BY EMILY MITCHELL | MAINE Hatred was in the hearts of many of the 107 children on August 22, as they got off the buses to begin their stay at summer camp in these quiet New England woods.
The youngsters, ages 13 to 16, were from Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Morocco, Egypt and the former Yugoslavia. Never before had they met children their own age from the opposite sides of the conflict in their countries. But two weeks later, amid hugs and tears of farewell, the enemies had become friends.
The youths were brought together by Seeds of Peace, a program now in its third year that help teens who have grown up surrounded by suspicion and enmity to create bonds of trust and respect with supposed adversaries supposed adversaries. Seeds of Peace founder John Wallach believes that listening to the person other side is the first step toward lasting peace.
Two young men, Israeli Yehoyada Mandeel and Palestinian Laith Arafeh, both 16, who attended the camp in 1993, returned this year as junior counselors. They had eyed each other warily that first summer, but now they visit across the 30 km that separate their homes and talk by phone regularly.
After the 1994 massacre in Hebron by an Israeli settler, Yehoyada called his friend to tell him, “This is not what we believe in. We are grieving.”
And when a terrorist bombing takes place in Israel, Laith phones to say, “I still support the peace process. I’m sorry for those who have died.”
At Camp Androscoggin, a cluster of wooden buildings on a Maine lake, the youngest canoed, swam, and played team sports.
Two 14-year-olds who were worlds apart discovered how much they have in common. Dana Dishon lives in Jerusalem, and her father fought in the 1967 Six-Day War. Haneen Nashashibi is from East Jerusalem, and her grandfather was a former Arab mayor of Jerusalem.
Standing with her pal under a shady tree, Dana said, “I hope that when we get back home, we can keep this feeling.”
Said Haneen: “Dana is like a sister.”
After dinner each evening, the hard work of the camp took place. Guided by adult supervisors, groups of a dozen or so met for two-hour “coexistence sessions.”
The discussions centered not on politics, but on the children’s thoughts and emotions. Angry words would sometimes cut through the still night. The past intruded too, and the children spoke about the death of relatives and friends or the loss of a home.
A Moroccan girl, her voice shaking, urged, “If you want real peace, you must forget everything.”
Even in this peaceful place, guns and bombs were never far from the thoughts of the seven youngsters from Bosnia and Serbia. On the morning they learned of the shelling in Sarajevo, their counselor, a Bosnian college student in the U.S., gathered them in a secluded spot to reassure them that they could still be friends.
Said Selma Hadzisalihovic, 14, who had lived in Sarajevo until three years ago: “I can never forget this feeling. In the name of God and love and all people, stop this war.”
SIDEBAR
For years, John Wallach covered the Middle East as a journalist, a witness to its turmoil and bloodshed. But with the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, “a light went off in my head,” he says, telling him “that the thing to do was bring together the next generation of Arabs and Israelis and send a signal that if they could make peace, the older generation should be able to make peace.”
At age 50, he set up Seeds of Peace, a summer-camp program in the quiet Maine woods, and persuaded Palestinian, Egyptian and Israeli leaders to send their nations teenagers to live, work and talk together about shared problems. So far, 800 kids have gone to the camp, and many stay in touch after returning home.
Says Wallach: “I’m happier than I’ve ever been in my life. I’m using all my contacts and abilities to get the world to focus on what we are doing, because it shows that peace is possible at the darkest moments of all.”