Arab, Israeli Kids meet in NY
BY DAVID PLANK | Middle East peace negotiations may have turned an important corner today. But it didn’t happen among stuffy old men at a table in Geneva, Paris or Madrid. It happened over hamburgers among fresh-faced boys at a table in New York.
“Ah,” Eva, 13, from Israel, said, pointing at the high-school yearbook picture of a star-to-be on a placemat at Planet Hollywood. “Michelle Pfeiffer.”
Yanya, 12, from Egypt, seated next to him, looked at the picture on the boy’s placemat and shook his head. “No. Sharon Stone. It’s Sharon Stone.”
They were both wrong. It was actually Dolly Parton. They looked at each other and started laughing when they realized that neither knew who is Dolly Parton.
They are in the United States, getting a pep talk from ex-hostage Terry Anderson at the glitzy restaurant, where they and 52 others in their group were joined for lunch by 20 New York City boys from the organization Increase the Peace. Later the 54 youths aged 11 to 14 will spend two weeks at camp in Maine, as part of a new program called “Seeds of Peace.” They are the winners of competitions in Israel, Egypt, Jordan and the Israeli-Occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Organizers hope they have started something that will, in years to come, help bring stability to the children’s war-torn homelands. For now, though, they just want them to have fun.
“I want these young men to have the best time they can possibly have,” said project founder John Wallach. “They are coming from a part of the world where death and destruction are daily realities and where hatred is in the hearts of many of their parents.”
It wasn’t easy getting them here, especially after Israeli incursions into Lebanon in the past few weeks. Wallach said the Egyptian government suddenly pulled the plug on the Egyptian kids’ passports two weeks ago. Only outraged cries from their parents and lots of last-second work by Seeds volunteers saved the day. Security concerns also weigh heavily both in the United States and after they return home. Reporters are not allowed to use any last names.
But the hard part is over, said Wallach, looking happily over a roomful of “enemies” talking, laughing, and playing together. “Two years after peace talks have started, it’s high time that the governments are sent a message that the people can get together,” he said.