The People's Voice

The People's Voice (Hebrew: המפקד הלאומי, lit. 'The National Census') is an Israeli-Palestinian civil initiative dedicated to advancing the process of achieving peace between Israelis and the Palestinians. Co-founders Ami Ayalon, former head of the Shin Bet and Sari Nusseibeh signed the initiative on 27 July 2002 and officially launched it at a press conference held in Tel-Aviv on 25 June 2003. Broad outlines and some details of the initiative were known months in advance and had engendered responses from competing proposals.

The key proposals of the initiative are:

• Two states for two peoples.
• Borders based upon the June 4, 1967 lines.
• Jerusalem will be an open city, the capital of two states.
• Palestinian refugees will return only to the Palestinian state.
• Palestine will be demilitarized.

Upon the full implementation of these principles, all claims on both sides and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict will end.

Unlike a number of other proposals, the initiative seeks to resolve the conflict in a single agreement. No phased or interim steps are envisioned.

The initiative seeks to affect the political process by petition, seeking the signatures of enough residents of the area on all sides of the conflict to drive the leaders of the various sides to concluding a peace agreement. The People's Voice website reported on 26 January 2004, 156,000 Israelis and 100,000 Palestinians having signed the initiative. In late 2007 the website went off-line. The Hebrew part went back on-line in 2008, and on 11 October 2008 reported 251,000 Israelis and 160,000 Palestinians having signed.