MEPEACE - mepeace.org

MEPEACE 

http://www.mepeace.org/

Community of peacemakers interacting, informing and inspiring Middle East peace

MEPEACE is a non-profit organization which aims to foster a growing community of peacemakers. Our peacemakers, from 175 countries, are committed to realizing peace in the Middle East. Our community is active online and on the ground. Online, our web platform enables individuals and organizations to share and find information. The Israeli media titled us “Facebook of Peace” (Ha’aretz, March ’08). On the ground, we create community-building encounters, provide activist leadership training, and offer technology consulting to other peace organizations. 

NEED 

The Middle East and its inhabitants are trapped in endless cycles of violence. The people of the region are exhausted, frustrated and lacking hope. Around the world, millions more feel personally invested in the region. Tim and time again, polls in Israel and Palestine indicate that people want peace. The will of the people is not being sufficiently garnered to change the situation on the ground.

Hundreds of peace organizations exist but many struggle to elicit active involvement of the silent majority which wants peace. MEPEACE recognizes an opportunity and provides platforms for interaction, information and inspiration to harness the potential of people and organizations the region and beyond to galvanize their collective will for peace. 

MEPEACE offers several peacemaking platforms. On the web platform, individuals express themselves and communicate with each other through photos, videos and text. Communication is enabled in chat rooms, and through comment walls and private messaging, and in more than 1,000 forum discussions. Upon joining us one receives a page online with a personal profile, blog, comment wall and private inbox. Personal pages automatically feature the individual’s discussions, photos, videos and songs.

On the ground, our Peace Cafés enable Palestinians, Israelis and Internationals to meet in settings which encourage dialogue, friendships and inspiration. Sometimes the encounters are not easy. At the beginning of 2009, we brought Palestinians and Israelis together while a war raged in Gaza. Brave peacemakers overcame checkpoints, barriers and personal fear to share a more hopeful vision for peace. We also participate in international peace conferences and create our own, such as our “Making Things Possible” meeting in Amman, Jordan.

The organization is currently developing an internet leadership program (ILP) to train its activists. The program will distinguish itself with online training supplemented with meetings on the ground. We will train activists lead teams that will leverage the internet for peace.

GOALS 

• Create platforms for peacemakers to meet, connect, network and collaborate for peace
• Centralize information, guidance and direction on organizations and activists
• Invite and inspire the unaffiliated to become active
• Develop peace-oriented leadership in Israel, Palestine and beyond
• Build a critical mass of moderates that will overcome extremism and mobilize to support politicians when they make difficult decisions for peace.

MEPEACE is supporting a bottom-up effort utilizing new technologies to provide a global solution for Middle East peace. We are building a grassroots movement with cutting-edge social networking technology. We aim to offer a global solution by empowering Jews and Muslims all over the world.

More than 1,500 peacemakers have joined online, in Israeli and Palestine, as well as the US, UK, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Iran. Our web platform has been accessed in more than 6,000 cities and 175 countries. In 2008 alone we received more than 100,000 visits. 

2009 OBJECTIVES

Online: Grow our community. Reach 10,000 new peacemakers, and 100,000 page visits per month.

On the ground: Host an event every month. Offer bi-monthly peace cafés.

Leadership program: Run two Internet Leadership Programs in 2009. Train leaders to lead our community’s activists and lead initiatives of their own.

Organization development: Build the structural and resources capacity of the organization to manage the swiftly growing community and its activity. Open offices in Palestine, New York and London.

Tech consulting for peace NGO’s: Establish the organization as the premier player in the niche of using technology for Middle East peace. Offer technology services for six other organizations.

Partnership programs: Initiate new partnership projects to reach out to the media, other organizations, and politicians in Israel and the Middle East at large.

I was born in New York in 1976, grew up in Israel and in California. A lot of time in Yeshiva. My views used to be right wing. When I was twenty I met a Palestinian for the first time. We were students at the London School of Economics. I decided to learn about the conflict. I thought I knew a lot until I arrived in Israel in 2004. I was stunned. I knew little. I am learning a little more every day and you teach me a great deal on this platform.

Three critical events within one year inspired me to create mepeace.org.

The first event: during the second war in Lebanon, August 2006. The war raged on and I felt frustrated and powerless. Finally weekend, I demonstrated against the war. The following day, my friend's brother was killed in Lebanon. At his funeral, I felt disconnected. Out of place. I knew I needed to do something for peace in the region.

The second event: in a Tel Aviv coffee shop, December 2006. Active in a number of different peace organizations, I wanted to create a community for peace activists. I invited my friends to brainstorm how. My friends said gathering socially would not work. So I took my idea online online. One week later I registered mepeace.org.

The third event: France, July 2007. Participating in a conference of organizations working for nonviolence in the Middle East, I was inspired by a young Palestinian. He told me I was the first Israeli he met. I decided then that mepeace.org would be a platform open to anyone interested in Middle East peace.

Eyal Raviv
Founder - MEPEACE
Email: eyalpeace@gmail.com | Facebook: facebook.com/raviv | Telephone: +972-(0)52-688-2828