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A Bit Dazed, a Bit Dazzled, The Peacemakers Celebrate
The Washington Post

Sep 14, 1993 / No Comments

BY MARY ANN FRENCH AND ROXANNE ROBERTS | Salaam and shalom. How simply similar. Likewise the guttural consonants punctuating the Hebrew and Arabic patter that puffed around the room last night at the Hotel Washington.

The people looked stunned, as if not yet at ease with this peace they were making. But they were trying mightily. Four hundred and some of them, current and former big shots of Arab American and Jewish American organizations, many of whom were in the same room for the first time. And now, having made it through an electronic security sweep, here they were breaking bread together and raising toasts. Each side brought a folk singer to sing on the little stage in tones haunted by the same sources, evoking romantic glimpses into joined hands and broke into that standard of the American civil rights struggle, “We Shall Overcome.”

There was something nagging, all night, that had to do with context. Or was it content? At any rate, they kept trying to explain it. And it was as if they were sleepwalking, clumsily feeling their way through new terrain: Arabs and Jews at the Hotel Washington, Americans and Israelis at the Israeli Embassy, and Bill Clinton, George Bush, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter at a “presidents” dinner at the White House.

“This is not a cease-fire, this is not an administrative agreement,” Nabeel Shaath, the high-level adviser to Yasser Arafat, called out to those crowded around him at the hotel. “This is not just in the paper … No shenanigans … This is a historical conciliation of two people on the same land.”

It’s a “new existentialism” and the end of Israelis “trading on victimhood,” said Henry Siegman, executive director of the American Jewish Congress. Israelis, he said, are “beginning to see things in terms of human faces …”

Does that mean a separate state for Palestinians may be in the offing? Reporters asked Gad Yaacobi, Israeli ambassador to the United Nations.

“That was not concluded,” he replied curtly before rushing off to another engagement. On the subject of Jerusalem, he had no problem saying it would stay “under our sovereignty forever.”

Some things are nonnegotiable.

Which comes as no surprise to Fadi, a 14-year-old Palestinian who was at the reception sponsored by the National Association of Arab Americans and the American Jewish Congress. Wearing a tender smile and the bright green T-shirt of Seeds of Peace, the summer camp that took him and 45 other Arab and Israeli boys to Maine for three weeks of sports and “coexistence seminars,” Fadi said that he has made many friends here and has somewhat changed his opinion of Israelis. On the subject of their state, however, he remained unchanged.

“I don’t refuse the existence of Israel,” he said, “but I also don’t accept the existence of Israel without a Palestinian state.”

At the Israeli Embassy reception, the cake was decorated with doves and olive branches, but this was a cautious affair. “There is no euphoria,” said Israeli Ambassador Itamar Rabinovich. “We know it’s too complex for euphoria.”

Others had watched the signing of the agreement in dazed amazement.

“I thought my hands would turn to salt if I ever applauded Yasser Arafat,” said Sheldon Cohen, former IRS commissioner. “But I did—and they didn’t.”

Like a lot of Jews, Cohen came to the ceremony with doubts but found it unexpectedly moving. “I was crying,” he said. “A lot of people were.”

“Getting a ticket to the signing was as difficult as getting a ticket to a Bruce Springsteen concert,” laughed Leonard Zakim, director of the Anti-Defamation League in Boston.

“Sometimes in the White House we forget how important certain things are,” said presidential counsel Bernie Nussbaum. “Sometimes we even forget we’re making history. Today, we made history.”

And so to close out a day that will be remembered for the rest of their lives, more than 800 guests, from babies to bent gentlemen with yarmulkes in their white hair, crammed into a stifling white tent to bid farewell to Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.

Peres was immediately mobbed with hugs, congratulations, kisses. Autograph-seekers thrust programs from the signing ceremony, newspapers or ragged scraps of paper into his hands.

“I told him that it was the most special day to come here and shake his hand,” said Susan Volchok, incoming national chairman of Israel Bonds. “We’ve all said, ‘Is it possible in our lifetime?’ And here we are.”

Violinist Isaac Stern stood in line for the telephone to beep his driver and race back to New York. Not staying for the speeches? “I don’t think so,” he confessed. “I’ve hugged both of them.”

Rabin took the podium. In his thick, deep voice he said, “It was not a simple day.”

Then, like a professor conducting a tutorial, he launched into an impassioned explanation of the historic agreement. “People can ask, ‘Do you trust them?’” he said with a shrug in his voice. “We’ll see.”

Rabin emphasized that though terrorism may remain a risk, the real danger comes from the tanks and missiles of surrounding Arab nations. “Whoever believes Palestine can threaten the very existence of Israel—it’s nonsense! Nonsense!”

Peres reiterated the message, in gentler form, while Rabin looked at his watch. They had arrived in Washington in the middle of the night; it was time to fly home and face the Knesset.

“Please don’t get tired,” Peres told the crowd. “You can rest during Rosh Hashanah. Then again we will march together to make the name of the Jewish people fully recognized in modern times.”

Then it was time for cake.

At the White House, Clinton, three of his predecessors and 50 other guests basked in history’s gratifying glow at a dinner in the Blue Room.

At Clinton’s invitation, former presidents Ford, Carter and Bush, with six past and present secretaries of state, raised their Duckhorn Sauvignon Blanc 1991 (Carter and Clinton opted for ice water) to “peace and progress and the prosperity of the American people.”

Clinton’s worn voice was barely audible as he saluted Carter for his contributions at Camp David 14 years earlier, Bush for starting the peace talks in Madrid two years ago and Ford “for his wise leadership during a pivotal time in the history of the Middle East.”

At tables set with the Truman china sat shuttle diplomacy’s founder Henry Kissinger and those who followed him on the Middle East peace path: George Shultz, Cyrus Vance, James Baker, Larry Eagleburger and Secretary of State Warren Christopher.

The former presidents and their foreign policy aides, representing “a fairly wide array of views about public events,” Clinton said, would join him today in a “formal kickoff” of his administration’s effort to pass the North American Free Trade Agreement.

“I know that will require great effort and bipartisanship,” said Clinton. “But I believe we will succeed because of the stakes for ourselves economically and politically in this hemisphere.”

At her table, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, wearing a lipstick-red silk dinner suit, carried on an animated conversation with Presidents Ford and Carter. At the president’s table were Rosalynn Carter, Betty Ford and President Bush. Barbara Bush did not attend because she was not feeling well, a White House spokesman said.

The dinner started nearly an hour late because Clinton, in the Bush tradition of personally conducted tours, began the evening in the family quarters before ushering everybody onto the Truman balcony for a one-of-a-kind view of the Washington monument.

The Carters and Bush took the Clintons up on their offer of bed and breakfast. The White House said it was the first time two former presidents have stayed overnight as guests of an incumbent president.

An appropriate ending to a historic day.

Meet two Vietnam vets-turned peace activists who keep campers healthy

Aug 8, 2019 / 2 Comments

We tend to highlight the programmatic aspect of Camp—from dialogue to arts and sports. These are the areas that challenge campers and spark joy, that make them grow in ways they could never imagine.

But there are also the unsung heroes who keep Camp ticking (like the staff working in the Camp office), who keep our campers fed (Chef Mike and his crew), and our medical staff who tend to our Campers physical and emotional well-being. Meet two members of this vital team: Nurse Peggy and Doc Rob.

Peggy Akers is a nurse practitioner from Portland who has been at Camp for the past 10 years. Rob Boudewijn retired last year as an emergency department physician’s assistant, and this is his second summer at Camp.

Seeds of Peace: What do you see here that you think, perhaps, other camp medical staff don’t have to deal with?

Doc Rob: The problems that we see here, medically, are minor. We are always ready for emergencies. That’s what we are here for—those potentials. But, at least in my experience, a majority of them are cuts and bruises or aches and pains. And the majority of campers ask, ‘can I go back?’ Most of them want to get back out in the field and do whatever.

Nurse Peggy: I think it’s dialogue. I think that’s the part, where we see kids who are struggling with dialogue, and they will sometimes come in because it is hard. And they don’t know how to say, ‘I don’t want to go to dialogue.’ We do everything we can to get them to go back to dialogue. It has been so wonderful to have Ella here; it’s really changed things for all of us.

Seeds of Peace: Describe a little bit about who Ella is and her work.

NP: Ella is the social worker who is available to the entire camp. And she is here for us when we have a kid who is struggling. Because we cannot really leave here and go off into the woods and talk for a little bit.

