- Title: JERUSALEM: Israeli and Palestinian public congress "negotiates" in Jerusalem
- Date: 24th November 2013
- Summary: JERUSALEM (RECENT) (REUTERS) BANNER READS (in English, Arabic and Hebrew): "PEOPLE MAKE PEACE" / PEOPLE MEETING IN BACKGROUND WIDE OF ISRAELI AND PALESTINIANS SITTING AROUND TABLE FOR MEETING PALESTINIAN MAN (RIGHT) SITTING NEXT TO MEDIATOR ISRAELI MEN SITTING AT TABLE CLOSE-UP OF WOMAN WEARING HEADSCARF AT MEETING / PAN TO ISRAELI MAN IN BACKGROUND VARIOUS OF ATTENDEES /
- Embargoed: 9th December 2013 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Jerusalem
- City:
- Country: Israel
- Topics: General,Politics
- Reuters ID: LVAC6HSIV5026U79YMJBOMMY76L7
- Story Text: A group of regular Israelis and Palestinians from all walks of life are meeting on the streets of Jerusalem to take part in a peace negotiation exercise -- the public congress.
The movement aims to get the public involved in the peace talks between the two sides as politicians fail to reach an agreement after 20 years of negotiations.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said earlier in November his delegation of peace negotiators had resigned over the lack of progress in U.S.-brokered statehood talks with Israel that had been clouded by Jewish settlement building.
The development would mark a new low point for the talks with Israel that resumed in July and which officials from both sides had said have made little headway.
A campaign of grassroots Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, promoted by "Minds of Peace", has since emerged to get the general public involved in the peacemaking process. The exercise is held between representatives of both groups who are not professional diplomats.
"The purpose is to create a major Israeli public negotiating congress that can involve the people in the peace making process and push the leadership to reach agreements," said Dr. Sapir Handelman, leader of the organisation "Minds of Peace".
The movement began in North America and has now expanded to the Middle East, said Handelman.
"In order to reach this goal we started to make small scale Israeli public negotiating congress. First in major universities in the United State and Canada, then in conference halls around Israel and the West Bank, and now we are in the streets in Jerusalem and in Tel Aviv," explained Handelman. "We have an Israeli delegation for people from all walks of life, and Palestinian delegation from all walks of life and the entire political spectrum. They have five sessions to reach a peace agreement."
Dr. Handelman said this exercise has shown success, and in most cases agreements were reached by both parties.
The head of the Palestinian delegation in Jerusalem, Ibraheem Inbawi, is the brother of a man shot and killed by Israeli troops and has spent time in Israeli prison as a political prisoner. He said the Israeli and Palestinian public should be more involved in the negotiation process in order to exert pressure on politicians and push them to make the long overdue peacemaking decisions.
"I am the head of this Palestinian popular group that is negotiating with the Israeli popular group in order to involve the Israeli public in negotiations, so they can learn about what is taking place on the other side, since there has been more than 20 years of negotiations post Oslo that have got us nowhere. This is a result of the absence of the Israeli or Palestinian people," said Inbawi.
The driving force behind these meeting stems from the belief that people's involvement in the peacemaking process is essential in order to curb extremists on both sides who will try and sabotage any peace deal.
Some passers-by in Jerusalem stopped and listened to the public negotiation debate and were invited to join the process. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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