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A Project Proposal in partnership with the Economic Cooperation Foundation (ECF) Tel Aviv
Requested assistance:
Project duration: June 2007 -May 2008 I. Executive Summary The aim of this project is to complete the model for Israeli-Palestinian peace. Focusing, first and foremost, on Jerusalem, the Palestinian refugees, and the question of Palestinian prisoners, this project will continue the work begun by the Geneva Initiative, and fill in the missing details for all d1e key issues that would underlie a peace agreement between Israel and Palestine. Additional issues will also be explored, including the environment and water. Work on this project will be carried out by HL. Education for Peace, Ltd. (or, "Geneva Initiative, Israel"), in partnership with the Economic Cooperation Foundation (ECF). The two organizations will draw on their unique expertise to undertake the research, analysis, and the creative thinking and drafting that will constitute detailed, viable, and comprehensive solutions to the issues at hand. An additional component of the project will be public education and dissemination of the work accomplished. To this effect, additional partners will include Neve Shalom and a recently founded company headed by Mohammad Darawshe, Mohammad Darawshe Consulting and Public Relations, which is establishing itself as a leader in raising awareness of existing solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, especially the Geneva Initiative. Much of the work will be done in working groups of experts, including Palestinians who participated in the work leading up to the Geneva Initiative blueprint As part of the work, surveys and polls may be used to test or promote certain ideas. A large conference aimed at clearing public knowledge about different contents of our work is also envisaged. Although much of the work will be done locally, since for political and logistical reasons meetings involving both Israelis and Palestinians are often easier to hold outside the country, the project includes provisions for several seminars in Europe. An additional component will include consultation with senior international figures, both professional and political. The expected duration of this project is 12 months, and its total budget is $1,000,000. II. H. L. Education for Peace, Ltd. and ECF Organizational Profiles H.L. Education for Peace Ltd. (aka The Geneva Initiative Israel): Since its establishment following the launching of the Geneva Initiative in December 2003, H. L. Education, Ltd has been the leading organization in Israel whose sole mission is the promotion of a permanent -status agreement between Israel and Palestine. In addition to promoting the Geneva Accord as a detailed blueprint of Israeli-Palestinian peace, Education for Peace has been working on bringing that moment of peace closer through various means all aimed at preparing the public opinion as well as the political leadership to accept the compromise required to solve the conflict. Directed by Gadi Baltiansky, a former senior diplomat in the Israeli foreign service and press secretary to Prime Minister Ehud Barak. Education for Peace is a registered Not-for-profit Ltd Company (NPO). The organization has a professional Board of Directors, chaired by Mr. Baoz Karni, as well as standards for accounting, expenditures, reportage, as well as a steering committee which guides the work of the professional team. The Economic Cooperation Foundation (ECF): The ECF was established in 1991 by Dr. Yossi Beilin and Dr. Yair Hirschfeld. and has a unique track record of contribution to the Middle East peace process. ECF's leaders were the "architects" and initiators of the "Oslo channel" that led to the Declaration of Principles in 1993, as well as of the "Stockholm Channel" that produced the Beilin-Abu-Mazen Understandings (1995) and the "EPS Model" on Israeli-Palestinian economic relations in Permanent Status (1998). Most recently, under the leadership of Dr. Beilin, the ECF was behind the first-ever detailed draft agreement for permanent status between Israel and the Palestinians, "The Geneva Initiative." All of these initiatives, including most specifically the most recent one, have served as the point-of-reference in all discussions on permanent status between the two sides. The ECF team is composed of young and dynamic professionals with considerable experience and know- how. The ECF is managed by Dr. Hirschfeld (Director General) and Mr. Boaz Karni (Treasurer) with Dr. Nimrod Novik as Chairperson and Dr. Beilin as Honorary Chairperson of the Board. III. Project Rationale and Objectives The collapse of the Camp David summit in July 2000 and the outbreak of the Intifadah in September of that year, brought about a period of violence and instilled the notion that a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians was impossible-and the conflict insoluble. Against this overriding sense of pessimism. the Geneva Initiative was launched by Yossi Beilin and Yasser Abed Rabbo in December 2003, and proposed a detailed blueprint for an Israeli-Palestinian permanent-status peace agreement. The blueprint, known as the Geneva Accord, was drafted and negotiated over the course of two and a half years by experts, former negotiators, senior reserve security establishment personnel, as well as sitting and former political office holders. By reaching a detailed model for a possible peace treaty, the Geneva Initiative challenged the notion that took root after Camp David -that there was no partner for negotiation and no plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace -by outlining the existence of actual solutions. Since its launching the Geneva Initiative has become the internationally recognized point of reference for the future Israeli-Palestine peace accord as well as a household name ;among Israelis and Palestinians. In fact, the Geneva Initiative has only widened its appeal overtime, both popularly and officially. Opinion pools among Israelis and