Global Leaders Support New Israeli-Palestinian Peace Initiatives

On the occasion of the signing today of the “Geneva Initiative” – a blueprint for peace negotiated by teams of Israelis and Palestinians led by former ministers Yossi Beilin and Yasser Abed Rabbo – we express our strong support both for this and the “People’s Voice” petition initiated by Ami Ayalon and Sari Nusseibeh.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has taken far too great a toll already. Both peoples have paid dearly in lives and livelihood in a war which both are losing. Every passing day undermines the prospects for a peaceful, two-state solution. As long as the conflict endures, it will be a source of instability and violence for the region and the international community as a whole.

We believe that the best way to move forward is to address at the outset, not at the end of an incremental process, all the basic principles of a fair and lasting solution. Postponing the final outcome makes any progress hostage to extremists on both sides. A process must be devised to give practical and political expression to the heartfelt desire of clear majorities on both sides to end this conflict once and for all.

The Geneva and People’s Voice initiatives both reflect that public opinion, and can help give it new momentum. On the Israeli side, they can help undo the myths taking hold since the collapse of the peace process and onset of violence: that the Palestinian people are not prepared to accept a two state solution and Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. On the Palestinian side, they can offer an alternative to the current mindset that sees in violence the only possible means of ending the occupation. They send a powerful signal that an alternative to the current situation exists. They have the potential to transform the domestic political dynamics on both sides.

International support will be crucial to translate these endeavors into a concrete mechanism to bring about a lasting peace. The international players most relevant for this purpose – the U.S., E.U., Russia, UN ‘Quartet’, and the members of the Arab League – should wholeheartedly back these initiatives. They should urge both the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority to be guided by the outcomes most of their peoples want. And they should make clear their own willingness to lend all the political, economic and military support needed to help implement a comprehensive peace agreement.

The Israeli and Palestinian peoples, by making clear their belief in the Geneva and People’s Voice initiatives, can help turn the principles embodied in them into reality. You can count on our support in this endeavor.

Martti Ahtisaari
Former President, Finland

José María Figueres Former President, Costa Rica

Fidel V Ramos
Former President, Philippines

Ali Alatas
Former Foreign Minister, Indonesia

Malcolm Fraser
Former Prime Minister, Australia

Jerry John Rawlings
Former President, Ghana

George Alleyne
Former Director, Pan American Health Organization

Hans-Dietrich Genscher
Former Foreign Minister, Germany

Mary Robinson
Former President, Ireland

Oscar Arias Sánchez
Former President, Costa Rica, Nobel Peace Prize 1987

Bronisław Geremek
Former Foreign Minister, Poland

Michel Rocard
Former Prime Minister, France

Lloyd Axworthy
Former Foreign Minister, Canada

Mikhail S Gorbachev
Former President, Soviet Union, Nobel Peace Prize 1990

Nafis Sadik
Former Executive Director, UN Population Fund

Alexander Bessmertnykh
Former Foreign Minister, Soviet Union

I K Gujral
Former Prime Minister, India

Salim Ahmed Salim
Former Prime Minister, Tanzania, and Secretary-General OAU

Carl Bildt
Former Prime Minister, Sweden

Bob Hawke
Former Prime Minister, Australia

Cornelio Sommaruga
Former President, International Committee of the Red Cross

Boutros Boutros-Ghali
Former UN Secretary-General

Bill Hayden
Former Governor-General and Foreign Minister, Australia

Kalevi Sorsa
Former Prime Minister, Finland

Lakhdar Brahimi
Former Foreign Minister, Algeria

Raffi K Hovannisian
Former Foreign Minister, Armenia

Eduardo Stein
Former Foreign Minister, Guatemala

Fernando Henrique Cardoso
Former President, Brazil

F W de Klerk
Former President, South Africa, Nobel Peace Prize 1993

Pär Stenbäck
Former Foreign Minister, Finland

Ingvar Carlsson
Former Prime Minister, Sweden

Wim Kok
Former Prime Minister, Netherlands

Max van der Stoel
Former Foreign Minister, Netherlands

Lord Carrington
Former Foreign and Defence Secretary, UK and NATO Secretary-General

Masahiko Komura
Former Foreign Minister, Japan

Thorvald Stoltenberg
Former Foreign Minister, Norway

Jorge Castañeda
Former Foreign Minister, Mexico

Budimir Lončar
Former Foreign Minister, Yugoslavia

Hanna Suchocka
Former Prime Minister, Poland

Claude Cheysson
Former Foreign Minister, France

Barbara McDougall
Former External Affairs Secretary, Canada

Alex Sceberras Trigona
Former Foreign Minister, Malta

Jacques Delors
Former President, European Commission

Gianni de Michelis
Former Foreign Minister, Italy

George Vassiliou
Former President, Cyprus

Jiří Dienstbier
Former Foreign Minister, Czechoslovakia

Boyko Noev
Former Defence Minister, Bulgaria

Hubert Védrine
Former Foreign Minister, France

Ruth Dreifuss
Former President, Switzerland

Sadako Ogata
Former UN High Commissioner for Refugees

Franz Vranitzky
Former Federal Chancellor, Austria

Uffe Ellemann-Jensen
Former Foreign Minister

Lord Owen
Former Foreign Secretary, UK

Ernesto Zedillo
Former President, Mexico

Gareth Evans
Former Foreign Minister, Australia

Surin Pitsuwan
Former Foreign Minister, Thailand

Mark Eyskens
Former Foreign and Prime Minister, Belgium

Augusto Ramírez-Ocampo
Former Foreign Minister, Colombia

Signatures subsequently received:

Abdou Diouf
Former President of Senegal

Vahit M Halefoğlu
Former Foreign Minister of Turkey

Brussels