BY JILL DUBE | OTISFIELD Under ordinary circumstances, Edi and Ahmed probably wouldn’t be friends. They probably wouldn’t even know each other.
But now, because of Seeds of Peace, they share a camp cabin and talk about what most teenage boys talk about, such as cars and sports and computers and girls.
Edi Shbitz is an Israeli. Ahmed Saadeh is a Palestinian. Back home, every day, the boys see conflict between the two nationalities. Here at the Seeds of Peace International Camp on the edge of Pleasant Lake, about 30 miles northwest of Brunswick, the two teens instead see Arabs and Israelis laughing and living together.
And learning from one another.
“Before I came to Seeds of Peace, I thought I would see Palestinians throwing rocks at me,” said Edi. “Now they are my friends. The camp gets rid of the stereotypes.”
Since 1993, Seeds of Peace has been bringing together teenagers from war-torn countries, predominantly from Arab countries and from Israel, to build a generation of peacemakers. As Seeds of Peace founder and president John Wallach says, the purpose of the camp is to “put a face on the enemy.”
“This camp is the last, best hope for peace,” said Wallach, an award-winning author and journalist. “This is the only place in the world Arabs and Israelis are together.”
It also is the place where any country in the world engulfed in war can send its next generation to learn about peace.
Past campers, ages 13 to 17, have come from the Middle East, Northern Ireland, Serbia, Northern Africa and this year Cyprus, to live for two weeks alongside their enemy to return home with the message of hope and peace.
“Some people back home are against the camp,” said Ahmed, a tall, freckle-faced strawberry blond, “but I see it as a good camp. The people here love each other.”
At the end of August, Seeds of Peace will have graduated more than 1,000 campers who have learned to deal with conflict peacefully and respect for other cultures and beliefs.
“I don’t always agree with what Ahmed says,” said Edi, a rugged, 15-year-old, “but I respect his opinion because he is my friend.”
“That is what is so great about Seeds of Peace,” Ahmed added, “you can say what you want to say and express yourself.”
For the first time in its six years, the camp invited back previous campers, before the new group of kids arrives at the end of July. Wallach said he wanted to give past campers a “refresher course” to reinforce the peace-keeping tactics they had learned.
“They learned how to disagree with each other; now the challenge is to be negotiators,” said Wallach. “We wanted to give them another dose of inspiration.”
The 140 veteran campers will learn conflict-management skills from professional facilitators every night of their two weeks here. Linda Pierce, the head of facilitators at Seeds of Peace, said art and theater are two of the tactics used to teach kids how to discover and develop their skills.
“We try to raise the children’s consciousness and go beyond the obvious to see the human beings in each other,” said Pierce, a member of the Creative Arts Team in New York City.
Pierce said the former campers have already studied conflict management, so now the staff wants to challenge them.
“They’ve learned how to negotiate and reconcile,” said Pierce. “Now they have to determine where they want to go in the future and what they want to do about it.”
In May, 100 of the camp’s graduates attended the Middle East Youth Summit in Switzerland and drafted a 50-page “Peace Treaty” between Arab nations and Israel.
Some of those who worked on the treaty are here now, and for the next two weeks they and the others will become one “nation” under Seeds of Peace. Last Thursday’s flag-raising ceremony was the final day for the youths to consider themselves part of a separate culture. After the flags from Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Palestine, Tunisia and the United States were raised, the national anthems were sung and the campers united under the Seeds of Peace flag to become one nation striving for an end to conflict.
“It’s emotional, seeing the Palestinian and Israeli flags together and hearing the kids sing each other’s national anthems,” said Jared Fishman, a camp counselor and senior Middle Eastern studies major at the University of Pennsylvania.
Counselors will lead campers in activities such as swimming, arts and crafts, baseball, soccer, archery, drama and boating, to give the participants the opportunity to learn how to coexist and respect each other. “The real bonding happens during the Color Games,” said Jerry Smith, head counselor, referring to the camp’s three-day Olympics. “The nationalities drop to the colors green and blue. The only thing that matters is the team you’re on.”
Campers also work with artist-in-residence Robert Katz to create a lasting memory through art to symbolize the group’s feelings of hope and optimism.
In 1996, “The Peace Wall,” a three-part sculpture representing different stages of human emotion through war, was constructed by wrapping campers in plastic gauze.
Last year, a boat called “Spirit of Peace” was designed to serve as a metaphor for the campers’ journey and their departure from conflict.
Katz said he still is working on this year’s project, and hopes to create a “round table” that will be used during negotiations by the campers.
Beginning this summer, the lawn located to the right of the camp entrance will be made into a sculpture garden with the help of the campers.
Katz, a Hallowell resident, is one of the few Mainers participating in Seeds of Peace. Most of the staff who live in the white cottages along the dirt road in Otisfield are from areas surrounding the two Seeds of Peace branch offices in New York City and Washington, D.C.
Seeds of Peace Executive Director Bobbie Gottschalk said the camp site was chosen because of the beautiful scenery, and the fact that Maine’s climate and terrain are the complete opposite of the Middle East. “It helps to put (the campers) in a new setting to give them a new perspective,” said Gottschalk, a psychiatric social worker from Washington, D.C. “And it’s safe here.”
As one Jordanian camper described it, Seeds of Peace is a place where “hope and love are created in the woods of Maine.”
In order to attend, applicants have to write an essay explaining why they want to be part of the camp and then must pass an interview conducted by officials from their country.
While most parents make a contribution to help pay for their child’s camp experience, most of the tuition comes from $1.2 million raised throughout the year from more than 5,000 private donations to cover the $1,200-per-camper cost. Wallach said the nonprofit camp does not accept government funding.
During the past six years with Seeds of Peace, Wallach has seen positive results from campers he calls “the best and brightest.”
Besides being involved in writing the “Peace Treaty” in May, campers have gone on to excel in college and have inspired the camp to do more every year.
This year, for example, after the second session in August, campers and the staff will pack up their belongings and head for the Middle East. Although they may live in close proximity to each other, most Palestinians and Israeli teens never have seen their counterparts’ homes or ways of life.
“We need to show the world we can make peace,” said a Palestinian camper. “We need to prove that the young generation can make a big difference.”