So, Ella is here to really talk to the campers. We have to be pretty creative to figure that out. Because you do not want to discount their headaches; it’s real for some of them. Dialogue is the most important part. The kids do not tell me what they talk about in dialogue. Sometimes they will tell me about an exercise that they did and how hard that was. Some of them do not like dialogue at first. I am just really honest, saying how important it is, and that it is a safe space for them to say anything. And if they do not get that, then I do get Ella. She’s the in between for all of us.

Seeds of Peace: Many kids come into any camp medical infirmary with stomachaches or headaches. It could be what they ate, or dehydration. But you hear about how emotional trauma or stress takes on a physical form. And so that’s probably a real difference here as well.

NP: You know sometimes kids just need to come in here and chill. They just need to lay down in a quiet place, and they need space. Then they wake up and they say, ‘Oh, I feel so much better!’ They know we are checking on them every 15 minutes or so, and we are right here. I guess I feel motherly.

Seeds of Peace: One of the things that I think is fascinating, too, unlike most camps in Maine, especially in the international session, is that the campers are coming from really different backgrounds, cultures, and geographies. It’s different water, food, climate, bugs, and bacteria than they might be used to.

NP: Oh yeah, the bug bites. Some of the kids aren’t used to the bug bites. Each group is always embarrassed, but the biggest problem for this session, as it is every year, is the constipation. And I talk about it the first day. I say ‘there is magic stuff here, all you have to do is come in and ask for it.’ It’s Metamucil.

DR: I was talking to a young man the other day about using the bathrooms, and he said, “I can’t go there—everyone will hear me.” You have no privacy even though the doors are closed. You can hear everything, and for some people, that’s a big issue. Particularly for kids. You can imagine them saying, “I’m not going anywhere,” and then five days later, well …

NP: So they can come over to use our bathrooms any time, and they know that. And then we always have pads for the girls back here, in case they need anything. We try to make it so that it’s an easy, safe place for them. I hope they feel like they can come here for anything.

Seeds of Peace: Are there certain times of day or certain activities that when you look at the schedule you think, “Okay, let me get ready because I’m going to be busy in an hour?”

NP: Ga-Ga! Our philosophy is, we bring everything up there to the Ga-Ga pit. Big bags of ice and all the bandages. And nothing happens. If we sit here and wait for them to bring people, then they bring people. But if we’re right there, no one gets hurt. It’s true!

Seeds of Peace: We talk about Camp being transformational for those who come here. How do you see that play out in your space?

NP: We usually sit here and look out. We see the kids from the first days, where they’re just sort of walking along to dialogue, to where they’re suddenly arm-in-arm. It just happens, and it’s so beautiful to watch. Just laughing and skipping along. Every day just feels lighter for them.

DR: I think it’s important to stress that the main medical part here is the nurse. We’re both there, but I try to keep myself as much on the periphery as possible. I’d love to know more, but also, I think, they’ve got enough stuff going on, they don’t need me getting involved. They just need to know that I’ll be there for them if something happens. But when it comes to people like Peggy, they have much more knowledge of and camaraderie with the campers.

NP: You know, you’re out in the woods here! I mean, you’ve got emergency meds, but still. These are someone else’s kids. Our job is to protect them and keep them safe while they’re here. We take it really seriously.

Seeds of Peace: You started to tell me that the two of you have a really unique story about how you met … how your friendship began.

NP: We didn’t meet in Vietnam, but we met because of Vietnam. We lived in San Francisco; I was going to school there to become a nurse practitioner. I had heard about the Vet Center and I was kind of struggling. I had never told anyone I was even in Vietnam. (I was a nurse in the war.) I wanted to see if there were other nurses that had been there. In Vietnam you don’t go as a group. You get orders and you go. So, it is not like you go together and come back together like they did in World War II. So, I didn’t really know people that had been there. I went to the Vet Center and Rob was there, and we became friends. Then, somehow, we both ended up in Maine, and we have been friends forever.

DR: I worked at the Center for many years after Vietnam. I left Vietnam in 1969, I was a medic there. And at that time, we called it the post-Vietnam syndrome, which is now called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. During that whole period of time until President Carter came along, the VA wouldn’t acknowledge it. Then, under President Carter, they established the Vet Center and we opened up the first center in San Francisco. I was one of the people that helped set it up, and Peggy was the first woman that we ever had. And at that time, our job was to try to reach out to Vietnam veterans, any vet, but particularly Vietnam veterans struggling with whatever issues: drug addiction, PTSD, a whole variety of things.

NP: One of the things that brought us together as friends, Rob’s been in the peace movement. He walked across the country with other veterans. He started a group called … I can’t remember the name of it anymore.

DR: Veterans for Draft Resistance.

NP: I got very involved in the peace movement in San Francisco.

DR: After Vietnam, she worked in Thailand in refugee camps.

NP: I first came up here to Camp and felt so much hope. Just seeing these kids. And sometimes you can get so discouraged when you are right in the middle of everything. You march for this, march for that, but nothing changes. But Camp for me was such a wonderful place to feel that hope for the world, for these kids. I don’t mean to be laying the heavy burden on them. But when I am here, there is a great possibility that there could be peace and a better climate. You just overhear their conversations and feel just ‘wow.’

DR: This is a story that is not told often enough. Because it is easy to just feel dismal and despair, and particularly when you come to our age. These kids are great. These kids are our future.

NP: They are such special kids really. Sadly, we do not get to know them as much as the counselors do. Because we really only get to know the ones that come in frequently or are not feeling well. Sometimes I will see a kid and think, ‘I have never seen them before and I wish that I had.’ But at the same time, I don’t want them to be here in the infirmary. The day the kids leave, you see the absolute love and compassion between the counselors and the kids. It’s so beautiful. And I just weep. To have those relationships; some of these kids don’t want to leave.

Seeds of Peace: Most are going back home to a reality that is very different than this. Even the campers who are walking back into the most privileged circumstances, they are still walking into a teenagerhood that is not as accepting as it is here.

NP: Absolutely, I see them being goofy and silly. We watched a baseball game yesterday, and the kids were dancing and cheering each other on even though they are on opposite teams and it was just so sweet. To see that these are kids who might not be so goofy in front of other kids at home. It was pretty wonderful.

Our voices: Members of the Seeds of Peace family speak out during Gaza war

Aug 15, 2014 / No Comments

In the midst of this horrific violence, we turn to the voices in our community—Seeds, Educators, counselors, and staff members—who have experienced brutal violence and fear; who are saying enough to the killing and the dehumanization; who are listening to and supporting one another; and who are calling for peace.

Their message is one of hope, but they are also not naive to the violence, injustice, occupation, fear, and hatred, they face. Seeds of Peace is not charged with or capable of negotiating peace treaties or ceasefires that would end the disaster that is this violence, but we exist to stand by and support the Seeds community as they tell their truths. These are their voices.

Ahmad
Adi
Mohammed
Hashem		 Roy
Aly
Danny
Yaala		 Ophir
Rama
Jane
Lior		 Hamutal & Maysoon
Hannah
Voices in the media

 

Ahmad

My dear family,

I am writing to you today because there is seriously no place I’d rather be more than Camp right now.

I find myself helpless, sinking in the sorrow of my people. I have been thinking of you intensely, as I find hope whenever I do. Your messages ignite hope inside me that has been there since the summer of 2012.

The situation takes me back two summers ago. I remember every single detail of the safe zone that took me away from the reality and at the same time made me much more aware of it.

I remember how peace was the only thing we were thinking about. I remember how love filled the place. I must say, I need nothing more than that.

The recent weeks were mind wrecking, but also illuminating. I have come to the realization of how much a human life means, and how easily it can be taken away.

I hope the situation gets better as soon as possible to stop the brutal killing and the unbearable bloodshed. I am now three wars old with more to come, but I swear to you all I will never forget what each and every one of you said in your life giving messages.

This is one of the times that I thank God for being a part of the Seeds of Peace family. I sincerely hope to see you all this summer, even if I know for sure that I won’t.

I won’t lose hope.

With my all love,
your brother Ahmad (Gaza)

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Adi

Last night a rocket was shot at my grandmother’s bed.
The pictures are nothing compared to pictures from Gaza.

Still, a rocket was shot at my grandmother’s bed.

Dialogue in Seeds of Peace has taught me well: We are the oppressors.

Still, a Palestinian rocket was shot at my grandmother’s bed.