Palestinians demonstrate the that roughly 70 percent of both populations would support an agreement based on the principles outlined in the Geneva Initiative. Meanwhile the officials from as far the political field as Europe, China, the United States and the Arab World have been making private as well as increasingly more public reference to the Geneva Initiative as the ultimate solution to the Israeli-Palestinain conflict. For one recent example, in a speech to a joint session of the U.S. . Congress on March 7, 2007, Jordan's King Abdullah referred to the Geneva Initiative as evidence that "the groundwork for a comprehensive final settlement is already in place," and as proof that the goal of lasting peace in the Middle East "is attainable". Yet more work is required. For Israeli's past experiences in negotiations teaches us, peace efforts often fail due to lack of appropriate preparation. including detailed solutions to complicated problems. This was made evident most dramatically-and tragically-at the Camp David summit of July 2000. The aim of this project is to ensure that when the leaderships of both resume their negotiations on a comprehensive and lasting peace accord, detailed and agreed-upon solutions would be available to all the most contentious problems. Or in other words, that the next Camp David summit, whether in the Catoctin Mountains of Maryland or elsewhere, will have every reason to succeed. In this respect, this project could be viewed as the third and final stage in the production of a complete and comprehensive model for peace between Israel and Palestine. For if the Clinton parameters and Taba negotiations (of December 2000 and January 2001 respectively) constituted the first part, and the launching of the Geneva Initiative (which was based on Clinton and Taba) in December 2003 constituted the second, then the completion of the Geneva Accord through the drafting of all the critical details is the third and last stage. Upon completion of this project, we aim to have all the answers to every possible question relating to all the key outstanding issues of the conflict. IV. Project Description The Geneva Initiative group and the ECF will utilize their pool of Israeli and international experts. including Palestinian and American. in order to focus and complete the solutions to all of the most contentious issues, including Jerusalem. the Palestinian refugees, and, what is slowly becoming an increasingly heated and politically pressing issue, the status of Palestinian prisoners. Additional work will done on other issues, including the environment and water. Work on this project will be carried out by H.L. Education for Peace, Ltd. (aka The Geneva Initiative, Israel), in partnership with the Economic Cooperation Foundation (ECF). The two organizations will draw on their unique expertise to undertake the research, analysis, and the creative thinking and drafting in order to produce detailed, viable, and comprehensive solutions to the issues at hand. The work will be done in working groups of experts, many of whom participated in the negotiations that led up to the drafting of the Geneva Initiative blueprint. As part of the work, surveys and polls may be used to test or promote certain ideas, and other publication tools may prove necessary at different stages of this project. Although much of the work will be done locally, political and logistical reasons often make it difficult, occasionally even impossible, for Israelis and Palestinians to meet in Israel or Palestine. For this reason, some meetings may have to take place in a nearby destination outside the country, such as Cyprus, Turkey, or elsewhere in Europe. The project also envisions the need for extensive consultation with senior figures in international organizations, especially in the United States. In material terms, the final product of this project will be a lengthy and detailed publication, which will constitute a complete model for a peace agreement between Israel and Palestine. Covering a whole range of issues, this publication will in effect be a kind of "library" of peace, and will be publicized as such. With a view toward publicizing this library of peace, a major component of this project will focus on the dissemination of the material and its ideas to different kinds of audiences, especially the general public. To this effect, additional partners to this project will include Neve Shalom and a recently founded company headed by Mohammad Darawshe, Mohammad Darawshe Consulting and Public Relations, which is establishing itself as a leader in raising awareness of existing solutions to the Israeli- Palestinian conflict, especially the Geneva Initiative. (A Note on the limits publication: The project directors may judge that some components in their work require discretion. The need for such discretion is envisioned with respect to certain elements underlying the solution to the Palestinian refugees, especially regarding different financial evaluations as well as compensation schemes that could be used in the context of a peace agreement. That said, the thrust of the agreement on the refugees can still be promoted in a variety of ways, such as by highlighting to the Israeli public the significance of the refugee problem to the Palestinian ethos, and more.) Below are two examples illustrating the level of resolution that will characterize the work of this project. Example A describes the kind of work we will be doing on the solution for Jerusalem. Example B describes the work we will be doing on the question of the Palestinian prisoners.
V. Cost budget and financing plan The total cost for this project is US $1,000,000. A rough outline for the budget delineated below. Preparation of material, including: Experts fees Research Surveys and polls Travel (local and international) Meetings and workshops Dissemination Publication Public education campaign Seminars Conference Total Project Cost $1,000,000 (including office expenses and overhead of 8.5%)
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