proposal” and I can really see no problem in asking the subricers about their opinion. The answer was [I think] 75% Palestinians: NO; 62% Israelis: YES, so even the answer was honest.
http://shual.blogspot.com/2007/10/pillars.html
34 Robin // Oct 15, 2007 at 6:55 am
Thank you Shual for providing those, which are titled: OneVoice Negotiations Referendum Proposals, and so they are questions put to those signing, the underpinning of what One Voice is offering. Would you mind me asking if you know the distribution of the signatures?
BTW http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/10/383542.html
Also, the pillars were NOT on the page for the peace mandate offered for signing, which IS deceptive.
35 Robin // Oct 15, 2007 at 7:44 am
Shual,
I meant to ask what percentage of the MANDATE signers were Palestinian vs Israeli. Also, where do you get your info that it was a question asked and the figures you offer as a result of those questions?
I don’t see anywhere that they were questions actually asked, only a sort of “do you believe in this? Then sign on the dotted line” NOT a questionaire, because as I looked up the pillars, they go back to 2003 and then had to be wittled down from 20 to 10 because they were AGREED upon premises, NOT actual questions to ask people. Am I wrong?
36 Shual // Oct 15, 2007 at 12:57 pm
Nonono, Robin. [underpinning of what One Voice is offering] - The majority decided what One Voice is offering. I found now that they changed the “Settlement question” in the 3rd round cause of the results in the previous rounds.
And the Phase “Citizens Negotiations was over in September 2004, I think. One Voice must recognize the results and I think they still do, but I really don’t know why they stopped the balloting. This really is disturbing. The “Mandat” of today has no connection to the results, its a different strategy. They excluded all key-issues and I don’t understand that. But on the other side, its no reason to get angry with them. I think my special friends of the ISM [They really annoy me, oh they REALLY do! :-)] are jealous, cause their movement does not attract half a million petitioners.
I will provide you the 3rd round-results: http://shual.blogspot.com/2007/10/robin-results.html The rest of the results seem to be erased out of the Internet and I really can not understand why. But at the bottom a C21-link with some useful excerpts.
37 Robin // Oct 15, 2007 at 5:15 pm
Thank you Shual, I really appreciate you giving that information to clear up my misunderstandings of the One Voice process. Here’s my sincere concern ESPECIALLY in light of the last paragraph of the link you provided:
”
Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem were most pragmatic on some issues but more intransigent on others. They approved proposals on Two States (85.4%), Borders (81.9%), and End to Occupation and Terror (85%) overwhelmingly, but only 54.3% approved the Settlements proposal and 55% the Jerusalem Proposal, below the Palestinian average of 64.9%. While OneVoice does its utmost to provide a balanced voting process among all voters, it is possible and LIKELY that District leaders and field outreach supervisors influence where their volunteers do their canvassing so the above
CANNOT be considered authoritative samples. While the above data is useful, the fundamental goal of OneVoice is not to provide survey data, but to engage citizens on the ground in thinking through these issues and vesting them with the power and responsibility to negotiate with themselves and learn the art of
compromise.”
So that statement is saying in fact, that manipulation of the balloting process is LIKELY.
That is VERY telling don’t you think? The thing that concerns me is that this concert was being promoted as the CLIMAX of this process, a sort of “see, all these peaceful Palestinians signed on to this agreement” and as clear, it is LIKELY it was manipulated, then at the concert they whip out the “Pillars” and say “See, PEACEFUL Palestinians agree to settlement blocks being left, they said NOTHING about the ROR and here you go, this is what they want” when it is a SHAM to begin with. Some updates, the folks at OV are claiming threats made the concert close down, giving NO PROOF http://www.onemillionvoices.org/news/#ovStatement1
and the folks at ISM are saying this
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2007/10/13/another-voice-onevoice-concert-cancelled-due-to-grassroots-mobilization/
Now keep in mind, it was PACBI which called for the boycott, and I sincerely believe it was legitimate given the hidden agenda of OV and the manner in which support was garnered.
It’s just a REAL shame in my mind, because if the whole process would have been above board, then it would have had a much better chance of success, because those on both sides who seek PEACE, their voice must be heard, but JUSTICE simply CANNOT be tossed to the side and using VICTIMS of this injustice in the manner it seems to be apparent is just WRONG.
