An Israeli and a Palestinian representing a grassroots movement for peace told a small gathering of students in Eaton Hall on Tuesday night that moderates must overcome extremism and support a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The two representatives of the OneVoice Movement, a Palestinian and Israeli initiative that was founded in 2002 in the wake of the fallout of the Camp David Accords, talked about their personal experiences in their homelands and discussed why they had embraced the push for peace.
Roi Assaf, director of the leadership program for OneVoice Israel, and Nisreen Abdallah, the youth leadership coordinator for OneVoice Palestine, presented their backgrounds and reasons for joining the OneVoice movement.
Assaf, an Israeli, attended Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He recalled living in what he called "a very scary Jerusalem" during the second intifada, or uprising, earlier this decade.
"I remember thinking, 'There was a suicide bomber on my walk home four weeks ago. Last week there wasn't a bomb, so this week there should be,'" he said. "And of course, two days later, there was. You are scared -- every day there is an explosion."
Assaf later served as a sergeant in the Israeli army and controlled a checkpoint in Jericho as a sergeant in the Israeli army. After a near-deadly fight between an Israeli soldier and a Palestinian couple, he decided occupation was not the answer.
"The only solution I can see rationally is to have two states, side by side. We deserve to have a state. We [Israelis] do not want to control the Palestinian state," Assaf said.
OneVoice polling of both Palestinians and Israelis has found that 76 percent support the two-state solution and an end to the conflict. The group has also collected nearly 650,000 signatures of Palestinians, Israelis and international supporters who back their work.
Abdallah, of OneVoice Palestine, elaborated on her own story and how she got involved with the movement.
She told a story about how as a young girl in an art class, she made a bracelet with a Palestinian flag on it and rushed home to show her mother. Her terrified mother hid the bracelet from an Israeli soldier who was searching their house, worried that the soldier would arrest Abdallah's father. The soldier did not find the bracelet.
Other experiences such as shootings at checkpoints and the deaths of friends' relatives led Abdallah to view Israelis in an unsympathetic light.
During a trip to the United Kingdom, however, Abdullah realized the importance of peace and the two-state solution.
"We want to create a different future for our children," she said. "We can focus on the history, and say you did this and you did this, but this would do nothing for our nation."
The OneVoice movement trains youth leaders in Israel, the Palestinian territories and around the world to work creatively on the streets to promote a two-state solution.
Both Assaf and Abdallah said the goal of OneVoice is not to create love and harmony between Palestinians and Israelis, but rather to implement the two-state solution and bring an end to conflict.
"I do not want to hold hands," Assaf said. "People think of their own interests. If they are happy, then we are happy."
The New Initiative for Middle East Peace, an Institute for Global Leadership group, sponsored Tuesday's program.
