 Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Adrian Monk, and I'll be moderating this press conference this afternoon here at the Dead Sea. It's a great pleasure to introduce Mr. Yerin Kaufman, Mr. Yossi Vadi, Mr. Muni Mazri, Mr. Samir Hulile and Mr. Riyad Kamal. The forum has been hosting business conversations for a very long time, but in this case it's been a privilege to host two communities. This is their press conference and I'd like to begin with opening statements from Mr. Vadi and first Mr. Mazri. Thank you, Munib. Thank you, Adrian. First of all, it's really a pleasure to be here on this circumstances. There is no need to go into the agony and the issues between the Israel and the Palestinian people. This thing is going on for 45 years. As I said, and as I will say, I celebrated half a year ago my 70th birthday. 1967, when all of this began, I was 25 years old. It's 45 years now. Most of my life, I lived in the shadow of this conflict. My three kids were born into this conflict and some happened with many, many Palestinian people and unfortunately this situation is going on and on and on and the biggest risk that we begin to treat it like a chronic disease. We begin to lose hope that it can be solved and though everybody agrees that it should be solved, I met with this fine gentleman for many times through the recent years in international gathering every time we met. He caught me by the hand and he told me the two of us are cursed. We say the two of us are cursed because we are not doing enough to resolve it and if we are not putting our effort and try to resolve it, then the two of us are cursed. He frightened me. Now, all of us understand that the end of the conflict can be defined only by the leaders. Civic society whom we are representing here can come with gazillion peace initiatives, but it's up to the leaders to sit and to find the painful and courageous compromises which are needed in order to bring peace and dignity and security and justice and prosperity into this region. So, Munib and I decided to try and to assemble relevant portions of the civic society which will focus on two things and two things only. We would like to support, to encourage, to trigger the leaders to go into resolving this conflict while we are saying to them that this is their responsibility to forge and to define the solution to it and we would like to provide a very strong and clear voice of the civic society that we are supporting it because we saw time and again when the difficult processes begin, you hear the voice of the extremists, but the majority is always silent and we believe that most of the people, Israelis and Palestinians, want to get an end to the conflict and are willing to pay the price which it will take. It's not going to be easy, but we believe this is doable. During the last one year, we worked together diligently, we had over 20 meetings, we mobilized a lot of goodwill. We were blessed that the World Economic Forum continued its long time commitment to embed this region and they provided us with a neutral and honest platform to bring the people we were able to gather hundreds of business, people, civic society leaders from the left, from the right, religious, secular, people with different persuasions and opinions, all of them are united by their year to state solution and today we are announcing the existence of this group and we make a commitment and a pledge to continue to find the solution for the two people who are living between the Jordan and the Mediterranean. Enough is enough, too much tears were shed by mothers. There is no, almost no family, Israeli family or Palestinian family which didn't suffer. You may call us naive, you may ask us what is new, you may have left hope, but we are cursed, we are going to continue to pursue it. You may be skeptical, as I said, everybody has the right to be sceptic, nobody has the right to be scenic. We have in our group the best and the bright of Israeli leaders. They came here not to do business, not to talk about cooperation. They came to promote the two state solution to get the two people into some kind of modality that they can work together and then prosperity and justice and dignity and security will come. We are talking to you, this is not an easy task. We didn't come to a press conference, we come to beg, to ask, to plead, to get your support for this effort. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mazrin. I'm very happy to have all of you. Thank you for coming. It's a great day for Palestine. I think I'm not going to repeat what my friend UC Vardy said, but I will continue and try to continue on. First of all, we are here to break the crowd. We have something called negotiations, and we will try to break the crowd that is happening in the negotiations. We said that the break of the crowd is an emergency for the movement of the leadership, to break the negotiations that are agreed upon between the political leaders and the leaders of the two states. These negotiations are the international law, the way out, and the Arabic language, because they are important. And there is also no relation to the language in any economic way. The language of the group is a language that is used by the leaders of the people and the workers of Palestine and Israel. This will translate a group of business people from Palestine and Israel. They put their heads together and said, we've been silent for a long time. They call us a silent majority. We are not silent anymore. We are going to say our opinion in order to have a better life for us, for our grandchildren in the future. It's an honest initiative. It's a very honest initiative that it's really what you hear, what you're going to have. There's not no ambiguity in it. We want to hear the sound of freedom from Palestine for the first time. Enough is enough. We want to break the barriers and move forward. We want to say that we have Palestinians, we have international refugees, we have our limits, we have the next century, the next century, and this justice and respect for it will be decided in 1994 in the Arabian Peninsula. All this, all this, we agreed with Israel, our leader, our leader agreed on this with the Israelis. So we hope that with this, these fundamental things that I mentioned, we have to return to the role of the refugees and from them, we