The Middle East Peace conversation has five participating communities: Israel, Palestine, Israeli Supporters, Palestinian Supporters and Middle East Peace Supporters.
Israelis and Palestinians are the main participants. To participate as an Israeli or Palestinian you must list Israel or Palestine as country of residence or second country in your profile. Palestinians living in Israel should list both countries in their profile.
The Israeli Supporters and Palestinian Supporters communities are open to everyone who is not an Israeli or Palestinian. The Middle East Peace Supporters community is open to all.
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The Israeli - Palestinian conflict is well known to be intractable, with each side committed to its own version of the story. Yet there are solutions: one state, two states and confederation are the major possibilities. And importantly, there is the possibility of a slow top-down political rapprochement combined with a growing sense of self-interest in peace at the individual level. What is missing is a sense of trust between the two sides.
The Voices of Humanity Middle East Peace Conversation is designed to build the needed trust by giving the five participating communities each a collective voice. The highest rated messages from each community are available to all participants. The conversation alternates between Apart and Together phases, each lasting about two weeks, using the phases of the moon as a global timekeeper.
At the end of each Together phase, the highest rated messages of a) Israelis and Palestinians together, b) Israelis, Palestinians and their supporters, and c) all participants are emailed to all participants.
At the end of each Apart phase, the highest rated messages of Israelis as rated only by Israelis, Palestinians as rated only by Palestinians are available and emailed to the separate participants. Same for Israeli supporters, Palestinian supporters and Middle East Peace supporters.
The Apart and Together design gives support to both sides separately within a context that also supports their common humanity. Over time, as both sides see that their national identity is safe, and that they agree with their adversaries on so many important things, trust will build.
The next step is to build a Middle East Peace app. This is a fairly expensive proposition. Fortunately we have the beginnings of the app from a previous attempt. Still, six to ten thousand dollars is a good estimate. We need help.
#MidEastpeace #MEpeacesupport #apart
