05/24/07

Avaaz is Feature in YouTube!

Great News!

We have a lot to celebrate, our animation Stop the Clash was chosen as a "Featured Video" on YouTube. This means that for a few days our video will be appearing on the main page of YouTude.

What is the impact of this? Our campaign gains strength! And our message of PEACE in the MIDDLE EAST spreads around the world.

Check out the statistics:
- More than 188,000 views!
- 5,000 comments
- Favorited 1,500 times
- Real Peace Talks Petition approaches the mark of 100,000!

See the video on the front page of YouTube
See Avaaz director Ricken Patel's commentary
Take the opportunity to visit the Avaaz YouTube page and see our other videos.

And if you haven't yet... SIGN THE PETITION!

Thanks YouTube for the support and thanks to all of you who have been a part of this.

Graziela

04/24/07

Jerusalem billboards

Our Real Peace Talks Now billboards are going up in Jerusalem this week - and here they are! They're designed especially to make an impact on the Israeli public - hence the Hebrew - and the concept is Arab Travel Deal / Peace Deal.

At first they look just like ordinary travel ads, and Israelis love to travel. But the idea that they might be able to travel to Damascus or Dubai (if they only sit down and start to negotiate on the basis of the Saudi Initiative...) is pretty wild in Israel -- and our soundings indicate these billboards could make waves. "80,000 Avaaz supporters demand Real Peace Talks Now" is the punchline. Ads and translations below...

syria.jpg

Celebrate Shavuot (upcoming Jewish holiday) in Syria - just $390
* price for one room, double bed - depends on negotiating the Saudi Initiative

80,000 global e-activists demand Real Peace Talks Now

saudia.jpg

Dreamy weekend in Saudi Arabia - only $490
* price for one room, double bed - depends on negotiating the Saudi Initiative

80,000 global e-activists demand Real Peace Talks Now

We'll try to get a photo of the billboards in situ when they go up on Thursday...

04/17/07

Footage of Avaaz Winning the Non-Profit Video Contest

03/29/07

Offer in Riyadh, billboards in Jerusalem, date for peace

The irrepressible Galit just called me from Jerusalem saying she's found a good billboard spot. So if we get 100,000 signatures by next week, we'll run billboards in Jerusalem calling on Israeli, Palestinian and Arab leaders to do just that: set the date for real negotiations.

If you haven't already done so, please add your name, then tell your friends!

Momentum is building at last for real Mideast talks - it's time for leaders to set the date, to sit down together and address the real issues (1967 lines, end of occupation, peace and security...)

We started our Real Middle East Talks Now campaign earlier this year with ads in Ha'aretz, al-Quds and the FT worldwide, then launched our Stop the Clash YouTube video with the same demand.

Today the Arab League is offering Israel peace across the region, international brokers are shuttling between the sides, UN resolutions sketch the shape of a deal, and Israeli and Palestinian majorities have said they support it.

So what's left? Just the political will to sit down and thrash out a few details. It's time for Israel to agree to talk on the basis of 1967 lines - and for Arabs and Palestinians to sit down with them for creative negotiations. We'll support whatever the sides can agree on, and opinion polls suggest that's a lot. But the leaders need to listen to their people, and negotiate in earnest.

Some of you emailed asking us to explain why, as we approach the 40th anniversary of occupation this summer, this is such a vital moment in this decades-old conflict. It's complicated, and each side has their own version. For a start you could read Bitterlemons.org, the big Palestinian-Israeli crossfire newsletter (where this week, contributors from both sides agree the Arab initiative is crucial, and Israel must engage). You might also take a look at the big Israeli newspaper editorial this week that calls on its government to respond and open talks, saying:

The stance of the Israeli government, as a skeptical observer, is unbecoming; an impasse in the region will result in bloodshed. Israel must initiate and also respond to initiatives, and participate in any format that is seeking to further a settlement and, above all, it is not entitled to remain passive and wait for the perfect peace initiative.