I went to protest last night against the war with Jewish and Palestinian friends.
We had so much hope.

Still, a rocket was shot at my grandmother’s bed.

My grandmother is used to it.
She’s been living on the border with Gaza for 65 years.
She’s been going to the shelter every once in a while for the past 10 years.

She left her home two weeks ago when escalation started.
It wasn’t luck that kept her safe.

Still, I seek no revenge. I seek an end.

I want rockets to stop being shot at our grandmothers and their grandmothers’ beds.

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Mohammed

I have spent years working with Seeds because I want peace. In fact, all members of Seeds of Peace in Gaza stay engaged in our programs because they believe in peace. The families huddled dozens to a room—they want peace. But we also want to be treated like human beings.

We often wonder what Israelis think about us. What they think about their government when hundreds of civilians are killed, when thousands of homes are damaged, when hundreds of thousands are without electricity and water.

I live in a poor neighborhood called Shajaiya. Most of the people in my neighborhood are not educated. I was born to a very poor family, and built myself from zero. My father died when I was young. I’ve always worked several jobs to survive.

People ask me all the time why I don’t leave this neighborhood. The fact is, my neighbors need my help. Every Ramadan I used to make food for families in the neighborhood. But the war came during Ramadan this year, and I don’t have anything to give them. They ask me to call the electricity company. They see me as a leader, but I don’t belong to any party or any politician. I am a human being. I am a Gazan.

People look to me because I’m educated. Because I work. Because I have been to the United States. Gaza is where I’ve grown up—it has made me who I am. It’s not easy to be a leader in this situation. It requires me to be responsible. I cannot run away. I have to face it.

My extended family is living here with me. There are 30 of us. I have three brothers. One is dead and I’m responsible for his family. My son’s family, and my other brothers’ families are here. I am responsible for all them. I have to be strong, as a father and as a community leader. It would be shameful for me to leave. The others depend on me.

But I am human. I am scared. The bombs are exploding every minute.

The war is terrible. It’s a dirty, unfair war. Thousands of tons of bombs are hitting Gaza. Thousands of people are without shelter. Nobody can sleep. Hundreds of people have been killed. The power is out and soon food will rot, and we will not have water now since we can’t pump it. Sewage is running in the street. The banks are closed, so there is no money. And sick people cannot go to the hospital. This is going to be a humanitarian crisis. On top of the bombs that are dropping.

Do Israelis want us to spend another 50 years talking about peace? Gaza has been under siege for seven years. We are in a cage. Does anyone care?

The war is unjust, but it’s not my fault. I keep doing my job because I believe in peace.

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Hashem

As a change-maker, these times make me reflect on my mission.

They refocus my compass towards the ultimate goal of reaching justice for my people, and those who strive for it in this world: a justice that is not a privilege, one that is not restricted to a certain people or religion.

With the help of Seeds of Peace, I have a spark of change that’s always vivid. It always reminds me that justice will prevail, and soon.

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Roy

I’ve lost two friends to Israeli-Palestinian violence, and these days remind me that I can always lose more.

Four teenagers were kidnapped and murdered this week in Palestine and Israel because they were Jewish or Palestinian.

Kidnapping is a very fitting brutality in the Middle East, where reality itself is being hijacked: people in power (or aspiring to have it) advocate for a backwards, hostile narrative about the true nature of “Palestinians” and “Jews,” thus occluding the identities of the true polarized sides in this part of the Middle East: “extremists” and “moderates,” kidnappers and abductees not just of lives, but of narratives and agendas.

All of us who want a sane life in this region can only survive by dodging the violent crazies on both sides, the exacerbating effects of slanted mass media coverage, our visionless leaders, and the flattening effects of social media memes and talkback culture that impoverishes the debate about life in this region while giving the illusion that we are somehow informed about what the other side is truly like.

There is a silent majority out there that wants to live peacefully, be respected, and offer respect to anyone else who derives meaning out of life by having their home west of the Jordan river. Unfortunately, we have not yet figured out how to communicate our shared values and goals. By default, we surrender to a false discourse about the futility of trying to live with another people, identifying them erroneously by their nationality or religion rather by their toxic value system.

If we fail at communicating for much longer, our identities will be hijacked to a point of no return. Regardless of who we are as individuals, we will find that being “Israeli” or “Palestinian” will be completely formed and informed by fanatics—Jewish, Christian and Muslim—to justify more violence, more extremism and more death.

Aly

People always ask me how I can simultaneously be both pro-Israel and pro-Palestine.

The truth is, one can have a principled stance on this conflict, and that principle is nonviolence. Gandhi liberated the entire Indian sub-continent from British rule through non-violent means. If it’s good enough for India—a country of over a billion people with 21 languages, eight religions, and hundreds of regional and ethnic groups—then it’s certainly good enough for Israel and Palestine.

We need to start living by his timeless words: “I am prepared to die, but there is no cause for which I am prepared to kill.”

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Danny

This is a very sad moment. People will suffer because of the way our leaders and some (possibly many) of the people in our society chose to address the conflict.

A few people on both sides decided to take matters into their own hands and sparked fires fed by various forces, and we, and the many like us, did not carry our voice clearly and loudly enough.

I know that there are much better ways of addressing our conflict; ways which will respect each other, save lives and sufferings and lead to peace. Yes, we can live together or side by side in peace. Yes, intending peace is the only realistic road to move to a better future for all of us.

We do not need nor wish for more dead or wounded heroes. We need that both societies fully respect each other, that each individual respect every others person’s life. We need an end to the very long suffering of the Palestinian people, and that of Israelis. War, regardless of who wins, will not solve our conflict; only respectful peace will.

The road to peace is one of recognition, understanding, inclusion, and humanity. As Seeds of Peace we try to develop these.

The vast majority of our people know this deep down in their hearts, and want this. We need to help them lead the way. It is sad that people need to fight for their protection, lives, dignity and wish for freedom. Lets change this into a better and more effective future for all of us.

Seeds of Peace builds people and builds communities which know how to live in peace and work out their differences in effective and peaceful ways.

Wishing and working for peace, equality, and societal sovereignty may not be popular when the guns roar. But this, more than ever, is the time for us to talk with people of that which they really want, of that which is possible and of the acceptance of the other.

Yes, I know that when war erupts, people first rush to secure their existence, by all means necessary. And yet I know, that the only real security lies in mutual acceptance. One must first exist to make peace. We must be very aware and very eloquent in expressing our awareness that the promise of a better future for either of us needs the existence of both of us.

Yaala

In light of recent events back home in Israel and Palestine, I have come to yet again reevaluate my experiences at Seeds of Peace.

While I realize that many question the validity of Seeds and organizations similar to it, at the end of the each day like today, the memories I have made and the friendships I have formed there help me cope with the helplessness and powerlessness that I feel.

I am hoping for the safety of all Palestinians and Israelis tonight.

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Ophir

This is for my Palestinian friends.

These are hard times for all of us. While my grandparents, and now me and my family, are living under threat of missiles, you live under direct military control.

And some of you are in Gaza, or have probably have friends or relatives in Gaza, who find themselves trapped with no connection to Hamas actions.

It’s easy for me to look on the suffering and fear that my people experience. It’s the most automatic thing to do. Yet hundreds of thousands of civilians in Gaza, who are born into poverty and hostility, will suffer more than I or my friends ever will.

As an Israeli, it’s natural to me to support the military operation because when someone throws a rocket at my house, I’ll try to stop that man from doing so …

But then I hear the horror in Gaza, and I know that although I believe in my country, some of its actions–like the eternal blockade on Gaza in areas unrelated to security—aren’t justified.

Emotions led me to publicly support the military operation, but now other voices inside of me tell me that something is terribly wrong with us—Israelis and Palestinians. These are things that should not happen.

I ask you now, what do you think should happen? How can we, who met each other in order to come to understanding four or six years ago, keep our sanity and not lose the sense of hope that lead us to speak to one another?

Rama

As a Palestinian from Yarmouk Refugee Camp in Syria and now a refugee in another camp in Gaza, I am again forced to live in the middle of killing and fear.

I’ve been displaced twice so far this war and even the new location we moved to is not safe. I hate this daily fear of losing family members—with every explosion, I look around me to check on them one by one. I was in Shejaeya three days ago. You can’t imagine the massive devastation there. We had a life, a normal life. Now it’s gone. The peace that doesn’t bring me a normal life would never be a just peace. I’m trying to build a career, a future, but I’m not given the chance.

