Breaking the Impasse


Breaking the Impasse is an advocacy group consisting of Israeli and Palestinian business leaders. BTI's aim is to urge the Israeli government and Palestinian Authority leadership to reach a peace agreement based on the two-state solution.
BTI was launched in 2013 under the auspices of the World Economic Forum. The leading members of the group are Palestinian businessman Munib al-Masri and Israeli high-tech entrepreneur Yossi Vardi.
sits down with BTI members on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on January 24, 2014.
BTI has been backed by over 300 Israeli and Palestinian business figures. Of the group's members, around 120 are Palestinians from the West Bank or Jerusalem.

History

Conception in Davos (2012)

The idea of forming a pressure group led by Israeli and Palestinian business figures was conceived at a meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in June 2012.

Launch Press Conference (2013)

Breaking the Impasse was launched at a press conference in the Dead Sea on 26 May 2013. The press conference panel consisted of: Munib al-Masri, Yossi Vardi, Palestinian businessman Samir Huleileh and Riad Kamal, Israeli venture capitalist Yadin Kaufmann, and was chaired by Adrian Monck of the World Economic Forum.
At the launch, Vardi stated:
“We saw 300 of the most influential people... stood tall, and said ‘enough is enough'. This alone sent a clear and distinct tone to the politicians, and I think they will take it into consideration. Maybe we’ll fail… I don’t think that we will fail, but at least we will say that we tried as hard as we could.”
Al-Masri stated:
“It’s not for us to iron out the details. We are worried by the status quo. We want to change the status quo… Now the Israeli and Palestinian side are very honest in their appeal: They want to break the impasse… They want the two sides to negotiate… to push all the parties to engage in real negotiations.”

Advertising campaign in Israel (2014)

In January 2014, BTI members launched a 10-day media campaign in Israel including advertisements in the press and public billboards. The campaign, which costed around $286,000, included the slogans such as “Bibi, only you can” and “A strong country signs an agreement”.

Supporting business figures

Palestinian supporters

Among the Palestinian supporters of BTI are:
Among the Israeli supporters of BTI are: