“…POLITICAL LEADERS WILL NEVER TAKE RISKS IF THE PEOPLE DO NOT PUSH THEM TO TAKE SOME RISKS…”
—Former President Barack Obama to the Israeli people, the Jerusalem Convention Center, March 21, 2013
The Israeli-Palestinian Traveling Negotiating Assembly is set to take place on November 1, 2019, at the Umm al-Fahm Art Gallery. Hundreds of Israelis, Palestinians, adults and high school students will gather to negotiate solutions to the conflict.
“[Abu Shakra] … the founder and director of the Umm al-Fahm art gallery and … a leading figure in building bridges between Arabs and Jews, has spent years on the Sisyphean task of encouraging the Arab sector to take part in Israeli civil life.”
—Yariv Peleg, Israel Hayom
This initiative is organized by Minds of Peace, an organization established in Israel in 2010 by Dr. Sapir Handelman, a scholar in conflict resolution who started the same activity as pilot project while studying in the US. The purpose of Minds of Peace is very simple, which is to bring about peace between Israel and the Palestinians by using a method called “Popular Negotiations”. Under this method, a negotiating session is being held between Israelis and Palestinians who come from all walks of life. The negotiations are held in open space, so as to allow the ordinary public to witness the whole process. In the process, the negotiators formulate the kind of agreement they wish to see for ending the conflict.