Jane

I am a teacher. I believe in the power of changing a child one at a time. I believe in Seeds as a power to educate and from this education will come a better world.

Maybe they won’t all be news people or politicians; maybe they will be in a classroom. It took John Wallach a long time to be in the right place to have the power to execute his passion as he moved from journalism to Seeds, and I think we are equipping many young adults to follow a similar path and to change their world.

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Lior

I want to share something personal. Throughout this war, in which over 2,000 Palestinians were killed—including nearly 500 children—and 70 Israelis, I have known that another way is possible.

Throughout this war, while my heart was with the citizens of the South and my friends who were drafted, my dearest friend has been a Gazan.

Through this war, we spoke several times a day. She told me about her sister, who sheltered for over six hours in a stairwell with her two children, ages 7 and 9, while heavy bombing shook her home.

She shared with me the lack of water and electricity, and the existential fear that you might be killed at any given moment.

This friendship between us in these difficult times is the proof that another way is possible and that there is hope. I don’t expect us all to become friends, but she is not ‘them’ and she should not be boycotted.

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Hamutal & Maysoon

We completed the Seeds of Peace facilitation course together last month. It was an intense experience, during which we had to face and accept not only “the other,” but mostly ourselves—our deepest conflicts, contradictions and frustrations. As the course ends, it seems as though everything we’ve learned is being thrown in our faces.

It’s hard to understand how we are at a point where we have started kidnapping and killing each other’s children. These terrible incidents evoked something new in our society. A dangerous, evil form of racism that lashes out in the heart of the society, that legitimizes violence. A sickening racism that spurs a young man to follow Maysoon in public, issuing threats and calling her a dirty Arab, after overhearing her speaking Arabic.

We’re scared. Scared to walk in the street, or take the bus. We’re even scared to stay in our homes. But more than anything we’re scared of what is happening to the society that we live in.

And now, a new war on Gaza. It feels like every few years, we go on another “operation” of massacre and destruction hidden behind a literary name provided by the government. We’re in an endless repetitive cycle, where every step of the governments is known in advance, people’s reactions are prewritten, the media’s reaction is known, the conversations we will have about the situation are tired. Citizens are all marionettes of our blind leaders, who have no vision and no compassion.

Alarms, missiles, the news, deaths, hatred, fear, anxiety, desperation. We’ve already seen what this madness looks like, and we’re all running straight into the same scenario, filled with hatred, as we create a new generation of Gaza youth who’ve lost everything and have nothing left to lose.

It’s hard to keep believing that there’s hope. It’s hard to avoid justifying the violence of one side or the other. For Palestinians, it’s easy to justify violence as resistance. It is the obvious relationship between the occupier and the occupied. It is a struggle, believing in non-violent ways to solve the conflict, believing in peace when everyone around you demands war. It is indeed a huge struggle.

But as Mahatma Gandhi said: “you must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if few drops are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.”

So today, we stand together, and refuse to surrender to fear. Refuse to surrender to the reality that our societies and our governments dictate. The ocean—the sane majority—has to step up and say there is another way. We have to gather all of our strength, to stand strong in front of our own fears, in front of the fears in our societies, in front of racism and violence, and find the courage to look at each other and see the hope, compassion, and love in the eyes of the other.

Hannah

Reading the news lately pains me more than it has in the past.

I’m not sure if it stems simply from a feeling of helplessness or from a feeling that something has changed—that the ability to create peace feels further away than it has in a long long time. And the kind of peace I’m talking about is one where both people’s needs for identity and security are acknowledged and their histories of being victimized are not ignored so that individual and national traumas can be acknowledged.

The level of hatred and loss of humanity—not only literally in the deaths but also in the way we talk about one another—shows a disregard for human life in a way I don’t remember seeing in some time. Whether it’s my Palestinian friends referring to Israelis as Nazis and wanting them to die or my American Jewish friends repeating over and over ‘why are Israelis not allowed to defend themselves like every other country?!’ and truly not understanding why that sounds crazy to some of us or whether it’s the images and the stories of the Palestinian PEOPLE who are suffering such physical and emotional violence and trauma, it seems that we’ve gotten so severely lost.

We are so far off the path of ever being able to see the person in front of us as a person, a human being, with goals and motivations and feelings and pain, that I worry we may never get back on to that path.

VOICES IN THE MEDIA

Peace Camp in US Unites Israeli, Palestinian Teens (July 29 | Associated Press) ››

Viewpoint from the West Bank: ‘We are all humans’ (August 26 | PBS) ››

Interview with Israeli Seed Lior Amihai (July 26 | Ha’aretz) ››

In US, fearful campers eye Middle East conflict (July 18 | Associated Press) ››

In Israel and Palestine, children imagine a world without war (July 16 | MSNBC) ››

Seeds of Peace
Down East Magazine

Dec 1, 2002 / No Comments

A unique camp in Otisfield shows kids from around the world they’re all pretty much alike

BY JEFF CLARK | At a time when the drums of war echo from the Balkans to the Bay of Bengal, from southern Sudan to Kabul, Barbara “Bobbie” Gottschalk doesn’t see herself being out of a job anytime soon. And she hates that thought.

Gottschalk is the executive vice president for Seeds of Peace, the organization that each year brings hundreds of young people from opposite sides of conflicts all over the world to the shores of Pleasant Lake in Otisfield, Maine, to meet the enemy and learn that he or she has a name and a face.

“We’re at a point in our civilization where we can annihilate all human beings or learn to get along with all human beings,” Gottschalk says. “I don’t see annihilation as an option. Seeds of Peace is.”

Seeds of Peace is a unique concept, the inspiration of a distinguished journalist named John Wallach who realized that the only path to peace in the future led through the hearts and minds of youngsters today. For three weeks Israelis and Arabs, Turks and Greeks, Pakistanis and Indians eat together, play together, share the same bunkhouses and homesickness together. And they talk together in daily, structured—and often emotional—”coexistence sessions” with trained counselors and in casual conversations over breakfast pancakes.

The program can be disconcerting for youngsters who have been told their entire lives that they must hate someone for being Palestinian or Bosnian or Greek. “I think the process of humanizing the conflict shakes them,” Wallach told reporter Morley Safer four years ago in an interview for “60 Minutes.” “If you begin to know your enemy, if you begin to hear your enemy, if you begin to understand your enemy, it’s inevitable that you will begin to feel some empathy.”

And for Wallach, who died of cancer in July, Maine was the only place that could happen. “The state of Maine is ideal for this. We’re back to basics. We’re in the world God created,” Wallach told Safer. “You couldn’t do this [over] there. One side or the other would be dominant. You have to have a neutral, safe, supportive environment.”

These days the camp that has worked so well to bring traditional foreign enemies together is also helping smooth rough relations right here in Maine. For the past three years Seeds of Peace has included sessions for local and immigrant teenagers from Portland and Lewiston, cities with growing refugee communities, as Mainers come to terms with the arrival of newcomers from Somalia, Sudan, Central America, and other exotic parts of the globe.

“It’s very rare to have the opportunity to work on a project that ultimately could make a difference in the world,” muses Merle Nelson, of Falmouth, a member of Seeds of Peace national board. “I’m proud Maine is part of this.”

The genesis of Seeds of Peace has become part of the organization’s lore. The February 1993 World Trade Center bombing left Wallach, an award-winning veteran foreign correspondent who had broken major stories on the Iran-Contra scandal and the Middle East, severely shaken. He had written several books about the Middle East, including a biography of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Wallach decided that peace had to start among the young, because hatred was already too deeply ingrained among their parents. At an A-list Washington dinner party in March 1993 honoring Israeli foreign minister Shimon Peres, Wallach rose to make a toast and announced that Peres had agreed to send a group of Israeli teenagers to a summer camp devoted to finding peace and understanding between Arabs and Jews. He challenged the Egyptian ambassador, who was sitting at the same table, to match the offer. The diplomat had no choice—he said yes. Wallach promptly called the head of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) office in Washington with the news and got him to agree to send Palestinian youngsters from Gaza and the West Bank. Just to make sure no one backed out when the afterglow faded, Wallach called a press conference the next day and announced the establishment of Seeds of Peace with ground rules that continue today.

