OneVoice: A Movement Toward Peaceful Resolution

Story by Broadside Correspondent Adam Sylvain. Photo by Laura Foltz.

The OneVoice Movement, an international organization seeking to bring a peaceful end to the Israeli-Palestine conflict, sponsored by George Mason University’s Amnesty International and Project NUR, brought its message to campus on Monday, Sept. 15, in hopes of educating students on the Israeli-Palestine conflict and the recipe for resolution. The event took place in Student Union Building I.

United by the practical message of OneVoice, two men, an Israeli and Palestinian, shared the platform as each declared his nation’s desire for non-violent resolution. Rami Rabayah, a 30 year-old from the Palestinian town of Jenin, took the opportunity to advocate peace and initiate the process of building a better future for the younger generation in Palestine.

Rabayah, expressing his nation’s hope for its own self-governed state, asserted that one of the main goals of OneVoice in Palestine is to “look to raise the silent majority voice.”

OneVoice claimed that the majority of Palestinians want peaceful resolution to the conflict, but many are uninspired to express their wishes democratically.

Rabayah believes the catalyst for resolution is an increased awareness and motivation of the Palestinian people to leave arms and talk peacefully and democratically with leaders from both sides of the conflict.

To end the conflict, Yaniv Sasson has committed himself to the OneVoice Israel Movement. Sasson acknowledged the message of OneVoice as the first rational approach to conflict resolution he had ever encountered.

Like Rabayah, Sasson has spent a lot of time informing and advocating the Israeli public through peaceful demonstration.

Sasson claims that Israeli recognition of a need for resolution “comes from an acknowledgement that Israel safety, economy and children’s well-being, all suffer without it.”

Sasson also stressed that although there is fighting and death in the conflict, that is not all that must be resolved. The process of peace is one that will balance a number of issues relevant to Israel. The youth within the country are now taught by peacemakers like Sasson to understand how to deliberate non-violently.

While both men agreed that they have ideological differences and will continue to protect the interests of their homeland, their shared belief in resolution has unified their efforts. A two-state solution, in which the futures of both countries are interdependent, is the most agreed upon remedy for the situation.

In this outcome, Palestine secures its own state, while Israel’s Jewish territory is protected. During his speech, Rabayah called students to action, urging them to send pleas to the United States government to help work for peace and once again echoed the need for raised voices on the issue.

“I think by resolving the conflict in Israel, it will set an example for peacemakers facing conflict in other parts of the world,” said freshman Brian Higgins.

The OneVoice message continues to be one of optimism, as shown through the desires of many like Rabayah, Sasson and Higgins.

For students interested in being a part of worldwide resolution and involving themselves in civic engagement, Amnesty International, a worldwide movement with the goal of protecting an individual‘s basic human rights, enables students to work to aid people suffering from human rights abuse.

“Students are given the chance to be aware of all the human rights atrocities occurring around the world and be a part of the remedy,” said Mason’s Amnesty International President Samim Atmar.

Since its foundation in 1961, the organization has given “direct and effective assistance to people who become more than a number and more than a name.”

If any student would like to join Amnesty International or research the organization further, he/she can feel free to attend the group’s meetings every Wednesday at 7:30 p.m., in Johnson Center room B. The group can be reached by e-mail at amnestygmu@gmail.com or on Facebook with the group name AIGMU.

If interested in civic engagement, student leadership and defending a variety of human rights, Project NUR is an organization operating in its second year at Mason. Students can visit www.projectnur.org, or their parent Web site, www.aicongress.org, for more information.