{"id":15324,"date":"2012-02-10T15:09:02","date_gmt":"2012-02-10T11:09:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/?p=15324"},"modified":"2012-02-10T17:44:08","modified_gmt":"2012-02-10T13:44:08","slug":"a-virtual-solution-to-the-israeli-palestinian-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/middle-east-politics-analysis\/a-virtual-solution-to-the-israeli-palestinian-issue\/","title":{"rendered":"A ‘Virtual’ Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Issue?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Just days after long-time Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiators Yitzhak Molcho and Saeb Erekat clashed yet again at a meeting in Jordan, thousands of young people from across the Middle East gathered together online for an event which set a new standard for mutual understanding and partnershipConferences bringing together Jews and Arabs might be nothing new. But what set this particular event apart is that it happened in the virtual world of Shaker, a Facebook application that allows for instantaneous interaction between users utilising cartoon-like personas that have conversations or attend events.<\/p>\n

The brainchild of YaLa Young Leaders \u2013 an online movement formed by Israelis and Palestinians last May and already \u201cliked\u201d by more than 50,000 people on Facebook \u2013 the conference garnered vast media attention and even attracted some high-profile dignitaries, including Jordan\u2019s Prince Hassan bin Talal, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, blind opera superstar Andrea Bocelli and Barcelona football coach Josep \u201cPep\u201d Guardiola, among others.<\/p>\n

More than 12,000 people \u201cattended\u201d the two-day online event, indicating that there is a solid base of people still committed to finding a way to resolve the on-going conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.<\/p>\n

YaLa is a play on the Arabic word for \u201cget a move on!\u201d and is a phrase also incorporated into everyday Hebrew. The YaLa movement includes volunteers from numerous countries around the Middle East and is now in the process of determining what steps to take next in order to keep this momentum going.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea is to give young people, who are as capable as some of the main leaders, the chance to participate\u201d, says Nimrod BenZev of the Peres Center for Peace, the Israeli organisation that helped establish YaLa together with Ramallah-based Yala Palestine.<\/p>\n

BenZev refrains from saying that the online event was conducted in order to create \u201cpeace\u201d; rather, he says it was to \u201cimprove regional cooperation and to find a way to end the conflict and the violence\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are trying to create empathy and a sense of a joint future\u201d, he says, adding, \u201cpeace is just not a fashionable word anymore and people in this region are sick of hearing it\u201d.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the focus of the virtual conference was to find fresh voices and allow them to create resolutions in a more \u201cdemocratic\u201d way.<\/p>\n

Those who logged onto Shaker for the virtual conference found themselves in a green and colourful world, where their cartoon-like personas could engage in discussion or attend one of the events taking place.<\/p>\n

Attendees could visit the music room, contribute to a \u201cbook project\u201d, or view the games portal and help develop an online gaming initiative. But perhaps most importantly, those who joined the conference could have their say about the movement\u2019s \u201cDeclaration of Principles\u201d and help set its agenda for the future.<\/p>\n

Among the conclusions reached by the thousands of young people who interacted online was the need for a virtual academy that will promote new ideas and provide webinars \u2013 or web-based seminars \u2013 to help train a new set of young leaders.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to create a strong lobby in the Middle East to affect policy, build a better future for everyone and use our influence to stop future wars\u201d, states Hamze Awawde, one of YaLa\u2019s young Palestinian leaders.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see this movement as the basis of change and we need strong young people who are well educated and intellectual. Then we will be able to change our future\u201d, he says.<\/p>\n

Despite some of the social pressures in the region that discourage relations between Israelis and Arabs, Awawde points out that YaLa, thanks especially to the virtual conference, has been successful in attracting newcomers who share the vision.<\/p>\n

Khaled Al-Jacer, a YaLa leader from Kuwait, says that the movement has finally given him a chance to interact \u2013 albeit virtually \u2013 with Israelis.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had never communicated with or met any Israelis in my life before I joined YaLa\u201d, says Al-Jacer, explaining that until now he was not able to build a mental image of Israelis as human beings.<\/p>\n

\u201cI [have] now found that I have a lot in common with Israelis\u201d, he says, adding that from what he has learnt about Israel\u2019s progress in technology, the Jewish state might even be a \u201ccatalyst for regional development and success\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs for peace\u201d, continues Al-Jacer, \u201cI think it is the only option \u2013 it is a must! There will never be a military solution to this century old conflict. Each side must compromise and the sooner they realise this fact, the sooner we will have peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ruth Eglash is a senior reporter at\u00a0The Jerusalem Post. Last year she became the first recipient of the United Nations X-Cultural Reporting award for a story she wrote with a Jordanian journalist<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUTH EGLASH, CGNEWS: An online movement formed by Palestinians and Israelis has garnered impressive support. But will it make any difference? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":15325,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[154,82,171,483,119,60,482],"tags":[9975,1654,39,8636,5980,18311,18305,1879,18315,191,18297,2160,11349,4056,2269,2465,387,18302],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15324"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}