Each country can choose its own campers, but no country can help underwrite the camp. The program’s $4-million annual budget comes from private fund-raising efforts. Seeds is strictly nonpolitical, a stance so firm and so respected that even when the PLO and the Israelis aren’t talking to each other, they talk to Seeds of Peace and continue to send children. Nor is Seeds of Peace affiliated with the United Nations or traditional “peace” groups. “It’s very important that this is not seen as some left-wing peace organization,” Wallach once said. “We’re not here to plant a tree, sing a song, and call it peace.”

That first summer in 1993 forty-five boys (girls began attending the next year)—twenty Israelis, fifteen Palestinians, and ten Egyptians—attended the first Seeds of Peace camp at Camp Powhatan in Otisfield. Wallach’s son Michael had spent several idyllic summers at Powhatan, and owner Joel Bloom quickly agreed to host the Seeds program.

Along with the camp came camp director Timothy Wilson, a former football coach, a member of the cabinets of Governors Ken Curtis, James Longley, and Joseph Brennan, and an all-around supporter of youth causes. “I had no expectations initially,” Wilson recalls. “I was there to run a camp. I’d been in the Middle East back when I was in the Peace Corps, but that had been a long time ago.”

Even today, ten years later, Wilson says his commitment to the project “has to do with my commitment to kids. I don’t know what countries the kids come from and I don’t care. My main interest is, I want them to have the best experience possible and to go away with respect for everyone else. They don’t have to be friends with everyone, but they do have to have respect.”

One of the original 1993 campers, Tamer Mahmoud, of Cairo, recalls that he arrived in Maine with plans to become an architect. When he left, it was with the determination to go into Middle Eastern politics. “Seeds of Peace extended my horizon,” he recalls. “It made me realize that as much as I could detest the Israeli government, I could still have an Israeli as a friend.”

Mahmoud has returned every year since, first as a camper (repeat visits are not uncommon) and then as a counselor and administrator. “I’ve made Israeli friends I wouldn’t have made anywhere else,” he explains. “We don’t always agree — we argue and tease each other all the time — but we realize that we can still be friends.”

Next summer’s Seeds of Peace sessions will be the first in ten years that Mahmoud will miss. He has a good excuse. In August, he went to work in Washington, D.C., for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

In the years since that first summer at Powhatan—which Seeds of Peace bought in the mid-1990s—more than 2,000 teens from twenty-one countries have conquered their own doubts, centuries of fear and mistrust, and a world’s worth of jet lag to find common ground in Maine. It isn’t easy. Each camper is chosen by his or her home government and goes through an application and interview process before being accepted. Potential campers are judged by their leadership qualities and fluency in English, the only language allowed at the camp.Wallach knew then and Seeds’ leaders today recognize that means that, at least initially, many of the young teens are well-educated true believers in their nations’ causes largely drawn from the top echelons of their societies. As the governments gain experience with the program, the selection process generally becomes more democratic and broader-based. It also means that many of today’s campers are tomorrow’s leaders. “We know a lot of them are going to be senators and presidents and leaders in other areas,” says Timothy Wilson.

He isn’t referring only to the campers from overseas, either. The Maine youngsters who attend the camp go through the same selection process, and after three years Wilson sees them already moving into leadership positions in their high schools. “There are kids in this state who are future Olympia Snowes, future Maine governors coming out of the Seeds of Peace program,” he observes.

Breaking down the prejudices starts with the first night, when exhausted new arrivals are shocked to find they are expected to sleep within a few feet of someone they have been raised to see as a mortal enemy. Some refuse to close their eyes that first night, fearing they’ll be attacked if they doze off. Over the next three weeks, they both learn and unlearn a great deal about the other side. They cheer for each other in sports, they shout at each other—at least initially—in the coexistence sessions where each side explains and defends and ultimately understands, and they complain about the food and the bugs together. “And just three weeks later, many have undergone profound changes,” Wallach wrote in his book, The Enemy Has a Face, published two years before he died. “They stay up talking until the last hours. They tell each other their closest secrets. They e-mail back and forth constantly once home. They are now friends with those who once were their enemies, and spokespeople for a peace they once dismissed.”

Wallach called it “making just one friend.” Others call it subverting the dominant paradigm, the prevailing mindset. It’s a strategy that hasn’t gone unnoticed in the homelands of the young campers.

“I’m always surprised by the continual criticism we hear that Seeds of Peace brainwashes kids,” Wilson says. “We get criticism from every side in the countries that send us children. Maybe it’s only natural when you have a large group of people of a particular persuasion who feel that Seeds of Peace threatens their views and their ability to pass those views down to the next generation.”

In their last week the campers receive special training in how to deal with friends and families and communities who will criticize and challenge the attitudes they learn at Seeds of Peace. “My parents used to say if you’re doing good things, you are always going to be criticized,” Wilson says. “You need to develop a thick enough skin to keep going.”

And perseverance. In the face of current events, with war and rumors of war on every front page, it would be easy to feel overwhelmed. “I don’t get discouraged,” Bobbie Gottschalk insists. “Most of our Seeds [as graduate campers are called] are out on a limb. They’re unusual in their families, their communities, and their schools. They’re teased and taunted and accused of being traitors. If they can keep going, I should be able to as well.”

Gottschalk sees a future where Seeds of Peace is needed more than ever. “Each year we’ve grown faster and expanded more than we felt we would,” she says, noting that Seeds now operates a Middle East office and year-round program as well as maintaining offices in New York and Washington, D.C., plus a website where former Seeds can stay in contact with each other. At three sessions every summer, the former Camp Powhatan in Otisfield is at capacity, and Gottschalk is already wondering if one of the four other summer camps on Pleasant Lake might become available soon. She wants to preserve that Maine mystique.

Peggy Golden, owner of Greenhut Gallery in Portland’s Old Port, became a supporter of Seeds of Peace in 1996 when Wallach came into her shop to inquire about a painting in the window. “I didn’t sell him on the painting, but he sure sold me on Seeds,” Golden recalls.

She is still moved by the memory of a coexistence session between Palestinian and Israeli children she listened in on last summer. “One of the boys said being in Maine was like being in a fairy tale, that it wasn’t real life,” she says. “One of his friends said, ‘No, it’s our lives that aren’t real. This is the way life is supposed to be.’ ”

Over the years, Seeds of Peace and John Wallach have created a critical mass of dedicated and talented young people. “The key word is seed,” head counselor Wil Smith points out. “Even if the camp were to close tomorrow, that seed is sown. Many of these kids will grow up to become leaders in their nations, in business and politics and education. I hope they remember these times and I hope they remember these people in Maine. I hope they make a difference.”

Wallach had a favorite fantasy that he once shared with Timothy Wilson: “He said he hoped that one day in the future there would be a world summit meeting at the camp in Otisfield, and that all the leaders of the countries at the summit were former Seeds of Peace campers. I mean, can you imagine …”

Maine camp tries to harvest peace
The Times Record (Maine)

Jul 29, 1998 / No Comments

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.”

Seeds of Peace dialogue programs between young Israelis and Palestinians produce clear results

Oct 20, 2008 / No Comments

NEW YORK | The San Francisco Chronicle yesterday published an article about the effectiveness of dialogue programs between Israelis and Palestinians in the Middle East (“Few Results Seen from Mideast Teen Peace Camps” by Matthew Kalman). Seeds of Peace was featured prominently in this piece as a leader in youth empowerment and conflict resolution.

Because the article was based on an unpublished report by Pal Vision, a research center in Jerusalem, we remain unable to examine the methodology of the report. However, many of this report’s key findings are not consistent with public, independent studies of Seeds of Peace dialogue programs. Again, because the report is not public and remains unpublished, we are unable to determine which groups were evaluated along with Seeds of Peace.

Unfortunately, Seeds of Peace was not given an opportunity to participate in the article or provide information about our internationally-recognized conflict resolution model and follow-up programs in the Middle East. Below, please find a clarification of the incompleteness and inaccuracies found in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Fact vs. Fiction:

FICTION:  “… the programs have failed to produce a single prominent peace activist on either side [Israeli/Palestinian] …”

FACT:  Seeds of Peace has produced leaders, who we call ‘Seeds,’ in all sectors of society, including medicine, business, nonprofit, media and government. Today, there are nearly 4,000 Seeds around the world. There are currently Seeds working on both the Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams, clerking at the Israeli Supreme Court, working at prominent Palestinian nongovernmental and political activist organizations, and dozens have returned to Seeds of Peace as professional conflict resolution facilitators. They also hold influential positions in the media and business.

