Events in 2011 have shown that the will of the people can bring about political change. The Geneva Initiative, which is the joint-product of Israeli and Palestinian civil societies, remains a concrete and realistic proposal for a peace settlement in the Middle East. 

Eight years after the launching of the Geneva Initiative on 1 December 2003, Micheline Calmy-Rey, president of the Swiss Confederation and head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA), looks to the support of a new generation to advance peace in the Middle East: Geneva Initiative 2.0. 

Organized by the FDFA, the public Conference entitled Geneva Initiative 2.0 was held on 22 November 2011 at Geneva University. It presented a review of the achievements realized by the Geneva Initiative since it was launched in 2003 and analyzed the potential of this agreement proposal in the light of the upheavals that shook the Near and Middle East in 2011. 

A large number of representatives from Israeli and Palestinian civil society participated in the Conference. Among the speakers at the Conference were French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy and Hossam Zaki, adviser to the Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Address of welcome
Jean-Dominique Vassalli, Rector of the University of Geneva

The Geneva Initiative in a nutshell
A short introduction (movie)

Geneva Initiative 2.0 
Micheline Calmy-Rey, President of the Confederation  
 Speech (fr)

A young Palestinian's perspective 
Tami Rafidi 

An old conflict in a new context – the Arab Spring and its impact on Israelis and Palestinians
Bernard-Henri Lévy, French philosopher, writer, and journalist 

A young Israeli's perspective 
Vicki Idzinski

The Arab initiative for peace and the Geneva Initiative – together towards a solution
Hossam Zaki, Senior Advisor to the Foreign Minister of Egypt on Middle East Affairs 

The Geneva Initiative on the road
A short history (presentation) 

Enlarging civil society support for a two-state solution 
Qaddoura Fares, Former Palestinian Minister and Head of the Palestinian Prisoners' Club
Yitzhak Vaknin, Deputy Speaker of the Knesset and Chairman of the Ethics Committee

Panel: Towards a two-state solution - What role for the civil society? 
Yasser Abed Rabbo, Secretary General of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Executive Committee, Head of the Palestinian Peace Coalition
Yossi Beilin, Former Member of Knesset and Minister of Justice, former Chairman of the Meretz party
Qaddoura Fares
Bernard-Henri Lévy
Yitzhak Vaknin 
Hossam Zaki

Followed by a Q&A session with the public

Moderation: Jean-Philippe Rapp