USAID/WBG FY 2012 CMM APS

Project title: The Path to a Shared Future

Applicant organization: Free Muslims Coalition Against Terrorism1050 17th St., NW, Suite 1000, Washington, DC 20036 Total amount of USAID funds requested: $995,500 (USD)

Period of program: 24 months

Geographic area of implementation: Israel and Palestine – West Bank and Gaza

Brief description of program:

This program seeks to identify the key needs and values of the population of Israel-Palestine, construct agreed plans, test these plans and promote their implementation though the political process by engaging the population at the local and international level to pressure the Israeli government to hold a referendum on the future of Israel-Palestine.

Contact person regarding this application: Name: Kamal Nawash Email: President@freemuslims.org Telephone: 202-776-7190

DUNS Number: 362809894

ContentsContents................................................................................................................................................2

Background............................................................................................................................................3

Project Proposal – The Path to a Shared Future....................................................................................4

Israeli and Palestinian Teams.........................................................................................................5

Conferences...................................................................................................................................5

Written Proposals..........................................................................................................................5

Community Consultation...............................................................................................................6

On the Web and Project Naming...................................................................................................6

Actions to Create Change..............................................................................................................6

Timetable.......................................................................................................................................7

Performance Measurement..........................................................................................................7

Summary.......................................................................................................................................7

Notes.............................................................................................................................................8

Key Profiles........................................................................................................................................9

Management Structure...................................................................................................................11

Budget Spreadsheet........................................................................................................................12

Budget Narrative.............................................................................................................................13

Appendix 1 Technology...................................................................................................................14

Appendix 2 The Best Plans Project...................................................................................................14

Appendix 3 Additional Member Profiles..........................................................................................15

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Background

The Free Muslims Coalition (FMC) is a not for profit 501(C)3 organization that is located in Washington DC.

In 2005 FMC created a Taskforce on Israel-Palestine which initiated a program to reach a peaceful solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict. The Taskforce attempted to ascertain the minimum requirements that the majority of Israelis and Palestinians would need to reach a peace agreement. The program was termed The Path to a Shared Future.

The program differed from other peace efforts in that it did not presume a particular solution, whether a Two-State, One-State or any other solution. Instead, the participants were asked many questions including the minimum rights that one would be required to accept a peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. Another question dealt with the freedom of movement, labor and access that one would require to Israel-Palestine. Another question dealt with minimum security guaranties that one would require. Over a period of five years, several hundred people were interviewed and based on the results of the interviews a narrowly tailored solution was designed that fit the minimum requirements the majority of the participants.

In 2011, the Free Muslims Coalition partnered with the Gershon Baskin of the Israel-Palestine Center

for Research and Information and Felix Dane of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung and Doron Tzur of the

Task Force on Israel-Palestine to produce a historic workshop and conference in Jerusalem called The

Best Plans Project. That event was historic because it was the first known conference to bring

together liberals, conservatives, secularists, and religious; Jews, Muslims, Christians; men and

women to find the best plans for a peaceful long term solution to the Israeli - Palestinian Conflict.

During the conference, Free Muslims Coalition wore two hats, one within the project’s activities

organizing conference activities where authors presented plans which were voted on by a diverse

audience of Israelis and Palestinians. The second hat was that of a presenter where the Free Muslims

presented a plan that was produced based on the feedback from The Path to a Shared Future

program.

During the same period, the Free Muslims organized three additional events in Bait Jala, Tele Aviv and Ariel University which is located in one of the largest Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Each of the above events was historic in that it brought together unimaginable groups of people in one auditorium to seek a peaceful solution. The most notable event was the one that was organized at Ariel settlement in which the Free Muslims arranged for three dozen Palestinians from the West Bank to travel to Ariel for the above mentioned conference. Some of the News coverage from the events may be found at the following locations:

http://www.jpost.com/VideoArticles/Video/Article.aspx?id=251386 http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/151200 http://www.indynewsisrael.com/jews-palestinians-hold-alternative-conference-in-ariel http://www.alhayat-j.com/newsite/details.php?opt=3&id=154775&cid=2421

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Project Proposal – The Path to a Shared Future

The current proposal seeks to incorporate the lessons from the past programs to create nations-wide programs that seek the involvement of people who are representative of all segments of Israeli and Palestinian communities. The goal is to find a peaceful solution that may be accepted by the majority of Palestinians and Israelis.