Moreover, our Seeds play important leadership roles as community/grassroots leaders, educators, mentors, friends and family members. Part of our work is to strengthen people-to-people interactions between Israelis and Palestinians so that diplomatic progress can be supported and sustained. Thousands of Seeds make the case for peace and mutual understanding every day in their communities.

The fact is, there are thousands of participants from Seeds of Peace programs making an impact at all levels of society every day.

FICTION: “… Palestinian participants were unrepresentative of a wider society … only 7 percent of participants were refugee camp residents, even though they make up 16 percent of the Palestinian population.”

FACT: This study does not track our Camp program outcomes. Seeds of Peace is committed to balanced representation within all delegations, including the Palestinian delegation. For example, in 2006, 34 percent of Palestinian participants at the Seeds of Peace Camp were from refugee camps (25 out of 74).

Pal Vision Study vs. Independent Studies:

Two highly-respected independent studies evaluate Seeds of Peace programs

The unpublished Pal Vision study reported by the San Francisco Chronicle states that 91 percent of Palestinians are no longer in contact with any Israelis they had met through the program; 93 percent said there was no follow-up to the encounter activity; only 5 percent agreed that the program had helped “promote peace culture and dialogue between participants;” and only 11 percent came away believing that “there is something that unites us with the other party.”

This does not track with outside evaluation of Seeds of Peace programs. An independent study by Social Impact, Inc. in 2005 of Seeds of Peace Camp and follow-up programs gives a much different account of how coexistence programs work, and work well. In this study:

As a result of the Seeds of Peace experience

  • 60% of Seeds felt they have an improved understanding of the other side.
  • 50% gained the ability to “empathize” with the plight of others.
  • 65% have the desire to stay involved with conflict and peace issues.
  • 65% rated the Camp experience as “highly transformative.”
  • 39% continue to use the Seeds of Peace message in their professional work.

Zogby International, a highly reputable independent polling firm, also conducted an evaluation of Seeds of Peace programs in 2004. In this study:

As a result of the Seeds of Peace experience

  • 76% say their view of the “other side” improved during Camp, including 79% of Israelis and 63% of Palestinians
  • 94% of respondents said they forged friendships with campers from other countries
  • There was significant growth in acknowledging the right of the “other side” to a safe and independent state among both Palestinian (up to 62% from 40%) and Israeli (up 79% from 71%) campers

Follow-up Programs in the Middle East

In the Pal Vision study, 93 percent of participants said there were no follow-up activities available for continued interaction with the “other side.” At Seeds of Peace, follow-up activities are available on a daily basis not only to Seeds in the Middle East who have returned from the Camp experience, but also for other members of the community, thereby creating a multiplier effect.

In the Middle East, Seeds of Peace provides a broad menu of following activities through program offices in Amman, Cairo, Jerusalem, Tel-Aviv and Ramallah.

Here are a few examples:

Conflict Management & Mediation Training program: Seeds of Peace has trained dozens of professional conflict resolution facilitators.

Online dialogue continues after Camp: Seeds of Peace uses the Internet to overcome the challenges of physical borders and barriers when it comes to dialogue between two sides of a conflict. Hundreds of Seeds participate in a password protected, secure online forum where they are able to openly discuss relevant issues of the day with other participants from Camp.

Hebrew & Arabic Language courses: Enhancing the ability of Seeds to communicate with “the other side,” Seeds of Peace offers language and cultural courses in Hebrew and Arabic.

Graduate Program: Hundreds of Seeds are now leaders in their respective professions. They stay in touch with each other and to the mission of peace through this program, which offers opportunities to develop cross-border economic partnerships and community service projects. In October 2008, these young peacemakers will convene in Rabat, Morocco to discuss how to launch new joint community service initiatives. This is the second meeting of its kind, and future meetings are in the works.

Seeds Café: In partnership with USAID, Seeds of Peace provides one of the only forums in Jerusalem where Israelis and Palestinians come together for public education and dialogue in a non-political setting. These sessions are organized and led by Seeds themselves, often with guest speakers.

For more on these programs, visit the Middle East programs page ».

Seeds of Peace announces line up for “Stand Up for Peace” Comedy Benefit

Dec 1, 2009 / No Comments

Stand Up for Peace

UPDATE: the Comedy Benefit at Gotham Comedy Club in New York was a fantastic success! »

NEW YORK | The 6th Annual “Stand Up for Peace” Comedy Benefit takes place on November 30. The event will be hosted by Amer Zahr with Tim Young, Dan Nainan, Eman el Husseini, Seth Herzog, Mike Batayeh, Jim Dailakis, and Laura Spaeth.

 
Tim YoungTim Young headlines clubs all over North America, has performed on over 500 colleges campuses as well as comedy festivals in New York, Montreal, and Seattle, and he’s a fixture in the New York City club scene. He’s appeared on NBC’s Last Comic Standing, Comedy Central’s Premium Blend, Tough Crowd, and Shorties, and you may have seen him as a commentator on VH1, MTV,TLC and the E! Channel.

 

 

Dan Nainan

Dan Nainan got his start by taking a comedy class to get over the nervousness of speaking on stage in his job as a demo engineer with Intel Corporation. After leaving Intel to pursue comedy, Dan has toured with Russell Peters. Dan has appeared on network television including “Last Comic Standing” as well as in feature films and radio and television commercials. He just completed a comedy tour of India and is performing at the upcoming TED Conference in Mysore.
 

 

Eman el Husseini

Eman el Husseini started stand-up in NYC in 2006. In her first year she founded and co-produces the monthly show BOOM (best of open mic). In 2008 Eman opened for the Axis of Evil Tour in Ottawa and was invited to be a part of the 5th and 6th NY Arab-American Comedy Festival. In 2009 Eman has been touring the US with 1001 laughs, and was a part of the first ever Arabs Gone Wild tour in Montreal. In December Eman is heading to the Middle-East for the 2nd annual Amman Comedy Festival.

 

Seth Herzog

Seth Herzog was the subject of the short film Zog’s Place. In addition, Seth hosts his weekly show Sweet at the Slipper Room on Tuesday nights. He has also enjoyed roles in such films as Safe Men, The Ten, and The Baxter. Seth has also acted in numerous commercials and on such TV shows as Late Night with Conan O’Brien, Chappelle’s Show and VH1’s Best Week Ever.

 

 

Mike Bateyeh

Mike Batayeh is a native of Detroit who is of Jordanian descent. He currently resides in Los Angeles where he is a working comedian/actor/writer. As a writer he has two screenplays, one of which is in process to be produced. He was also, co-writer of a one-person show, entitled Machomen and The Women That Love Them, which was filmed at the Kodak Theater (home of the Academy Awards) and will soon be released as a television special and DVD.  As an actor he has appeared in many television and film roles. As a comedian he has performed all over the world for all kinds of audiences in such places as Dubai, Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, and will soon be in Australia. NOW, KNEEL BEFORE ZOD!!!
 

Amer Zahr

Amer Zahr is a Palestinian-American currently living in Michigan. His comedy comes from his experiences and thoughts growing up as an Arab-American. Amer has been performing stand-up for many years and before that was an active pro-Palestinian voice. His activism included dozens of published writings and appearances on TV, including two appearances on ABC’s Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher. He has traveled the world, performing throughout America, as well as in the Middle East, including Jordan and Oman.

 

Jim Dailakis

Jim Dailakis, an Australian Greek actor/writer/comedian and voiceover artist now based in New York City, has been touring the USA for the last 12 years headlining in the major New York comedy clubs including Caroline’s, Standup New York and Broadway. He’s also performed in Las Vegas, The Borgata in Atlantic City, The Cayman Islands and Canada. On stage, Dailakis talks about relationships, love, and mimics movie stars with an uncanny ability of being able to contort his face so he can look like them too. His performances have earned him standing ovations and adoration from audiences across the US. Being an Aussie in America is another part of his act.
 

Laura Spaeth

Laura Spaeth is a stand up comic and an actor living and working in NYC. Her comedy has been referred to as, “Tina Fey minus the cash.” A spirited host and featured act, Laura has performed regularly at The Broadway Comedy Club, New York Comedy Club, Caroline’s, Stand Up New York, Don’t Tell Mama’s Poole Party and Danny Aiello’s, Upstairs at Danny’s in Hoboken New Jersey. She has also participated in Gilda Radner’s Laugh Off. Blunt, acerbic with and uncanny ability for characters and impersonations, Laura is a favorite everywhere she performs.

Seeds of Peace: The summer of our discontent
Jewish Journal

Jul 6, 2016 / No Comments

At age 15, I had barely interacted with a boy, let alone a Jew.

