The logo of the YaLa-Young Leaders Facebook group.
A Facebook-based group of Middle Eastern youths says that members had their first meeting, bringing young activists from Israel and Arab countries to Germany to promote peace.
Nimrod Ben-Zeev of the YaLa-Young Leaders group says 18 members from Israel, the Palestinian territories, Tunisia, Algeria, Lebanon, Egypt, Sudan, Iraq and Kuwait met in Berlin over the weekend.
Iran – while belonging to the region – is not mentioned as a member of the movement.
Ben-Zeev, an Israeli, said the group was selected from the most active of YaLa's 162,000 Facebook members.
Meetings between Israelis and citizens of Arab nations are rare. Except for Egypt and the Palestinians, none of those represented have diplomatic ties with Israel.
Ben-Zeev said Monday the movement wants to empower Middle Eastern youths to work together to improve their communities. It plans an online university next year.
The conference in Germany is titled the YaLa-Young Leaders Peace and Economic Cooperation Initiative. The movement "focuses on dialogue and engagement as a means to securing a safe, productive, and peaceful region, capitalising on the catalysing power of social networks, media and technology."
The movement calls for a new regional structure where "full diplomatic, consular and economic relations" would exist.
The page sparked a heated exchange following its establishment last year between former New York Times Jerusalem bureau chief Ethan Bronner and Ali Abunimah, co-founder of online Palestinian journal Electronic Intifada.
Abunimah asserted that Bronner's story about the Ya-La group contained "misleading and possibly false" information while entirely disregarding the Boycott Israel movement.
Bronner's article had suggested that "Facebook-driven revolutions" in the Arab world could pave the way for co-existence efforts, claiming that Arab youth were enthusiastic to know their Israeli counterparts. According to Bronner, this was demonstrated by the extent of participation in the group.
Abunimah later posted an article on the Electronic Intifada website, containing the site's correspondence with the New York Times on the issue. He said that the Times had stuck by its article, while refusing to address key questions directed to it by the Electronic Intifada, which also posted a study claiming to prove the exaggerations and false information asserted by Bronner.
The Facebook group can be seen here.
The Electronic Intifada's study can be accessed here.
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