This proposal involves the selection of two teams of Palestinians and Israelis who are representative of the various ideologies, views and schools of thought that are found in Palestinian and Israeli societies. The two teams, made up of approximately six individuals each, will be required to attend organized workshops and seminars throughout Palestine and Israel to engage Israelis and Palestinians who are representative of the general populations about the minimum contacts, rights and access that they would require to accept a political solution. The seminars will not presume a particular solution such as two-state or one-state solution. The actual proposed solution or solutions will be attempted at the end of the process after the Israeli and Palestinian teams become exposed to the wishes of population and share their findings in the structured reporting process. For example, if the majorities on both sides do not want to have anything to do with each other or the other’s territory, then perhaps a solution based on the two-state solution will be best. However, if the majorities want to travel and work freely between Israel and Palestine or have the right to live anywhere between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea then perhaps a solution would need to resemble a European Union type of arrangement, a federation, confederation or a solution based on a shared future rather than total separation. The idea here is that the solution is decided by the masses rather than a select number of negotiators. It is a process where decision making begins at the bottom and moves up the hierarchy rather than begin at the top and moves down to the masses.

The Free Muslims seeks to organize conferences throughout Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. Where possible the audiences will be made up of Israelis and Palestinians that are representative of the general populations. Consequently, some of the conferences in Palestine will be held in area C but other conferences will be held in areas within the exclusive control of the Palestinian authority. When conferences are held in Israel, we will seek travel permits for Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza. When that is not possible then we will seek Palestinian participants from Jerusalem or Palestinian citizens of Israel. Each event will be broadcast live over the internet to ensure unprecedented levels of ease of involvement for those who are unable to attend in person. The scale of these events is likely to vary from small groups of 5-10 up to bigger audiences and formats more akin to conferences. Experiences from conferences in The Best Plans Project indicate that the difficulties of acquiring permits and the overall drama involved in travel for Palestinians requires that the organization needs to go to where people live as opposed to expecting a high level of predicable attendance from Palestinians who are required to endure multiple checkpoints using permits that are only made available the day before.

The makeup and location of the conferences and workshops will be influenced by the political situation on the ground. The political situation includes the security of the participants and policies such as the anti-normalization movement.

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Israeli and Palestinian TeamsAs mentioned above, there will be two teams of Israelis and Palestinians who are respected members of Israeli and Palestinian societies. These teams will be linked in communication and the responsibility for this linkage will be Kamal Nawash who has proved in previous events to be able to provide the dynamic personality and good judgment required to maintain harmonious relationships between discordant groups. (It is important here to recognize the unique skill set Nawash has that is derived from many years of practice in law and in the necessary negations skills that are involved in the practice of law.) The purpose of the two teams is to determine the minimum requirements of the majority of Israelis and Palestinians and then produce a solution or solutions based on the minimum requirements of the majorities.

While the two teams will be representative of the respective populations, the selection process will require articulate speakers and writers with academic credentials who are able to report without adding, subtracting or reframing discussion content. All possible effort will be made to ensure the representatives are as close as possible to gender balanced, positive discrimination will be applied to minority groups and those who are disabled. It is necessary for two teams to be organized independently in order to access the whole domain of the political landscape however internally they will collaborate and share resources. The two teams must work independently to avoid the consequences of the lack of freedom of movement for Palestinians and to avoid the anti-normalization concerns in which Palestinians are discouraged from working closely with Israelis.

In situations where the two teams are unable to attend conferences together, they will be able to attend electronically via video conference and be able to ask questions either directly or through a member of the other team.

Importantly the teams will be ‘locked down’ together in a conducive environment (like the Dead Sea Resort) for a period of no less than 5 days before any conferences for a series of workshops on using technology, deal with objections, managing public discourse and workshop the conference process and the content. This is a team building, content design and strategy event.

ConferencesThis proposal envisions ten initial conferences, five in Israel and five in Palestine, in order to capture the views of audiences that represent the diversity of both populations. The conferences will target the various sub-populations that include liberals, conservatives, religious, settlers, nationalist and women only conferences for women who prefer to be separated from men.

