PeaceNow UK
At the Oxford Union Debate
23rd October 2007
London

Our own Paul Usiskin and Yossi Mekelberg will be speaking against the motion this evening in Oxford.

'This House believes that one state is the only solution to the Israel Palestine Conflict'

At 20.30 at the Oxford Union, St Michael's Street Oxford

PeaceNow UK Holds Day of Negotiations
3rd June 2007
London

Peace Now UK used the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the start of the Six Day War, which culminated in the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, to hold a day of negotiations on the future of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on Sunday 3rd June 2007.

See the Peace Now UK Blog for visitor comments

Left to Right: Hussein Agha, Dr Ahmad Khalidi, Brig Gen (ret) Shlomo Brom, PNUK Co-Chair Paul Usiskin, Prof Yossi Mekelberg, Dr Claire Spencer, Col.(res) Shaul Arieli

Paul Usiskin, co-chair of Peace Now UK said: “No matter what the difficulties, and there are many, both peoples understand that the only way to end the conflict between them is at the negotiating table. The negotiators for our day are individuals committed to that principle. If they can spend one day proving that commitment in London, it would be more effective still if they were able to negotiate in Jerusalem or Ramallah.”

Negotiators on the Israeli team were Colonel Shaul Arieli, Head of the Peace Administration in the Barak Government and Brigadier General Shlomo Brom, Deputy National Security Adviser to Ehud Barak.

The Palestinian team included Dr Ahmad Khalidi, author of many works on the conflict, Track 2 Negotiator, Adviser to the Palestinian Authority,Senior Associate Member, St. Antony’s College, Oxford University and Hussein Agha, like Dr Khalidi, a much published writer on the conflict, Palestinian Authority adviser, Senior Associate Member St Antony’s, and a seasoned Analyst.

The talks were moderated by Dr Claire Spencer, Head of the Middle East Programme, Royal Institute for international Affairs, Chatham House.

Advising the day’ events was Prof. Yossi Mekelberg, Associate Fellow of the Middle East Programme at The Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House and Head of the International Relations Department, Websters University and a member of the PNUK Executive.

Summary of Day of Negotiations
These issues emerged at the end of Peace Now UK ’s Day of Negotiations held in London on Sunday 3 June 2007.

The following were the details:

• Facilitating a functioning Palestinian government would be a considerable contribution to disentangle Israel and Palestine from their current impasse.
  
• In order to achieve this aim a series of unilateral and bilateral proposals were made. Primary amongst them were ceasefires, first in Gaza and second in the West Bank accompanied by Israeli withdrawals from the West Bank. All of this is seen as a series of intermediate steps creating an atmosphere for renewed negotiations.
  
• Final status negotiations are a long term goal and not feasible at the moment.
  
• A parallel Israeli-Syrian track should be pursued by Israel to benefit the Israeli-Palestinian track.

For summer 2007 we working on a new and more interactive site - stay tuned