YouSaid · the spoken record

Rothbart

lines on the record
8
first
2021-09-29
most recent
2021-09-29
sittings or episodes
1
sources
un-security-council

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  1. “There are many more organizations like those, with methodologies and programmes that work, but they are not yet at scale. They could be with enough support, capacity and infrastructure. In our ancient Jewish text known as Pirkei Avot, or the Ethics of the Fathers, we read: “You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to desist from it”. We know that, in order for peace negotiations to work, we must break the intractable nature of our conflict into manageable parts and tackle each one of those parts one by one. We must build a popular belief that peace is actually possible and that all people — Israelis and Palestinians — have an integral role to play and responsibility in its pursuit.”

    2021-09-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8869 (2021) · source

  2. “Invest in the infrastructure that peace actually needs, like the partnership between adjacent community centres in Jerusalem — one Israeli and one Palestinian — which are working together to renovate their communal health-care centres, supporting women entrepreneurs and making their neighbourhoods safer. Invest in building economic partnerships through organizations like Tech2Peace and 50:50 Start-ups, which are teaching technology and entrepreneurship to young Israelis and Palestinians and guiding them to create start-ups addressing climate, food security, water and other critical issues. Invest in programmes like Kids4Peace and the Teachers’ Lounge, which are enabling youth and educators to not only learn each other’s narratives but view themselves as agents of change.”

    2021-09-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8869 (2021) · source

  3. “That is an opportunity for a multilateral partnership. I ask the members of the Security Council to take inspiration from the Irish and American peacemaking efforts and to commit to investing in the infrastructure needed for real peace. Help us build a multilateral international entity like the Peace Impact Programme of the International Fund for Ireland; an independent entity with the resources and the mandate to build capital projects, such as a peace institute in Jerusalem modelled on the Skainos Centre in East Belfast, or a laboratory for programme innovation and capacity-building, impact investments and microgrants.”

    2021-09-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8869 (2021) · source

  4. “And if you do not feel like working for building peace today, then you better not complain to me in 20 years that the conflict is ongoing and affecting your children.” The United Nations has adopted resolution after resolution, which, as a global institution, is a part of the Security Council’s agenda. I understand that but, in order to build peace between Israelis and Palestinians, I ask the Council to consider investing in a social peace. It is no coincidence that it is the Irish who invited me here today, because the Irish know the power of civil society peacebuilding firsthand. I must also acknowledge the United States Government for passing the Nita Lowey Middle East Partnership for Peace Act, the first large-scale Government attempt at building Israeli-Palestinian peace from the ground up.”

    2021-09-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8869 (2021) · source

  5. “We know that it works because Rabbi Michael Melchior and Sheikh Raed Badir from the Religious Peace Initiative were the religious leaders who prevented a third intifada amid violence on the Temple Mount. And it was they who conducted the negotiations that led to our unity Government, which has a religious Zionist Prime Minister and Palestinian members of Parliament from the local Islamic Movement. Those are the real peace negotiators. My close friend and mentor, the Reverend Gary Mason, who helped bring about peace in Northern Ireland, always says: “If you want peace today, you should have started building it 20 years ago.”

    2021-09-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8869 (2021) · source

  6. “Both Prime Ministers Bertie Ahern and Tony Blair share the view that the Fund built the social and economic foundations upon which peace was eventually secured about a decade later. Today the Special Coordinator asked for affirmative steps to improve the situation on the ground. We know that civil society peacebuilding is not only an affirmative step; it works, and it is a required precondition for a negotiated peace agreement, especially in an intractable conflict. We know because of so many initiatives that have been proved to succeed. We know that it works because a Palestinian police officer saved a lost Israel Defense Forces soldier’s life, not because he had to but out of appreciation for the Israeli volunteer from the organization Road to Recovery, who had driven his brother to the hospital just the week before.”

    2021-09-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8869 (2021) · source

  7. “It is clear to all who are observing our political reality that negotiations at the highest diplomatic levels would not result in substantive peace right now. If we recall, the Oslo Accords failed because the agreement came from a secret process between elite leaders, with no women, no religious leaders and no representative of those wishing to disrupt the process with violence. Neither society was prepared or ready to make compromises. It is therefore no wonder that the Oslo Accords failed and that the disappointment by the public led to the most violent era in the history of our conflict. Let us not do that again. Around the same time as the Oslo Accords, when violent attacks were a daily occurrence in Northern Ireland, the United States spearheaded the establishment of the International Fund for Ireland.”

    2021-09-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8869 (2021) · source

  8. “Ms. Rothbart: I thank you, Madam President, for your kind and uncommon invitation to speak here in front of the Security Council. I also thank the members of the Council and the Special Coordinator for their attention and consideration of new ideas and hope for the future. I am Meredith Rothbart, and I am a Jewish Israeli, a religious Zionist, speaking to the Security Council from Jerusalem. I am the co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Amal-Tikva, where my Palestinian co-founder, Basheer Abu-Baker, and our teamwork with leaders of non-governmental organizations, philanthropists and field experts to build capacity for strategic, sustainable and scalable peacebuilding efforts. I am here to share with the Council my view from the ground. We heard today and over the past few weeks of the continued violence between our two peoples.”

    2021-09-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8869 (2021) · source