Recent articles by top Israeli columnist Akiva Eldar are also worth a read. For instance, the Arab initiative doesn't demand that every Palestinian refugee returns to the state of Israel or destroys it as a safe home for the Jewish people - it calls for "a just solution to the Palestinian Refugee problem to be agreed upon in accordance with UN General Assembly Resolution 194", agreed between the sides.

I've been lucky enough to talk with Ziad Abu Amr whenever I've been to Gaza. Today he's the independent foreign minister of the new Palestinian unity government, and you know what? He wants to make peace, on the basis of UN resolutions and two states. We've talked with many senior Israelis who think the same. President Abbas has been given a full mandate to negotiate by his government - only Olmert remains to step up.

In 1967, after the Six Day War, Israel's founding father David Ben-Gurion called for complete withdrawal from the occupied Palestinian territories. As the 40th anniversary of occupation approaches, the end may be in sight. But that needs to mean borders based on 1967 lines - and we'll only get there through real talks. As informed reporters are saying, the chance has never been better.

So our next step is to put 100,000 voices on a billboard in Jerusalem urging leaders to set a date for full negotiations. It won't be easy - but together, we could do it!

Peace and justice,

03/20/07

Please vote for the Clash of Civilizations video

Dear friends,

I have a quick favor to ask of you.

A short video I worked on, Avaaz.org's "Stop the Clash of Civilizations," is a finalist in an online nonprofit video competition. We need your vote to help us win. Winning the competition will help us further our mission of promoting peace talks in the Middle East and raising public awareness about the issue. Talk is rising of a 'clash of civilizations'. But the problem isn't culture, it's politics - from 9/11 to Guantanamo, Iraq to Iran. This clash is not inevitable, and we don't want it. So where to start?

Watch the video (entry number 1) and vote for us here: http://dogooder.tv/contest.aspx

You have to register before you can vote online, but it's quick and painless. Or you can vote with your cell phone by texting ntcvideo1 to 75528 (no registration necessary). Winners will be announced on April 5.

Our video is one of 6 finalists. If you have time, take a look at our competition's videos too - they are all very well-done and support good causes. All six finalists will be screened at the Nonprofit Technology Network Conference (http://www.nten.org/ntc-video) in Washington DC early April.

Thanks to everyone who has supported this project.

03/ 1/07

a first step to stop the clash?

Check out 'Stop The Clash' - our new video manifesto against the so-called 'Clash of Civilizations', and for the values, the goals, and the life we share, all around the world.

Add your voice to the campaign for Real Peace Talks, share the vid around - and tell us (and each other) what you think through the comments below!

More soon - from facts and figures to backstory......

For now, if you want to post the video on your site - just like here - go to the campaign page and cut and paste the code on the middle-right of the page.

Full credit to the all-stars at Ruckus who made the video happen, to DJ Spooky for his buzzing soundtrack, over a hundred global citizens who pitched in with ideas and feedback over the last month, the creativity that went into all the pieces of the puzzle and the 30,000 of us who already joined the Real Talks campaign..........

We're still just at the start.

Avanti!

02/18/07

Our Middle East Talks Ad in Israeli, Palestinian and International Papers

FT_English

Arabic

Haaretz_English

Haaretz_Hebrew

02/15/07

21, 675 reasons to hope.

21, 675 signatures and counting! That's almost 22,000 people who believe that, at last, there is hope for Peace talks in the Middle East.

Sometimes when things look bleak, you gotta hold on to small things, put all your eggs in the flimsiest of baskets. For the first time, in a what seems like an eternity, there is a small glimmer of hope for real peace talks in the Middle East, and it's OUR responsibility, as concerned global citizens, to RAISE OUR VOICES NOW to make sure this is not another wasted opportunity.

For the first time since 2000, the top Israeli and Palestinian leaders are meeting with an international moderator. It'd be nice to be able to lock them in a room ant take the key away, let them air things out till Condy's perfect hair sticks out and is held together with a chewed up pencil. But their meeting will be brief, and, unless international leaders seize this opportunity to restart serious peace talks, little more than a photo-op.

Sign the petition now and tell Israeli, Palestinian, and International leaders, that the world will not stand for more delays.

Monday is the time to start talking. Who knows, the time to start listening may not be as far as we think.

With hope,

Galit