There will be a director to organize and manage conferences in Israel and a director to organize and manage conferences in Palestine. There will also be a general director who is able to travel between both communities. The general director shall facilitate coordination between the two groups and make certain that there is consistency between the efforts of both groups.

Written Proposals After the initial conferences are complete, the two teams will be required to submit individual or joint proposals for peaceful solutions based on the feedback that was learned from the conferences.

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Each team will be asked to try to reach an agreement on a proposed solution for the Palestinian Israel conflict. However, individual group members may submit their own proposal if they do not agree with a proposal by one or more group members.

Community ConsultationThe teams will then be required to submit their various proposals to representative audiences in Israel and Palestine. The proposal envisions six additional conferences with three in Israel and three in Palestine to test the proposals on representative audiences. The audiences will be encouraged to give their feedback on the respective proposals. Following the conferences and the feedback from the audiences, the teams will be required to reevaluate their proposals and determine whether the proposals may require amendments or improvements.

On the Web and Project NamingThe project will be run under the name The Path to a Shared Future and will be branded and logo-typed to reflect this naming. Within a month of the commencement of the project it will have a web presence. The experience gained in The Best Plans Project indicate that people are capable of using English as the working language with translations to Hebrew and Arabic. The principle technology used will be Drupal, a content management system used on half a million websites including the White House. Members of the project team have significant experience in running virtual groups and are accustom to working with each other over remote locations as if they are sitting in the same office. The project will deploy all necessary technology including newsgroup listing, electronic mind-maps, scheduling and workshop enrollment.

The importance of the web to the project is significant. Beyond the facilitation of the project it is intended to use the web to make change happen. Here noted is the Kony2012 Project1 which is an example of how one organization is managing their web presences to get impact on (in their case the US) changing the awareness and attitudes of legislators. Similarly we believe that such pressure will be needed to encourage change based on what will be the collective opinion of the Israeli, Palestinian, Jewish and Palestinian populations in Diaspora and the desires of the broader international community for a world at peace.

Actions to Create ChangeAfter the proposals are tested before representative audiences, the two teams will then meet for face to face peace negotiations to write a peace agreement. If no united peace agreement is reached by consensus, then the two groups will be required to attempt to reach a proposal by majority vote, where as the preferred method is consensus.

If an agreement is reached the solution will be distributed to the populations via newspaper advertisements, electronic media and other written and multimedia dissemination processes. The website will be updated and adapted to allow people to read the final proposal, comment on it and cast a vote for or against the proposal.

1 http://www.kony2012.com/ Invisible Children, provided as a reference to a website that leads to an action event.

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Timetable We anticipate the project to last for 24 months and include the following stages…

1. Selection of people to form the two teams of six. (1 month)2. Training of the two teams using role play and review of initial interview process based on

reflections of video recording of these initial interviews. (1 month)3. Initial workshops and conferences (12 months)4. Plan development (4 months)5. Public consultation (6 months)

Performance MeasurementThe ultimate performance measurement of the project is the acceptability of the final plan by the public in Israel-Palestine. Other performance measures will include…

1. The effective delivery of workshops to a yet to be plan schedule2. The ability of negotiation teams to enroll participation in web activities of attendees post

workshops.3. A short survey of personal opinion conducted early in the contact process with the

negotiation team and reviewed with a follow up surveys before and after the plan writing process.

4. The more general ability of the project itself to keep to a timetable.

On 3 we would expect to be able to show that through the process of dialogue a paradigm shift in outcome of those participating can be achieved.

SummaryThe project team make no claim to being able to resolve an intractable conflict that even US Presidents with near unlimited resources have failed to solve.

For this fitting resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to come about, it must be preceded by critical Israeli and Arab public discussion of the contentious issues. Unless the basic questions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are met head-on, a durable peace cannot be achieved. This calls for a political and public discussion that has not even begun. Without a thorough revamping of rampant misconceptions, there is no chance of settling the conflict by peaceful means. Professor Yoram Meital 2

Meital sums up what is required to bring a peaceful resolution of the conflict, public discourse and public involvement in reaching a resolution. The primary goal of the project is to act as a catalyst to encourage a movement towards a future which is free of violent conflict. Involvement in other projects has shown that people from areas outside of the conflict are able to make soft judgments that are more willingly accepted by the very polarized populations in Israel-Palestine. The project team will actively capitalize on this point of difference.

