The Movement for Reform Judaism

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is probably the most talked about international issue in the UK today, despite persistent attempts to refocus the agenda on atrocities and suffering in Darfur or alleviating poverty worldwide through the G8 Summit. Occupying such a prominent position in British consciousness the conflict is, more often than not, used as an excuse for polarisation, bad relations and hatred between communities- predominantly but not exclusively Jewish/ Muslim - finding particular expression on University campuses.

Growing up in the UK and experiencing first hand the negative effects the conflict has on communal and societal relations, I increasingly questioned where the energy I personally felt around the issue and injustices was best directed. I attended countless demonstrations, seminars and debates but despite the numbers of people and the groundswell of passion that went into them, images on the news remained the same and suffering on the ground in the Middle East continued. Debates were frequently academic dominated by outside opinions and with little reference to what Israelis and Palestinians on the ground actually wanted, which was what I wanted to know, to help.

After I graduated from my masters’ degree at SOAS, I came across an organisation that was enabling Palestinians and Israelis to define their own future. To build a movement out of Israeli and Palestinian mainstream nationalists who would put pressure on their elected governments to achieve a sustainable and viable two state solution. The organisation had trained 2,000 young Palestinians and Israelis in their mid to late twenties (around about my age) to be change agents within their own society. These young people had already recruited and mobilised over 450,000 Palestinian and Israeli citizens who would agree to basic principles for resolution and use non-violent activism as their vehicle for achieving resolution. As a spin off to the work of the organisation were educational tours inviting these young Palestinians and Israelis to primarily American and British university campuses and religious centres to ask those who felt so strongly about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to give their energy to helping Palestinians and Israelis on the ground working to find a way out of the conflict.

This organisation is called OneVoice. It has separate offices in Israel and Palestine based in Tel Aviv, Ramallah and Gaza City and run by Israeli and Palestinian teams respectively. We now have international offices in New York and London responsible for promoting education and outreach about the work going on in the Middle East. Here in the UK we have been in the fortunate position of being able to fund the organisation’s Gaza office and recently invite our Executive Director from Gaza, together with one of his Israeli colleagues to address high profile audiences including representatives of 7 Arab States, and Israeli and Palestinian Embassy officials at the House of Lords.

On this recent tour, Liran, one of our Israeli volunteers from Haifa commented, “The highlight of this week for me has not been Number 10 Downing Street, the House of Lords or any of the ‘movers and shakers’ we met- it has been meeting our OneVoice Gazan Executive and realising I do have a partner on the other side who wants and will push their leaders towards resolution”.
Liran’s comment underpins the need for OneVoice- that there is no trust in the political process for resolution and no faith that there is still a partner for peace on the other side in either Palestine or Israel.

It is one of the many facts of the situation, though, that our Palestinian and Israeli volunteers are only able to meet in London. Even more difficult to building trust between Israelis and Palestinians that there are those on the other side that desire a two state solution is the fact that the majority of Israelis and Palestinians do not have the luxury of meeting one another in London, instead only at checkpoints with Israelis as soldiers. In the face of these realities OneVoice has adopted an extremely pragmatic approach, working within Israeli society and within Palestinian society on separate tracks and engaging nationalists on both sides.

OneVoice’s challenge is to change the dynamic of divided societies; weak leadership and a lack of trust that Israelis and Palestinians do still have a partner for peace. 2007 is a huge year for the organisation, as OneVoice leverages the energy of its 2,000 youth leaders to sign up and mobilise a critical number of members that elected leaders and the international community cannot ignore. Our members will gather this October 18th in Haryakon Park, Tel Aviv and Jericho Stadium, Jericho to demand leaders take steps forward towards negotiations. They will be supported by international solidarity events in London, Washington DC and Ottawa.

Our Executive in Gaza told me on his recent tour “People in Gaza want nothing more than a better future for their children. They have lost their hope, and OneVoice’s job is to give it back to them- to give them a voice, to give them ownership over their own future”.

The title of our campaign in the Middle East is “What are you willing to do?” (To end the conflict?). British public opinion remains polarised around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with many believing that the best way to support their ‘side’ is to attack the other. Personally I would rather give my energy to supporting the majority of Palestinian and Israeli people on the ground, who are working to achieve compromise and peace for a better future and give back hope to their people.

Sayyeda Salam is the UK co-ordinator for OneVoice Europe. She joined OneVoice after graduating from her masters degree at SOAS and spending some time in the Middle East. Prior to her masters degree she worked as a researcher in Kenya and Tanzania.

This article was first published in issue 96 of Manna - The Forum for Progressive Judaism.

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To read about OneVoice on www.jeneration.org click here

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