Peace Support Project
Overview
The purpose of the Peace Support Project is to help reverse the spiral of Middle East violence
by focusing on those Israelis and Palestinians who are taking positive action steps for peace,
and generating immediate, substantial and sustained media coverage and targeted support for
them.
The Current Situation
News from the Middle East has become almost totally focused on the violence between Israelis
and Palestinians. This relentless stream of violent stories and images continues to deepen the
sense of anger and hopelessness for people on both sides. The result is that hopes for a
peaceful future are being replaced by fear and a desire for revenge; because when violence is
all people see, it gradually becomes all they can imagine.
And yet there are people on both sides who refuse to give in to that hopelessness; who are
working to plant seeds of hope right now, even with violence all around them. It is their
courageous example that helps people remember that there are alternatives to violence, and that
keeps hope alive even in the dark times. When that hope gains the power to grow and spreads
to enough people, a new collective voice for hope in the body politic can emerge.
What’s Needed
The seeds are already there, and they have never been more needed. What do they need to
grow? They need the light of media attention, and they need the watering of practical support.
First, these stories need sympathetic journalists to get these stories into the media and onto the
front pages, locally and internationally. Their impact will increase in direct proportion to the
amount and quality of media exposure they receive, especially in Israel/Palestine.
They also need financial and moral support to help them grow – support specifically targeted to
their particular needs. Material resources are part of it. Equally important is just the sense of
connection to others. People who take action for peace in a society at war can easily feel
isolated from their peers and from the outside world, and wonder whether what they are doing
really matters. Just knowing that others believe in what they are doing can make an immense
difference.
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The good news is that there are people who already want to provide these two things. There are
journalists who will focus people’s attention on these stories – if they feel that writing and
publishing such stories would draw interest and make a real difference. And there are people
around the world who will offer their help to make a difference – if they know where to focus
their attention, and have a clear way to convert that attention into tangible and meaningful
results. What’s missing is a network where these complementary intentions can be integrated
to create a self-reinforcing upward spiral of results.
Creating A Network for Larger Results
It is this new network that the Peace Support Project intends to create. By integrating these
efforts in a common network, media coverage and immediate practical support for peace
initiatives can be generated together at far higher levels. And importantly, it can be done in a
way that is sustainable -- because it allows participants do more effectively what they already
want to do. Journalists gain a way to see their stories have a greater impact; and concerned
people around the world gain a way to direct their peace efforts into the target area in a far
more focused, timely and direct way.
Conceptually then, this network will have two distinct parts – a media side, and a response
group side.
The Media Side
A core group of journalists and other media professionals will undertake a systematic effort
each week during the next 12 months to locate, write up and disseminate a steady stream of
stories about hope and peacemaking between Israelis and Palestinians. Sources will include
journalists on the ground in the area, peace groups, student groups, civic and religious
organizations, and national and international peace organizations.
Each week these stories of emerging hope will be collected, filtered, prioritized, and compiled
into a weekly e-mail digest by respected peace activists working together in Israel/Palestine.
This on-line digest will then be distributed electronically to an international network of
journalists and media professionals pre-committed to promoting this kind of story about the
Middle East in their respective media around the world. These journalists will copy any stories
that do appear back to the digest, so that the project’s impact in the media can be tracked.
The Response Side
This same weekly digest will also be sent electronically to a global positive response network
of perhaps 100 specific individuals and organizations who share a desire to reverse the
momentum of violence and fear between Israelis and Palestinians. They also share an ability to
engage substantial resources, deep rolodexes, and organizational imagination; a commitment to
work together to generate immediate and meaningful support each week during the project
period; and a proven capacity to make extraordinary things happen by engaging their
resources.
Members will volunteer to participate actively in the network for 12 weeks at a time. During
that time, they commit to generate one significant response a week to a story that they see in
the digest. They will also have access to a website where they can research stories in more
detail, and review specific ideas and requests for support (e.g., organizing support letters from
around the world, passing along helpful information, connecting people with organizations that
could help them, financial support). Through the website they will also be able to talk,
brainstorm, exchange contacts and consider support ideas with other members of the network.
Responses will be channeled back through appropriate and responsible organizations in
Israel/Palestine.
The aim of the network will be to generate every week imaginative, targeted, person-to-person
responses and support to these peace initiatives quickly and effectively. Many of these
responses will in turn generate their own secondary news stories, creating a self-generating
upward spiral of further stories and responses. And unlike other response networks, which are
often built around protesting or stopping negative events, this network will be energized by the
desire to discover and grow positive and inspiring examples, creating a powerful and
sustaining cooperative bond among all participants.
Implementation
The project can begin on a small scale with a small number of journalists and participants
during a pilot phase, and then be steadily scaled as resources allow. Early priorities will include
further project design, enrolling key participants, setting up a few simple responses for
common situations, and tech support to establish an effective communication network for the
project. A possible short-term goal would be to pick 1-2 specific projects and deliver
extraordinary results within the first six weeks.
In Closing
By directly linking together the efforts of journalists and a global network of people committed
to help, it is possible to imagine that a year from now:
a critical mass of peacemakers in Israel/Palestine now feels they are not alone, even when
their actions feel small, risky and fragile to them; they now have confidence that their
actions matter and affect people, both in the Middle East and all around the world;
journalists in the Middle East now see that when they write stories about hope and peace,
they can make real things happen (and generate even more stories to be covered by their
paper);
people who want to contribute to a more peaceful world have a new, powerful and
focused way to work together make a difference; and perhaps most importantly,
a critical mass of people in Israel and Palestine now realize that what connects them most
of all with a larger world is their actions for peace, and that whenever they move in that
direction, they feel reinforced and upheld by a network of support in the world around
them.