Please Shual, I invite you sincerely to correct me if you think I still misunderstand.
38 tsedek // Oct 15, 2007 at 8:45 pm
Where does it say the TA event is cancelled as well?
Stupid force, stupid hate.
Wish hate would be a thing, a chemical that would destroy itself - darn.
You stick in phase III Shual - the only thing one can keep a TINY little bit control upon is one own’s life
you got your cast ready and playing and they enjoy it, so I think this is a win-win situation. I wonder why it is you have to venture out into the virtual world of conflict and especially the MO, if you got it all and are not emtionally attached to this side of the world?
If I could live my life again I’d be in Jamaica and the only thing I would know about ‘here’ is that Jerusalem is the capital people fight over…..
39 Shual // Oct 15, 2007 at 9:27 pm
Jamaica is a very nice country, thats true.
JERICHO/TEL AVIV, Israel, Oct 15, 2007 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — In a show of solidarity with OneVoice Palestine, the OneVoice Movement, and artists and celebrities engaged with them, have decided to cancel the OneVoice Summit due to take place this Thursday in Tel Aviv. Security threats late last week prompted the cancellation of a parallel OneVoice Summit planned for Jericho. … n the meantime, as a response to the postponement, the group has been working with Yahoo! to highlight the power of the people. “We invite people across the world to join us on October 18, 2007 at 7pm Jerusalem time (1pm EST) at video.yahoo.com/onevoice to experience something they have not seen before.”
blablabla …. ABSURD!
40 Shual // Oct 15, 2007 at 10:22 pm
Dear Tsedek,
“not emotionally attached to this side of the world”? A joke?!? There are several things, some easy to explain, some not really explainable.
One is this feeling that something is missing. Our region was one of the major settlement area of jews and we all know what happened to them. My first reaction [maybe at 10] and my reaction today is that I miss them. Something in my own life is missing. Where is my romantic story with a young jewish girl of the neighbourhood at 16? Where are my jewish friends that played soccer with me? […]
I said to myself that I will not seek for a replacement of that lost story. I said… G*d, fait will replace it when its time. Now, 30 years later I have a jewish “best friend”, and I had my romantic stories a.s.o.. I did not searched for them… it happend. And I have a very good feeling about the stories. [But g*d decided not to direct me into a single direction. You know: “Turkish stories”
or my brother-in-law is american. I LOVE the US. ….]
But the other side of the “lost story”, the thieves of that story. They are real. They are here. And they have my special attention. And this is very simple: If you want to detect and work against antisemitism you have to no the facts about what is going on in the jewish world, in the country, in the conflicts around the country…
41 Shual // Oct 18, 2007 at 3:39 pm
Full text: Bethlehem – Ma’an – Palestinian civil society groups claimed victory Wednesday after the collapse of a planned pair of concerts in support of negotiations with Israel.
Opposition from Palestinian activist groups and high-profile mismanagement resulted in the cancellation of the OneVoice People’s Summit, a concert event planned to take place in Tel Aviv and Jericho simultaneously. The concerts were originally scheduled for Thursday. The event’s stated purpose was to call for the implementation of “a two state solution.” The concerts signed on such acts as Canadian rock singer Bryan Adams, and the popular Palestinian hip hop group DAM. The sponsoring organization, One Million Voices, boasted the support of notables including former UN High Comissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson, US envoy Dennis Ross, and Chief Palestinian Negotiator Saeb Erekat. The group also claimed the support of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. According to Abbas’ own office, this was false. The Presidents’ staff issued a statement on October 11th saying it had “no relationship whatsoever with the activities planned by One Voice.” But Abbas distancing himself from the event was only the final straw that resulted in the collapse of the concert. A range of Palestinian groups, under the auspices of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), succeeded in persuading several high-profile artists, including DAM, to withdraw from the concert. PACBI pointed out that OneVoice’s platform did not address the critical issues of the status of Jerusalem or the fate of Palestinian refugees. A OneVoice Press statement dismissed all such arguments, blaming the cancellation of the event on “fringe extremists,” accusing critics of a “slanderous campaign.” PACBI declared victory, saying the event’s cancellation “is further proof that a clear majority in Palestinian society continues to insist on the full realization of the inalienable rights of the People of Palestine.”
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