Breaking the Impasse

BTI's aim is to urge the Israeli government and Palestinian Authority leadership to reach a peace agreement based on the two-state solution.

[1] The leading members of the group are Palestinian businessman Munib al-Masri and Israeli high-tech entrepreneur Yossi Vardi.

[4] 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.

The press conference panel consisted of: Munib al-Masri, Yossi Vardi, Palestinian businessman Samir Huleileh (CEO of Padico Holdings) and Riad Kamal (then Vice-Chairman, Arabtec Holding), Israeli venture capitalist Yadin Kaufmann (Founding Partner, Sadara Ventures), and was chaired by Adrian Monck of the World Economic Forum.

We want to change the status quo… Now the Israeli and Palestinian side [of the initiative] 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.”[1]In January 2014, BTI sponsored a 10-day media campaign in Israel costing around $286,000 that included advertisements and public billboards supporting direct negotiations and calling to preserve Israel's character as Jewish and democratic.