2 Professor Yoram Meital is the Chairman of the Chaim Herzog Center for Middle East Studies and Diplomacy, and the past Chair of the Department of Middle East Studies, at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU). The excerpt is based on his book Peace in Tatters: Israel, Palestine and the Middle East (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2007).

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Notes1. Members of the project team for this project are also members of project teams on other

projects significantly, The Best Plan Project. The applications for grants connected to the topic of Israel-Palestine uses quite different approaches and are a reflection of our willingness to be flexible in approach and allowing a grant body to make a final say on what it considers to be best practice. Whereas The Best Plan Project is focused on a specific methodology, this project is focused on engagement and uncovering key and specific needs and creating plans for the future from these basic component requirements. This project also places greater emphasis on generating content to create a viral impact on the internet community.

2. The project team recognizes the activities of the BDS and anti-normalization movements and will work within the framework of the difficulties the objectives of these movements create for a project that by design requires communication between opposing teams. The project will not attempt to undermine any existing activities and will work with other groups to ensure that the processes and conferences are not inhibited by misunderstanding of the goals of the project and its methods.

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Key Profiles

Kamal Nawash Esq. (JD, Thomas Cooley Law School; LL.M, International Legal Studies, American University; BA Business Management, Southeastern Louisiana University. Kamal is one of the founders of the Task Force on Israel/Palestine, a program by the Free Muslims Coalition Against Terrorism. The Task Force, established in 2004, focuses on developing a bottom up solution to the Palestinian Israeli Conflict. It solicited comments from numerous segments of Israeli and Palestinian societies to identify the basic demands of the majority of Israelis and Palestinians. After hundreds of interviews, the Taskforce put together a solution that met the approval of the participants. The Taskforce also educated Palestinians in nonviolent methods for conflict resolution. In recognition of the Taskforce efforts, Kamal was invited by U.S. envoy George Mitchell to discuss the peacemaking efforts of the U.S.

In 2005, Nawash was appointed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to represent the United States before the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in the session on fighting anti-Semitism and other forms on intolerance.

In 2011, Nawash co-founded The Best Plans Project and spent a month in Israel-Palestine presenting his findings and the peace plan developed by the Task Force to Palestinians and Israelis as one of the 20+ plans submitted to the project. This plan, calls for a united federation with free movement of people and labor but safeguards Israel and Palestine by limiting cross-immigration and by allowing them to keep their independent national guards.

Nawash is a seasoned media spokesman: Between 2003 and 2012, he did more than 300 TV news interviews on Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, Al-Jazeerah and others and more than 500 radio interviews. He also conducted extensive travel in the West Bank, Gaza, Israel, and Jordan and researched the economic and political development of the West Bank, Gaza and the Middle East.

Nawash is a practicing lawyer since 1998. Until 2000 he was the legal Director for the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) where he drafted legislation and legislative policy, counseled in areas of employment law, employer-employee relations and commented on rule making before U.S. government agencies. Since then he runs his own law practice, where he does complex litigation, government contracts and regulatory compliance as well as appearing in front of federal, state and administrative courts, mediation, settlement agreements and arbitration.

Nawash advises NGO’s on legal and government affairs and has extensive hands on experience in working on local, state and national election campaigns: building campaign organization, issue development, communicating with the voter, fundraising and media relations.

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Marwan Hamad, B. A Law, Al-Quds University. Marwan is a lawyer, peace and human rights activist from Jerusalem he is one of the founders of a peace organization called (Time Is Now) it was created to work for people to people peace projects especially by arts http://www.timeisnowsummit.com. Marwan is also one of the founders and a board member of (Jerusalem Human Rights Observatory) in Jerusalem an organizations that defense for the Palestinian human rights in Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Marwan is involved in democracy human rights and peace work, likes to join peace projects for Palestinians and Israelis and believes that the conflict cannot be ended without the two side’s works together.

Jon Haigh BA (MCCA) (Hons) is an experienced professional in photography, publishing and internet media. Haigh was the owner manager of a successful photography and publishing business, Fotowerk, in Brisbane, Australia between 1983 and 1996 where he managed a staff of 7 and over 300 clients based on his skills in Print production (Trade apprenticeship, prepress, Sphere Graphics 1976-1980), Commercial and advertising photography (Certificate in Photography, Griffith University) and Commercial video production (Trained as freelance cameraman by Video Image Productions, Brisbane). He then dedicated a few years to travelling the world and assisting suffering people and in parallel he worked as interface designer for Bay Web.

In 2007, Haigh returned to university, where he undertook subjects in computer programming, marketing and psychology. Haigh’s Honours thesis was on Virtual Teams, a passion he developed from involvement in the advisory team to Corel Corporation of which he has been a member for 10 years. His Honours Degree is in Web design, Media, Culture and Creative Art earned from Curtin University in 2011.

Haigh became interested in the issues of Israel-Palestine after the flotilla incident (May 2010) when he realized that the media framing of the story in Australia was one sided. This lead to an in depth review of media manipulation which is now part of further work for future doctorial studies and to a personal commitment to use the lessons learned in a long advertising career to create constructive outcomes to resolve conflict. He actively works to eliminate bias and integrate the seemingly conflicting views on the issues and sees the resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict as a key to moving the world towards peace, equality and ecological sustainability.

He is currently the director with responsibility for internet communications for The Best Plans Project and is also involved with the Democracy Council in San Francisco in the construction of a new web presence for the American International School in Gaza.

He brings to the project a youthful exuberance combined with an ever critical mind and a sense of perfectionism honed by working in advertising for very fussy clients. Haigh looks for the impossible and asks ‘how can this be achieved’.

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Management Structure

Known potential team and other activity project members

Palestinian Team Internationals Israeli Team

Professor Mohammed Dajani Daoudi

Esther Riley Gershon Baskin

Marwan Rateb Hamad Nick Veltjens Gilad KatzTamer A. H. Halaseh Dr Anselm Kiersch Tsvi MisinaiAhmed Meligy Dr Bill Friend Mulli KipnisRaed Jantiem Karen Shenfeld Eli CohenAymen Zaben Mike Burch Yehuda SchwartzBashar Farashat James Linden Rose Rafi GasselSaeed Amireh Sam Abdul Doron Tzur

For clarity a few of the above have short profiles in appendix 2

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Budget Spreadsheet

Cost Line Item Unit Type No. of Units Year 1 Year 2 Total for 2 yearsI. Personnel

Month 12 60000 60000 120000

Month 12 60000 60000 120000Israeli/Palestinian local director Month 12 60000 60000 120000Teams and event manager Month 12 25000 25000 50000

Month 12 15000 15000 30000II. Lockdown training conference

misc 15 19800III. TravelVisits to Israel-WBG Trips & Accom 11 55000 60000 115000

IV. Office & Administration ExpensesAccounting Year 1 6000 6000 12000Legal & fees Year 1 1000 1000 2000V. CommunicationWeb hosting (Private server) Month 12 1000 2500 3500

Web site outsourcing programming 10000 1000 11000Purchase of copyrights 5000 5000 10000

Provision of equipment for videocasting 30000 30000VI. Local TravelCar rental Trips 12 8000 8000 16000Bus/Taxi Trips 192 5800 5800 11600VII. ConferencesConferences and seminars Each 16 50000 30000 80000

Translators for conferences and seminars People 64 12000 6000 18000Presentaion and sound 16 8400 4200 12600VIII. Audit 10000 10000 20000IX. Program Expenses

People 12 12000 12000 24000

People 200 0 20000 20000Peace negotiations People/Days 12/10 5000 5000

Managing director: Able to travel between Palestine & Israel and who coordinates activities between Israeli & Palestinian groups

International Director, Web Master, New Media, Admin

Palestinian local coordinator: permits, transportation, logistics etc.

15 double rooms + small conference room 5 days including meals.

12 group members 6 Israelis + 6 Palestinians

Community consultations -- Written critiques of plans by audience

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Budget Narrative

I. The project directors believe the budget is reasonable and the wages paid to key directors and others is about half the normal rates of pay that would be normal in our professional roles. Those involved in this project has previously shown years of dedication to peace in Israel-Palestine and have track records of high levels of unpaid commitments.

