Moderates speak with One Voice: Group offers forum for Mideast stance

Moderates speak with One Voice: Group offers forum for Mideast stance

by Stephen Franklin
Chicago Tribune
April 27, 2005

Orit Gazit decided to speak out when a good friend was shot dead in Jerusalem.

He was an Arab, not a Jew, as his attackers thought.

And Sari Husseini decided to speak out when he realized he could not wait for years to live in peace.

The two, an Israeli and a Palestinian, told their stories about joining One Voice, a group that encourages moderation between Israelis and Palestinians, during a meeting Tuesday night at the University of Chicago.

Americans for Informed Democracy, a two-year-old student group that fosters global awareness, especially between the U.S. and the Muslim world, sponsored the meeting along with several other student groups.

The One Voice activists will repeat their stories Thursday night in meetings at DePaul and Northwestern Universities.

The group was formed four years ago as a way to provide a voice for moderate Israelis and Palestinians, said Daniel Luvetsky, a member of the organization.

"One of the challenges we realized was the lack of a voice by moderates as compared to the enormous amount of shouting by extremists," Luvetsky said.

Since its founding, the group has set a goal of training 500 Israelis and Palestinians on each side to act as moderate forces in their societies, said Mulli Peleg, a leader of One Voice and a peace activist.

"These members are recruited and screened. They are people who have a voice and roots in both of their societies," he said.

One Voice is a peace group like no other because it represents all voices on both sides and it comes from the bottom up, Peleg said.

The problem with Israeli peace groups in the past, he said, is that they often talk down to their audiences.

The goal for his group now is to prepare both sides psychologically for dealing with and accepting peace.

"The solutions are there. The problem is accepting them," he said.

For most people, the conflict has created psychological scars for which they need help to set aside, Peleg said.

Gazit, a 28-year-old doctoral student in sociology at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, said the death of her friend convinced her "if I don't take things into my own hands, nothing will happen."

Husseini, 25, returned to Jerusalem last year after studying at Benedictine University.

The deep-seated tensions he felt in Jerusalem led him to join One Voice.

"I want change, and I want it now," he said.

Gazit said there was no other option besides seeking a voice for moderates like herself.

"We don't have any choice," she said. "We are two people living [on] a very small piece of land."

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sfranklin@tribune.com