Among the thousands of witnesses to Monday’s ceremony were members of the group to whom the speakers said their efforts were devoted: the children of the region.
About 50 Palestinian and Israeli children who spent part of the summer at a Maine camp delayed their return home to attend.
The camp was sponsored by “Seeds of Peace,” a private group that brings children of the region together.
The kids, who sat with Chelsea Clinton, presented President Clinton, PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin with blue shirts reading “Seeds of Peace.”
During the ceremony, Clinton said the leaders owed it to the children to “let them know the season of peace.”
Haran, an Israeli boy from Jerusalem, said the pact reduced his chance of facing his new friends in battle.
“There won’t be any more dead Palestinians or dead soldiers,” he said.
Haran, 13, said he and his friends are children of one land and “exactly the same … They’re not different. They’re kids the same age.”