II. To initiate a high level of cohesion team, key members of the team will be locked down in a hotel to discuss the project for 5 days. As many are professionals with families we expect to need to accommodate at least partners if not children in families. Allocation is for a hotel of merit and for this to be both a highly productive period and one that is sufficiently interesting to act as bait to ensure 100% participation.

III. Airfares, car hire and other expenses are incurred because the project using people in the international community as part of the team. Importantly, previous projects have shown that the involvement of internationals enhances outcomes as these people are removed from the daily impacts of the conflict, from local dogma and their being in the project enhances behaviorally outcomes. Sponsor airlines will be sort to provide additional travel to increase this participation beyond the budget which allows for trips and accommodation for Nawash 4 trips, Haigh 2 trips and an additional 5 trips with accommodation for 5 others.

IV. Accounting fees are estimates based on the need to meet the tax requirement for the US, Australia and Israel.

V. Web activity and video are keys to the public involvement. Allocation of server fees is based on a private server that would be scaled up in the second year to accommodate high levels of traffic. Monies have been allocated to outsourcing of creating Drupal modules and for any translations of static site items necessary for a trilingual site. We would expect to pay fees to use copyright material such as music. Monies are allocated for the purchase of backgrounds, lights, budget professional cameras, Zioneyez glasses and suitable matching mobile phones. See appendix 1 for more details on the use of Zioneyez.

VI. Local travel covers the cost of hire cars (internationals), buses and taxis for all team members.

VII. It is estimated that the cost to hire venues for conferences to be $5,000 per conference for venues capable of managing crowds of 100-200 people. These conferences are sure to vary in size, in some cases such as universities; we would expect the facilities to be provided FOC.

VIII.Audit costs are an estimate only.IX. Program expenses are based on fees paid to team members (non project directors) for their

time contributions which will include preparation, public presentation and written reviews.X. Some team members will be drawn from known people that the directors have previous

knowledge of skills however positions on teams will be advertised at the commencement of the project to ensure the highest possible level of quality in those selected for the teams. During the 2 year project cycle there will be advertising via Google using key words which will be designed to increase web participation. At the end of the process it is expect that a publication will be produced on the results of the project and that this will be made available to interested persons and parties in printed and electronic formats. The results and the availability of the report will be advertising in electronic and print media.

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Appendix 1 Technology

Critical to any project involving social media in the collection, creation, recording and editing of video, to create a true feeling of ‘being there’ the project will purchase 15 pairs of Zioneyez3 glasses which include a built-in HD camera, microphone, recording media and interface live to mobile phones. This will be used in conjunction with broadcast quality HD cameras and quality sound recording to provide a never seen before level of experience for the creation of a viral project video and for the recording of conferences. A number of mobile phones will be used in conjunction with the glasses to provide real time web video of conferences. Haigh will be deeply involved in training those using the glasses so they are able to achieve best results without being overwhelmed by the technology.

Appendix 2 The Best Plans Project

The Best Plans Project can be found here http://thebestplans.org

The project won the following award…

Winner of MEPEACE Award

For Education The Best Plans Education for Peace 2011

"The Best Plans Project is helping Israelis and Palestinians win support for peace plans. Best Plans Project offers practical hope for conflict resolution."

Related Facebook pages and groups

https://www.facebook.com/groups/thebestplans/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Best-Plans-Project/129926313780151

3 Zioneyez www.zioneyez.com technology to be available in winter 2012. These glasses are high quality and very difficult to pick as being other than normal Raybans. They provide an ability to record events without creating a sense of ‘cameras are watching me everywhere’.

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Appendix 3 Additional Member Profiles

Esther Riley is an American woman living in California and has four grandchildren. Before I retired to work on peace issues, Riley worked as a writer, editor and educator. She is neither a Palestinian nor an Israeli, neither a Muslim nor a Jew, so can see all sides without judging. Riley hold to Jesus’s teaching ‘Love your enemies’, which he amplified by saying, ‘do good to those who hate you’ and which she interprets as trying to meet your enemies’ needs.

