Open Letter to Tony Blair  from the Young Men and Women of Palestine

"It is Our Future After All!"

Dear Mr. Blair,

We are the young men and women of Palestine.

We write to you from our  Palestinian home that is  in transition, wanting to seize the moment to co-create a successful Palestinian state.

We are the Future; we wish to participate in shaping our future!

We are young, educated, forward thinking, and globally-minded men and women. We hold advanced degrees in Engineering, Information Technology, Sciences, Law and the Humanities.

We need a partner in the world community who will give us a chance to show our leadership.

We know that you, Mr. Blair, do not subscribe to the perception that all young Palestinians are blinded by ideologies or a limited vision of Palestine.

We are very keen on initiating an international dialogue with an overarching vision and overarching goals. 

We want to lead an accelerated process towards peace, one that guarantees for both Palestinians and Israelis their rights and their future.

We extend our invitation to young Israelis to work with us towards the common good, and to build with us the bridge needed for true peace.

We would like to bring to the world’s attention that a new generation of young Palestinians has emerged and is connected to the world through Google, Yahoo!, Facebook, MySpace, etc.

We would like to bring to the world’s attention that our worldview represents the majority in Palestine, despite the media and the international community’s attention on radical behavior. (For every helpless, angry or misguided Palestinian brother or sister, there are thousands of us who are holding the hands of our fellow Palestinians to forge forward towards a successful Palestine. )

We are ready to serve as a conduit to wide scale change and make positive systemic contributions to our culture, our educational and legal systems, government and social institutions.

We believe in capacity building and empowering Palestinians to move from where they are now to where they need to be.

We can serve as a bridge between Western culture and Arab culture.

We believe in building a Palestinian model for societal development that is culture-appropriate to our Palestinian values and we can deliver the concepts of indigenous democracy in ways that our people can accept and embrace

We can co-lead an international dialogue about Peace. Most importantly our unique contribution will be to translate the outcome of the bi-lateral agreements and accords in a way that our culture can embrace.

We aim to produce positive responses to any accord that focuses on building a healthy Palestinian state. We want to avoid the failures of the the Oslo Accord, where our leaders did not communicate the desired outcome to us and our people. The decisions made unilaterally by a disengaged leadership came as a shock to an unprepared culture that rejected a premature deal.

We are mindful of the breakdown in communication between our leadership and our people, especially with the youth.

We can form that link to translate international decisions into local implementations.

We ask you to deal with new faces and young people. As you interact with our formal leadership, we need you to encourage the inclusion of our positive voices. We will work very well with people in leadership positions whose expertise and strategic thinking are well respected.

We want to be a free Palestine, that is our goal!!

We know that as prerequisites to Palestinian Statehood we need to achieve the following:

• Build healthy institutions for a well functioning governement
• Build capacity in our people to enable them to take Palestine to the 21st century
• Address holistically the psycho-social problems inside the Palestinian communities caused by decades of conflict.
• Build sound economic, educational, judiciary, religious and healthcare systems for a well-functioning society.

We are dedicated to a democratic Palestine and to an accelerated process leading to true democracy.

We are gathering the hearts and minds of Palestinians towards a common goal and shared values: To build Palestine and make it succeed in the 21 st century

We  know that as Palestinians we have a unique opportunity to build bridges, cross over divides, create common purpose and take the leadership role, not just in Palestine but in the entire Middle East, and not just here, but around the world. We want to stand tall, accept the challenge, point the way, challenge others and frame a new Palestine.

WE come from  Ramallah, Nablus, al khalil, Bethlehem, Jenin, Gaza, Jerusalem, Jericho, Beit Sahour, Qalquiliya ….WE ARE PALESTINE

It is Our Future After All .... It is the time to give us a chance.

Sincerely,

Young Integral Palestinian Leaders
July 1, 2007