can start a new life. We are not refugees at all, but we say that this is our opinion on the matter and the reality is that the brother, we are the brother of Omar, the head of the political movement and he met in Oslo in 1922, and he said that he wants the security of the refugees and we want to apply the security of the refugees and the brother of the president, Abou Mazen, has made a mistake and Abou Mazen says that I say that there is no need for refugees except if there is a stop to asylum and a period of time for refugees. And we have nothing to do with this, but we want politicians to be together so as they need to sit down together, the politicians, to iron all these details. It's not for us, but our worries is because of the status quo. We don't want the status quo, we don't want it to stay, we want to live the status quo and have the two parties engaged in a very useful dialogue. We've been trying to break this impasse for the past year. Now we hope that we have arrived. I think the Israeli side and the Palestinian side are very honest in their appeal because they want to break the impasse, they want to break the status quo and they want to have the two parties to sit down and negotiate a useful negotiations. We think the Palestinian side, we have started negotiations since 1999, we reached to the final stages and from 1999 till now we did not move, we want to move in accordance with the main responsibilities of the Palestinian destiny and to agree with the Israeli government because the organization was involved in Israel and there were many protocols and we want to return it and to push all the parties to engage in real negotiations. We don't have anything, we didn't have anyavy negotiations until we lived in a cozy environment and we didn't need a social service We didn't need a social assistance and we didn't need personal assistance or the future swap We don't have any personal gains you see in his party or us. We have no personal incentive except the care for the national project, for our national project. We, on our side, want a national project according to what the last president of Mazin wrote. According to what he wrote, the organization is free. But this is not what we want. We want to work together. We want to give you a true story. So don't listen to any issues. Don't think about issues. What you hear, what you hear, what you see, and what's in it. We don't have anything hidden. We don't have anything to say to the political side. Until now, we haven't seen any movement from any side. And this is what the last president of Mazin left with his political power. But what we say is that there are political clashes on it. Thank you very much. We are very fortunate to be with this group. I have all the trust in this group, all the trust. Can I get a sense in the room of questions? We have about 10 minutes for questions. So we have some microphones. Can we start at the front? Lady at the front. John, on the side, and we'll work backwards as quickly as possible. Can you state your name and your news organization? I'm from the Jerusalem Post. You said you wanted to trigger the leaders and the conflicts. And I'm wondering if you could give us specific details about what your plan will do. You've outlined the problem, but not the details. David, can we? Maybe trigger is too strong. We want to support the leaders. I don't think we have to trigger them. They know the issues. I'm happy to tell you that a group of us, which represent all the different views in the, not all maybe, but most of the different views in the Israel society, met with Prime Minister Netanyahu on Thursday on the eve of going here. We had a very constructive, long and positive and candid meeting with him. And he gave his welcome to this initiative. And I don't think that we have to trigger it. I think it is there. What we have to do, we have to provide the politicians with a feeling that the biggest or the greatest part of Israel is supporting of these negotiations because as we know, the negotiations are not going to be easy. So we are there to encourage, to support, to express our view and that we want to, that our voice will be heard. Yadin, do you want to add something? Let's say that it's important to understand that this group represents roughly 300 of the leading business people on both sides. And this is the first time that such a group has come together, built relationships of trust and understanding and is trying to use its experience in getting things done and doing business to help the leaders as they move towards reaching a negotiated solution. We're hopeful that with a good will on both sides, the leaders can resolve all the thorny issues that undoubtedly still need to be resolved. Can we take David and then gentlemen at the back? We'll take a couple together if we may, just to keep... Just some specifics. David Horowitz from The Times of Israel. You represent a great weight of business leverage, potentially. I assume, I don't know, maybe you can give us a figure of what percentage of the Israeli and Palestinian business world you represent. That gives you leverage and you don't want us to be cynical and that's what we do for a living, but we'll try not to. How are you going to bring that leverage to bear? You're giving a press conference, you're expressing hope, but people need to be pressed, otherwise they don't tend to move. Okay, and can we take the gentleman behind? Hi, my name is Hany Hazem, I'm from the Jordan Times. This morning, the president of Israel, Shimon Peries, gave a statement and he talked about the two-state solution. Soon after the statement, the Israeli government criticized him for saying that. And then Saiba Orekat was asked also about the initiative and he said, I know nothing about this initiative, we're not here to launch any initiatives. So with all due respect to what you just said, how can you progress and convince the leaders if they are already criticizing any initiatives or the statements that had been just made? Okay, and the gentleman just at the back? Yeah. Just quickly asking Mr. Masri, he touched upon the economic peace. I mean Israel has been promoting economic peace for a few months now. Do you think it's a trick to perpetuate the occupation? How can you put this work in the absence of a political settlement that ends the conflict? Okay. This