Anselm Kiersch is a German, living in Norway and working as child and adolescent psychiatrist. He lived in Berlin for some years during the time when the Berlin Wall fell. Ever since Kiersch has been fascinated by revolutionary changes and his interests were energized by the Arab spring last year. Since the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is at the very heart of so many other conflicts he sees the opportunity to be involved in its resolution as important personal work.

Raphael Tzion Gasse is the Director of Product Management and Software Syntezza Molecular Detection Israel Ltd. He develops software for PCR based medical diagnostic tests for infectious dieses, works in Intellectual Property and Product Management. He has a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science with a minor in Biology from the North Eastern Illinois University. His peace related work began in university where he created a program called Jewish-Islamic Dialogue where Jewish, Muslims and Christians would meet to discuss their cultures and discuss the options for resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.

He emigrated from the United States to the State of Israel in 2007 and has been living in Jerusalem. Gasse is also an advocate for Israeli and Palestinian rights. He supports the rights of Israeli Settlers, the right of return for Palestinians, the resolution of the conflict and the formation of a Democratic Federation of Israel and Palestine. He works with several conflict-resolution related projects including The Best-Plans Project, The Free Muslims Coalition Taskforce on Israel and Palestine, The Federation of Israel and Palestine and Peace Settlers. Rafi is a practicing orthodox Jew.

Gilad Katz was born in 1947 in Israel, a member of a kibbutz in Upper Galilee, married, a father of 4 and a grandfather of 15. During his working life, two of the roles he has fulfilled are as a dairy farmer and as industrial maintenance expert. However in more recent years his focus has been as an active mediator and a personal & managerial coach. For last 4 years, Katz has been engaged with Israelis and Palestinians, on a draft of mutual consents on items which may lead to political reconciliation.

Dr. Yehuda Schwartz studied Clinical Pharmacy and History of Religions, living in Jerusalem, Israel Schwartz has been a peace activist since Oslo. He argues that the Two-State Solution can’t succeed. His research brought him to a federal solution and in 2010 he founded the movement Palestinian and Israeli Activists for the Federal State.

Doron Tzur MA Conflict Resolution (Bar-Ilan University, 2010, cum laude) has been working since 2002, on pioneering a unique and unconventional methodology for resolving apparently intractable inter-collective conflicts, with a clear focus on the Israeli/Palestinian/Jewish/Arab conflict. He wrote several papers, works and articles about this methodology and successfully piloted it in 2008 when a group of youth leaders (Jewish and Arab Israelis heads of high school student councils) managed to

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agree on how the internal Arab-Jewish divide should be resolved, aligning behind a proposal of an Arab Israeli.

In his MA research thesis "Contribution of Participatory and Deliberative Reform to the Effectiveness of the Agreement Formation and Approval Mechanism in Intractable Ethnonational Conflicts" (Bar-Ilan University Conflict Resolution and Negotiation interdisciplinary program, 2010) he empirically showed that 9 out of 10 Israelis want to be more personally involved and influential in determining the agreement with the Palestinians. They also believe that an agreement achieved via democratic means is much more viable and therefore are much more likely to support it.

In 2011, together with Nawash and Haigh, Tzur founded The Best Plans Project based on his methodology and he now chairs the project and working towards a PhD in the area.

In 2003-2004 Tzur participated in a very special people-to-people project – one year of an Arab initiative to understand the Jews by going back to the holocaust, culminating in a joint trip to Auschwitz and a “journey to the Arab truth” in the year after, going to Arab Jerusalem, the Bedouin Negev Nazareth. In this intensive effort, entailing hundreds of hours of close contact with Israeli Palestinians, he got an inside view of the immense potential for human transformation present in people-to-people projects but also on how difficult it is to actually transcend the barriers.

In 1998-2004 Tzur served as the active chair person, pro bono, of Hosen – an NGO that then operated dozens of support groups for people with cancer and those around them. He volunteered following the loss of his young wife to cancer just 1 year after she gave birth to their first daughter. In this role he learned how to manage hundreds of participants, volunteers and part-time professional facilitators.

In addition Tzur founded and managed several companies and organizational units, numbering up to 20 people, in the areas of clean-tech, software, development methodology and "second order" life skills based on natural language processing and artificial intelligence over the Internet. He holds a B.Sc. in Mathematics and Physics from Tel-Aviv University and lives with his Spouse and their 4 kids in Herzliya.

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