Dear Friends,
Just a few blocks from our offices, politicians at the United Nations are debating Palestinian statehood and deadlocked negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
Meanwhile, in the Middle East, a new generation of leaders is meeting face-to-face and strengthening the relationships and skills necessary for lasting peace.
This weekend, 76 of our newest Israeli and Palestinian Seeds reunited in Jerusalem to launch a year of robust regional programs. Their peers from Egypt, Jordan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, as well as the United States are doing the same.
As action packed as this summer was—with over 300 Seeds participating in Camp, Seas of Peace, People Power in Jordan and the American Seeds visit to the Middle East—our staff in the Middle East and South Asia are planning an even busier fall!
Seeds will be meeting regularly for continued dialogue, leadership training, community development, and professional skill-building. Older Seeds will be preparing to lead dialogue sessions with fellow Israeli and Palestinians through our year-long facilitation and conflict transformation course in Jerusalem that will create a rare and critical facility for Israelis and Palestinians to engage in constructive conversations.
The leadership and engagement of our Seeds will have a profound and much needed impact on the communities that surround them.
Today we watch closely as regional tensions increase surrounding the events at the UN. Whatever the outcome of these events, our Seeds will continue to have the opportunity to engage with each other in ways their leaders cannot. So today, we take a moment to remind our courageous Seeds of the importance of their work together.
Thank you for providing our Seeds with the opportunity to build the foundation of a peaceful future.
Leslie Adelson Lewin
Executive Director
PS: GREAT NEWS! Today, International Peace Day, we are excited to announce that Seeds of Peace has been selected by Chase Community Giving as one of only 25 participants in their Fall 2011 online voting competition. Stay tuned for how you can help secure up to $1M for our programs! (We’ll need all the support we can get—you can start by ‘liking’ us on Facebook.)