For a teenager living in Lahore, Pakistan, in 2001, the Middle East was a faraway place of despair and blood, and I knew almost nothing about it. From my father’s BBC fixation, I’d picked up that it was a place where restaurants were sometimes blown up by suicide bombers. At the time, the idea of a war that came to the city streets strapped to the chests of men was terrifying and new.

I was to learn a great deal about the nature of war when my parents allowed me to attend a summer camp called Seeds of Peace in the United States, just a few months before 9/11 transformed the world. Located in Maine, the camp was founded in 1993 by John Wallach — a journalist who had covered the Middle East for decades as foreign editor for Hearst Newspapers and the BBC. His radical idea was to cultivate future leaders from communities divided by conflict, with an initial focus on Israeli, Palestinian and Egyptian teenagers. From only 46 campers in its first year, the program has by now grown to 300 teenagers each summer, including an American delegation every year. Headquartered in New York, the program has offices in Kabul, Afghanistan; Amman, Jordan; Mumbai, India; Lahore and Jerusalem, with more than 6,000 alumni who partake in regular local and international follow-up engagements.

In the summer of 2001, I was a member of the first India-Pakistan delegation to attend the camp; a dozen of us came from Lahore and a dozen from Mumbai — that strange city by the Arabian Sea manufacturing the famed ballads of Bollywood. Our two nations have been at de facto war since 1947, when the decolonized Indian subcontinent was divided into two countries: Muslim majority Pakistan and Hindu majority India. Kashmir — the land of valleys — is the bloody legacy of that partition, with both countries laying claim to the northern state, where 12 million people reside.

Despite rigid brainwashing endorsed by our respective education ministries, we quickly grew to be friends with the Indians. We laughed together in Urdu and Hindi, argued about cricket and spent hours debating our history, within days realizing we had been taught different versions of the same events. On the first morning after our arrival, I hung my head upside down from the top bunk to say hello to the enemy below. Her name was Tulsi Mehta, and, 15 years later, ours continues to be a great friendship.

The first time we saw the Israelis and Palestinians at camp, however, they were intimidating. They held onto a breed of anger separate from ours, they knew too much, they talked too much — on both sides they were the unafraid spokespeople for their states. Though they were the same age as the rest of us, nothing about them made them seem like children. Their war made our war seem like a bit of a farce; a sham skirmish fought through propaganda and by soldiers in faraway mountains we had never seen.

In the years immediately after my summer in America, it was difficult to foresee the extent of the violence that would come to Pakistan, a relatively stable state with an enormous security apparatus. Nobody could have imagined that in only 10 years, the country would be left mutilated by suicide attacks, reeling beneath the weight of the U.S.-led invasion of neighboring Afghanistan, which morphed into domestic terrorism and major military operations in the north. War came marching down our streets, into our playgrounds, schools and bazaars, strapped to the chests of terrible men.

So many years on, what remains of that camp in my memory is a hazy recollection of laughter and bewilderment. There was swimming, rock-climbing, singing and dancing, but also “dialogue sessions,” during which opposing delegations participated in daily three-hour debates. After one, a Palestinian boy ran by our group in tears, then sat on the pier overlooking the lake until the sun nearly set. Two Israeli girls joined him, and I still recall the three small backs bent against the horizon. Sometimes it struck us that we were children hunted and haunted by each other’s people. Most of the time, we forgot.

At that age, we did not comprehend the profound impression the camp would make on our lives, freeing our minds in ways that would affect us as we became adults, parents, professionals and leaders in a world of ever more globalized conflict. I know politicians, writers, activists and soldiers who are Seeds graduates. Many of us have gone on to become journalists, among us Mujib Mashal, now a reporter for The New York Times, who was part of the first Afghan delegation to attend the camp in 2002; and Nergish Sunavala, a reporter for the Times of India, who was at camp with me. I recognize the skinny girl with the gentle voice and bushy hair in the impassioned stories she writes for her country.

Most of the campers who attended Seeds of Peace were chosen by their governments, and we came armed with sacred agendas, in the end surrendering the only truths we knew to the cause of civic discourse. As true of the Palestinian refugees and the Israeli Jews, the Pakistanis and the Indians, Seeds of Peace broke us all. Though it has now been 15 years since I first ate at a table with Jews and Hindus, those lessons guide my hand when I write my stories even today. I have Jewish friends from camp with whom I am still in touch, and knowing them has made it easier for me to challenge the problematic generalizations rampant in Pakistan’s religious and political discourse. Nobody could have anticipated then how much more important this would become for us, that in just a few months, our conflicts would merge and re-create themselves in almost all regions of the earth. This changing world order made the inclusion of a U.S delegation all the more important, with young American campers able to engage without bias in political dialogue with Afghans, Israelis, Jordanians, Palestinians and Pakistanis, to name a few — people they might never otherwise encounter in their lives.

Attacks of terror occur daily around today’s world, like the trio of suicide bombs that went off in Istanbul, in Europe’s third-busiest airport last week, targeting the heart of Turkey’s internationalism. Or, two days later, the horrifying, senseless murder of 13-year-old Hallel Yaffa Ariel as she slept in her Kiryat Arba bedroom.

The hate, racism, corruption and violence of war is now so pervasive that no place is truly safe from it, except for, perhaps, the minds of children, where different ideas may still flourish like they did in ours.

It was a great gesture of grace for our parents to knowingly expose us, their children, to Seeds of Peace — to a narrative that would challenge theirs. For Palestinian and Israeli families, I imagine this act of letting go must be downright traumatic. Still, it leaves me with great hope in the institution of parenting, and the belief that even in cynical and fearful adult hearts, there exists the awareness that there is a better way to win our wars.

Amal Khan, a journalist from Pakistan where she serves as features editor at The Nation, is currently contributing to the Jewish Journal as part of her fellowship with the Daniel Pearl Foundation.

Read Amal Khan’s story at The Jewish Journal ››

“Seeds … became my life”
Portland Press Herald

Jun 24, 2002 / No Comments

BY JOSIE HUANG | There are no wailing sirens or shelled storefronts by this lakeside camp in western Maine, only pine trees that cast soft shadows and wooden cabins lined up like Monopoly houses. But Ethan Schechter knows that scenes from their war-torn homelands will haunt the 166 teenagers arriving today for the Seeds of Peace conflict resolution camp.

And, as part of a crew of 45 counselors, he has undergone the training—unlike anything found at other camps—to help counselors get through the hard times they may face here. Aside from repainting picket fences and inflating inner tubes last week, counselors attended a trauma workshop where they learned that putting ice in the palm can bring someone out of a bad flashback. They heard Seeds of Peace staffers from the Jerusalem office describe how former Israeli and Palestinian “Seeds” live under siege, amid tanks. They got overviews on the Middle East, India and Pakistan, as well as Afghanistan, which is sending a delegation of 12 for the first time.

Several days into orientation last week, the 21-year-old Schechter could say with quiet confidence, “I feel I can be sensitive to their needs.”

Schechter, who just graduated from Clark University, is like most of the counselors: American 20-somethings who studied international relations and economics. Many are particularly interested in the Middle East, the program’s chief focus since it was founded by journalist John Wallach after the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

Having been part of the American delegation to the camp for four years, Schechter also belongs to a unique and small group of campers-turned-staffers. His first Seeds experience was in 1994, as a 14-year-old Jewish boy from New Canaan, Conn., who knew a lot about street hockey and being a kid—and not much about the world outside his.

At Seeds of Peace, he was shocked to see how his Israeli and Palestinian bunkmates lay awake at night, fearing an assault in their sleep. He was stunned when his friend, a Palestinian girl, cried as others argued about the conflict in the Middle East. The same angry voices had filled her house when Israeli soldiers came looking for her brother.

Even more amazing to him was that by the end of the session, historical enemies ended up forging friendships, or at least learned to live peaceably side by side. Schechter credits a lot of the bonding to the camp’s sports program, which puts teenagers from opposite sides of a regional conflict on the same team, be it softball or soccer.

“It’s a competition,” he said, “but you have to work together and focus on coming together, which is something pretty unique.”

At a meeting last Thursday for Schechter and other counselors overseeing sports, athletics director Chris O’Connor said that many of the campers will have never played softball, thrown a frisbee or gone swimming. It’s up to you, he told the group on the lawn of the dining hall, to encourage them.

