Speech at People-to-People seminar in Ramallah

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Dear Friends,

We believe in this vision:

Grass-root activists for peace. We want to learn more about your activities and achievements.

Norway has supported the People-to-People Program since the Israeli and the Palestinian authorities established it in 1995.

Ideas from that time have materialized into many real, concrete and valuable projects. Hundreds of able and energetic facilitators are engaged. You create activities of mutual interest and benefit for people on both sides.

The vision the two Parties had in 1995 is still valid: Peace cannot be made solely between politicians. People must build peace among themselves. People must establish the new ways of relating to each other.

The Israeli and the Palestinian peoples will remain neighbours. They share a common future. They must solve their common challenges through cooperation.

The descendents of the children of Abraham will overcome the conflicts between them and will find ways of living together, sharing and respecting each other as the cousins they are.

Norway takes pride in supporting the People-to-People Program. We believe in the way that the projects have been established and are implemented, that is, as true partnership defined by the participants themselves. We support the idea that the Program must strengthen the civil society and the peoples' organizations on both sides.

We encourage the authorities on both sides to facilitate their efforts to meet, even if it is difficult at times.

Therefore, we have launched a call for new projects to be funded during 1999, above and beyond the projects that you already are implementing. We are happy that our partner on the program, the Charles R. Bronfman Foundation, has decided to provide an equal sum of money from the Israeli side.

Together, we will support another 25 projects. We hope to launch some bigger projects with the Israeli and the Palestinian authorities. Norway will continue to provide the program with a secretariat. We will continue to provide resources to organize meetings within the people-to-people network. A lot has happened since 1995. Not everything happened the way we anticipated or hoped. The peace process has been through troubled times.

Some projects within the People-to-People Program have encountered difficulties and challenges. I have learned, however, that the overwhelming majority has found ways of overcoming the obstacles and has made great successes.

Therefore, I have come here to thank all of you for your pioneering spirit. I thank you for your incessant efforts. I thank you for your stubborn will to achieve what you planned.

I greet you on behalf of all your friends in Norway that hope and pray for peace in this region.

When we learn that schoolchildren send photos to each other, and that pupils from both sides meet, - then you give us hope. When we learn that artists from both sides make cultural events together, - we are happy that it can be done. When we learn about interfaith groups, about farmers, about youth leaders, about social workers, about childbirth educators and other professionals, and many, many others that meet, - we feel that there is movement and progress.

I wish you an interesting and stimulating workshop here in Ramallah. I thank the two planning groups, The Palestinian Center for Peace and the CRB Foundation, as well as the Norwegian Secretariat, for their excellent work on the Program.

Let us hope that the good spirit and the achievements of this program will soon trigger progress in the negotiations and stimulate the politicians to achieve a just and lasting peace.

Thank you