is a political settlement that is excellent. We want a two-state solution, as the Palestinian leadership and the Tahrir regime have said in their main decisions, two-state solution at the age of 67 and the capital of the two-state solution, Palestinian and Israeli. And a fair solution, as the Arab countries have said, is a fair and acceptable solution according to the decision of 194 of the UN. In addition to the responsibilities that are present in the Tahrir regime. We don't have anything to say to you. We don't have anything to add to it other than that we convinced the leaders that there is something called moral. There is an occupation and there is no moral work. We know that we are completely connected with the Israeli people. That's the way it is. We don't have anything to say other than that. Thank you. Can I add to that response, which I didn't fully understand, but in any case I did understand the question. Breaking the impasse is not about trying to create economic peace. We don't believe that economic peace is possible. We don't believe that business alone will bring peace. Peace requires the politicians to act. And we're here to send a message to the politicians that we believe it's urgent that they act to bring a two-state solution under terms that will be agreed between the leaders. We're not here to tell them what those terms are. At the same time, we do believe, I think I speak for everyone, that once there is peace, the potential for our two peoples and societies to work together is tremendous. And that extends to social, it extends to economic development of our two societies and of the region generally, whether it's in tourism, whether it's in information technology, whether it's in agriculture, whether it's in energy. So I think there is tremendous potential in working together, but we understand that that potential will be realized once our leaders bring us peace. Peace. Since we have started working on this, since June last year, 2012, we have had conducted different meetings with political leadership in both sides. Together we have met President Peres, they have met Netanyahu, we have met Abu Mazen, you just say your name because they're... Sameer Khlele. And we have met together congresspeople, we have met Secretary Kerry. So basically we have conducted a lot of meetings. In particular I have to say that the document that we have concluded for today was discussed at least 20 times, at least 20 times within the Palestinian leadership side with Dr. Eriqat and with others. So we understand that this is not a political initiative for the leadership. We understand that this is not their initiative, it's our initiative. It's private initiative. So we don't necessarily wait for somebody to say I support. All what we are saying is that we have done that in full coordination with the leadership. We know exactly the limitation, we know the sensitivities, and we have done that properly. And the call that we are talking about speaks about just the following. You have to understand, we speak about the two-state solution. We speak about the final status issues. We need to end the conflict. We don't speak out managing the conflict. We don't speak about any cooperation. We particularly speak in vocally that only a political solution will open up for any economic cooperation between the two sides. It's written in the document. So we understand your concerns and we are exactly in full compliance to your concerns. However, this is our initiative together and it has nothing to do with any leadership in any of the sides, but it's done in full coordination. Thank you. I just answered Mr. Hovitz's first question. How this community will use its cloud, its influence? I don't know what to use. Marshall McLuhan said 40 years ago that the medium is the message. You as a journalist and editor, I'm sure you're familiar with it. I think what we saw today, it's pretty you were not able to be at the ballroom in the moving peak. We can paraphrase on this thing and say the meeting is the message. We saw 300 of the most influential people which contribute to the economy of Israel and other countries in a way which is hard to replicate and same with the Palestinians coming and spending a joint day in trying to think what we should do. All kinds of ideas. I don't want to go now into the details, but I'm suggesting that the fact that these people stood up tall and said enough is enough. We want to see what we can do in order to support the ending of the conflict. I think this thing alone sent a very clear and distilled tone to the politicians and I think they will take into consideration to the gentleman from Jordan. Israel is a very democratic country, as you know, and it's being it's being characterized by the fact that in Israel we have 7.8 million prime ministers, as Ben Gurion used to say, and everybody is entitled to his view and as you know, Israelis are not very shy expressing their view and everybody has a view. At the end of the day, there is somebody who sits at the driver's seat and he takes a painful decision. It happened with Beggin and Egypt. It happened with Rabin and Jordan. It happened to a certain extent with the Palestinians. And the time we believe and I believe that these leaders also believe that we have to find somehow to put an end to it what we are saying we are going to support you. We want it. We will support you and we will mobilize other people, maybe some of the people here in the room who will add their voice to this thing. Simea, can I bring in? Just in Arabic. We are not allowed to say this. We are aiming to form a lobby on the driver's seat in order to return to the negotiations. The negotiations are in vain. The negotiations do not lead to quick management but the negotiations lead to a quick solution. It is not just the solution of the two countries but also the solution of other issues according to the Palestinian-Israeli agreements. It is the agreement of the international law and the way to the end. Okay. We see we are running right out of time. We can probably take some very brief questions. Start over there, then that gentleman over there, the gentleman behind. Josh Mitnick with the Wall Street Journal. Can you share with us some of the names, some of the businessmen, women who are part of this initiative? We will certainly be sharing that in a press release at the end of this press conference. Can I take just the two gentlemen over there? Yes, thank you. My name is Talata. I am from Palestine. Actually, I would like to ask what is the really new of such initiative? This is my first question. Secondly, is it possible to see the Israeli private sector pressuring on their government at the same time the Israeli private sector exporting billions of dollars to Palestinians every year? The Israeli private sector investing and hundreds of industrial zones, industrial settlements in West Bank. Is it possible? Can we imagine that the private sector will make the pressure to the Israeli government to solve the question? Thirdly, please, if the leaders are not part of this. So what for? Thank you. Okay, so thank you for that. And gentlemen behind. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. We're running a little bit out of time. I'm afraid, folks. Can you? Okay. Thank you. Gentlemen, gentlemen, just in the middle then. Yes. I have a question to Mr. Vardy. Is this initiative just for the Palestinian businessman? Do you have a relation like this initiative with Arab businessmen, especially after the Israeli news that there is a representative in one of the Gulf Arab countries? Thank you. No, this initiative was initiated by Munib and myself and we are dealing with the conflict between the two people. We think this is a big enough issue so we are not trying to expand the role. I yearn and pray and hope for the day that we will be able to have very good relations with everybody. But I think if we are able to do a little contribution to this one, then I am happy enough for the rest of my life. This is enough for me. Then I will leave the rest to some other people. I must say that I don't know how to convey to you how sincere is this yearning, how much everybody wants. We got the best people left, their companies and came here today. They started at five o'clock in the morning. They came here just to show their identification. You ask for a name, Mr. Wall Street Journal. You will get it in the press release. But we should have here. Unfortunately, we lost him on the way to the hotels. Mr. Shmuel Mouli-Eden, who is the Israeli president of Intel. Intel employs in Israel 8,700 people. He came tall and standing and said, I'm here. I think this is very important. I want to add my voice. We have tens of the best and the brightest companies. It's so pretty, Mimi, that we lost him. As I said, I can understand the skepticism, because 45 years passed and we didn't do much. We have done something, but we didn't do much. But I think that cynicism has no place in this area. And I'm saying again, we need your help. We think you owe it to yourself and to the Palestinian and Israeli people to come and help us in this initiative. This is very important. Maybe we will fail. Maybe we will fail, but at least I don't think so. I am quite optimistic, but if we fail, we at least will say that we tried as hard as we could. And every week we have another Israeli and Palestinian and international people. We have a very impressive group of international people who are joining this initiative. Just time for one last remark. I just want to add one word to the question. And Mr. Kamalia. As a Palestinian from the diaspora, I found in this initiative under the Wef Umbrella a way to voice my own personal opinion to express and say that enough is enough of this status code that is not taking us anywhere. And I found that in this initiative, without interfering, without actually getting into the details of what the negotiations are going to be like, just the fact that we Palestinians in the diaspora are urging the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli government to sit and negotiate enough is enough. We've now reached the point where we are sitting on a volcano that is going to erupt and the situation is going to get worse for the sake of our children and our grandchildren and in order to help us in the diaspora to come and invest and participate in bringing a better life for our people in the area that they should sit together and do something about getting a peace concluded between the two nations once and for all. Enough is enough. I'm going to just bring in... I'm a Palestinian from abroad. I've lived a great life abroad and I respect the Palestinian people for the future of our children and grandchildren. Enough is enough. This is the best life we've ever lived in the last 60 years. I just want to call on you to close before I do. I just want to point out that the people involved in today's talks will be in the plenary hall for the breaking the MPASS session. So that session will be broadcast live, there's a chance to see who's been involved in these discussions and they'll be there for that session at the end. But Mr. Calvin. There was a question about what's new about this initiative and indeed there have been other initiatives. I just wanted to add a couple of quick comments. First of all, this is the first time that you have today already 300 of the leading business people, the largest employers in Palestine and Israel, whose companies employ tens of thousands of people. It's the first time that they're coming together to raise their voice about the importance and the urgency of reaching a two-state solution and having the leaders do that as quickly as possible. Secondly, we need to make clear and I think this is one thing that's unique about the group. We are not promoting a specific agreement. We haven't laid out any terms of how the agreement will look. We're leaving that to the elected leaders on both sides. We want to encourage them, we want to support them, but it's not our role to dictate the or to lay out the terms of the agreement. Finally, we have the backing of the World Economic Forum, which is an extremely important international organization. I believe this is the first time it's lent its name to an initiative aimed at addressing the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and we believe that that can be a tremendous source of support as we go forward to us and to our leaders. Thank you very much. I'm going to have to deliver these gentlemen to an appointment that they need to keep. So without further ado, there'll be a chance, I'm sure, as things continue for further questions. Thank you.