“Get involved, play with them and get excited about what they’re doing,” said the 23-year-old O’Connor. “They’re going to feel that same excitement.”

Ground rules were laid down: Girls and boys will swim from different docks, out of respect to cultural and religious differences. And advice was dispensed to deal with teen-age boys who give their female counselors grief during sports games.

“The best thing to do is play with them … and they’ll simmer down” said Eva Gordon, a 22-year-old who works year-round in the program’s New York office. “They’re not used to seeing women play sports.”

“Don’t be afraid to discipline them,” added O’Connor, trying to look serious. “I discipline all the time.”

The group laughed as it broke up for lunch. Schechter looked happy; he was excited with his assignment, street hockey.

“It’s going to be fun once the kids are here,” he said, his eyes lighting up. “There’s just going to be something in the air.”

But remembering another key component of Seeds of Peace camp, he immediately added that “camp is not all about fun and games.”

Co-existence sessions, scheduled between the sports and crafts activities, are arguably the most important event of the day and what really separates Seeds of Peace from other camps. At these meetings, teenagers representing all sides of each conflict have a safe place to vent, role play, cry, communicate and, it’s hoped, learn how to trust.

In the meantime, professional facilitators try to foster dispute resolution skills the teenagers can use when they return home. Real-life scenarios are discussed. And while the camp has made no plans to directly address it, Sept. 11 will probably be a popular topic, especially for the Afghan teenagers whose country has undergone sweeping political and social changes since U.S. armed forces arrived looking for terrorists. Talks are always intense, and often volatile.

Scheduling coordinator Tamer Mahmoud has the heady task of deciding which campers go into which groups. Mahmoud looks at campers’ backgrounds—as he does when assigning bunk beds and making seating arrangements at the dining hall. He avoids overlap among any of the three groupings, but it’s not easy.

“There are too many variables, too many little things,” said Mahmoud, who had not finished as of Thursday. “You have Israelis, but are they Arab Israeli or Jewish Israeli?”

Like Schechter, the 22-year-old Egyptian is a former camper who came for four years, starting in 1993. At age 13, he was wary of meeting Israelis, largely because of the “Arab connection to Palestine.” But “it was important to meet Israeli people to see how they think, and do they think like their government.”

Mahmoud, who calls an Israeli “Seed” one of his best friends, has since become a vocal proponent of Seeds of Peace and, according to Schechter, a highly eloquent one. Schechter, in fact, likes to borrow a line from a recent speech Mahmoud gave at a fund-raiser in New York: “Seeds of Peace didn’t change my life. It became my life.”

“It’s really true,” said Schechter, who went from not caring about world events to studying Middle East politics in Jerusalem during high school and college. “It becomes part of your identity.”

He’s enjoyed orientation, but Schechter says he can’t wait for the campers to arrive for the first of three sessions so he can share his story, so he can show them what good can come out of these Maine woods.

“It was great hanging out with the counselors,” he said. “But it’s really all about the campers.”

Sports power couple a hit with campers
Lewiston Sun Journal

Jul 30, 2010 / No Comments

OTISFIELD | They hail from nine countries, mostly geographic neighbors but divided by invisible walls that might as well extend a million miles into the heavens.

Thursday morning they wore the same colors—the green Seeds of Peace camp t-shirt—and spoke the universal languages of sports and music.

One hundred fifty teenagers sang and rapped to Journey, Run-DMC and Sugarhill Gang as their songs, written and performed long before the kids were born, thundered from the sound system.

They whooped, hollered and high-fived as camp director Wil Smith introduced a record-long list of athletic dignitaries.

And somewhere in the back of their minds, they pictured the homelands to which they will return in little more than two weeks, imagining that someday it could be like this.

“To be honest, I don’t know all of them,” Yaara, a girl from Israel, said of the athletes. “It makes the camp special. It brings good vibes into the area, and everybody is excited to see them. Hopefully having those people here will spread our cause and our words of peace.”

The uninitiated would see one of sports’ premier power couples — soccer champion Mia Hamm and former Boston Red Sox shortstop—and wonder why they would sacrifice a day of retirement and parenthood at a remote youth camp in the foothills of Maine.

To paraphrase Hamm and Garciaparra’s reply, why not?

While Hamm interacted easily with a multi-cultural, revolving door of children, sharing the skills that won her Olympic and World Cup gold medals, her husband stood watch, wearing sunglasses and a perpetual smile. When he wasn’t busy tending the couple’s twin girls, Grace and Ava, Garciaparra occasionally interjected himself into the games.

“There are a lot of camps going on, a lot that do good things like keep kids being active, but this takes it to another level for sure,” Garciaparra said. “It’s bringing these kids together with this message and trying to make the world better. I have a lot of free time to do things. Whenever you’re playing, you hear about things like this and go, ‘Man, I’d like to be a part of that and help any way I can.’ Now that I’m retired, I can.”

Hamm, 38, scored 158 goals in an 18-year career with the United States women’s national team.

Perhaps it’s no coincidence that her first appearance at Seeds of Peace unfolded less than a month after the conclusion of a World Cup in South Africa, a nation once divided by racial conflict.

“Sports, like music, unlike anything else can bring people together. You’re out here seeing people with different ethnicities, different religious backgrounds, from different sides of the conflict, just really coming together,“ Hamm said. “They’re teammates and they’re laughing and joking and passing on the field, and that’s the step they’re taking off the field. Those are the lessons they’re going to take home.

“That’s the future of not just here at this camp but the world. Having these young, bright minds be part of it is so huge. I’m learning from them so much more than what I can teach them out here.”

Garciaparra’s agent, Arn Tellem, attended summer camp in Maine as a child and is a longtime friend of Tim Wilson, another of the camp’s directors.

Thanks to Tellem’s NBA connections, Seeds of Peace has welcomed a parade of professional basketball stars to its annual “Play for Peace” day. Free agent forward Brian Scalabrine, most recently with the Boston Celtics, appeared Thursday for the eighth consecutive year. Women’s basketball legend Teresa Edwards and NBA rookies Xavier Henry, Scottie Reynolds and Brian Zoubek joined Scalabrine.

But the double whammy of Hamm and Garciaparra was the first venture away from the basketball court, and probably a natural choice.

“Soccer is the world’s game,” Hamm said. “We just saw all the beauty it can bring in South Africa, how people unite around this great game.”

Hanna, a boy from Palestine, was less smitten with the athletes’ resumes than their willingness to identify with his dream of peace in the Middle East.

“It actually shows how much people support the cause I do. For famous people and people who have money, there’s a million other places they could be,” he said. “But they chose to be here with me, with us. It shows how much support we have from these people and how much they care about the things we do.”

The annual sports clinics are a welcome break at a camp that wields rigorous social and psychological components.

While half the group left the 10 a.m. opening assembly to spend time with the athletes, an equal number retreated to classrooms for their two-hour daily “dialogue” session. It is an often painful process at which the campers address the fear and prejudices they brought with them.

It was their turn to play in the afternoon.

“The dialogue process can get very emotionally exhausting. Those kids did not want to go to dialogue, but that’s what the camp is about. It’s brutal,” said Sid Goldman, 70, of Key West, Fla., a volunteer doctor at the camp. “In the beginning it’s about presenting their arguments. Hopefully at the end they’re listening. So the other activities encourage mutual cooperation.”

There are small delegations of campers from Maine and other parts of the United States.

“The main thing is to show that the enemy has a face,” said Kayla, 17, from Cleveland. “I’m Jewish, I was raised Jewish, went to a Jewish school my whole life. It was a shock to me as well, even being from the United States. The American delegation’s role at Seeds of Peace is a very complicated one. It’s a lot of understanding where you fit in.”

For at least a few hours Thursday, it was easy to blend.

As Smith bellowed names into the microphone, seemingly in ascending order of fame, the scene could have been confused with a rock concert or a religious festival.

“I actually learned that the other side is more than a name,” said Hadas, a 17-year-old girl from Israel. “They have personalities and families. It’s also taught me listening and understanding and an open mind.”

Standing in the background and hearing those words, with the athletes already far from the scene and walking toward their respective fields, Goldman smiled.

“Four thousand kids have come through here since 1993. Now the first kids are 28, 29, 30,” said the doctor. “They’re leaders in their respective countries. Once the parents get to a certain age, they’re beyond our reach. The idea is that these kids aren’t.”

Read Kalle Oake’s article and view Russ Dillingham’s photos at The Lewiston Sun Journal »