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2015 New Visions For Peace Fellowship
kicks off with Cyprus retreat

Jul 8, 2015 / No Comments

NICOSIA | Seeds of Peace launched its New Visions For Peace Fellowship gathering in Cyprus, convening its first class of 16 fellows for a week to connect and share their projects for a more humane, just and peaceful world.

The 2015 Fellowship was awarded to educators and artists in the Middle East, South Asia, and the United States who are putting forth fresh and practical ideas that encourage creativity, communication, critical thinking, cross-cultural understanding, and a more just, more humane future.

The June 27 to July 3 event was held in Nicosia, the last divided European capital city. Seeds of Peace partnered with three Cypriot NGOs to bring together people from both sides of the divide.

Part of the experience included a visit to the neighborhood of Arabhamet, located next to Nicosia’s ‘Green Line’ buffer zone between the Greek majority and Turkish majority sides of the island. After passing through the many checkpoints, the group’s task was to engage with the community, including its people and its physical surroundings.

“This was an exercise in awareness, which is so much a part of what Seeds of Peace does,” said Daniel Noah Moses, director of Seeds of Peace Educator Programs. “It was experiential learning; it was exploration. Alongside the rest of what we we did together, it was creative questioning of and resistance to the status quo.”

Fellows had a rare and meaningful opportunity to learn together about what’s happening on the ground in Cyprus and to relate the conflict on the island to their own experiences and situations back home. This also allowed them to get out of their comfort zones, to express themselves, to engage with one another, and to reach new levels of mutual trust and understanding. Meanwhile, over the course of the workshop, Fellows presented their own projects, inspired and supported one another, and left the island ready to get to work

The New Visions For Peace Fellowship is an investment by Seeds of Peace in educators and artists who have the greatest potential to create positive change.
 
NEW VISIONS FOR PEACE FELLOWS (CYPRUS) PHOTOS

In Search of Peace On Common Ground
The New York Times

Aug 29, 1999 / No Comments

The Israeli and Palestinian teen-agers looked slightly dazed as they boarded buses at Kennedy International Airport, heading for Kent, Conn. They had just spent 12 hours on an airplane, jammed elbow-to-elbow in coach seats. Despite different allegiances, languages and religions, all shared the bond of growing up with terrorism, their daily lives shadowed by the threat of war.

For the first time since it started in 1993, Seeds of Peace, recipient of a 1997 UNESCO Peace Prize, has left its base camp in Otisfield, Me. to hold a two-week session in Connecticut. Last Sunday, 64 Arab and Israeli teen-agers, ages 14 to 17, arrived at Kenmont/Kenwood Camp to participate in the Partnership 2000 Summer Peace Camp.

Partnership 2000 links the region of Afula-Gilboa in Israel to nine Connecticut Jewish Federations. The Kent campers come from Afula-Gilboa, the Palestinian village of Jenin and the Jordanian town of Salt.

“These kids live less than 20 miles apart, but are separated by a chasm of mutual mistrust and fear,” said Rob Zwang, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Waterbury and Northwestern Connecticut, which is sponsoring the camp.

John Wallach, the founder of Seeds of Peace and a resident of Washington Depot, is a former journalist and author of books on the Middle East. After the World Trade Center bombing in 1993, Mr. Wallach said he felt compelled to wage peace as vigorously as other people wage war.

“Seeds of Peace is a serious conflict-resolution program, not a sing-a-song, plant-a-tree-and-call-it-peace camp,” he said.

The camp provides an environment that helps kids see that the other side has a face.

“When you live together, you learn you have so much in common,” said Hilly Hirt, 16, an Israeli whose “best friend for life” is a Palestinian she met at her first Seeds of Peace session in 1996. “I don’t think of her as a Palestinian anymore,” Ms. Hirt said. “We are like sisters.”

Arabs and Israelis share bunk chores and tables in the dining hall, play fierce Frisbee games and compete in soccer, baseball and basketball as teammates. On a steep climbing wall, a Palestinian holds the rope for an Israeli and vice versa. They attend each other’s religious services, compose camp songs and whisper after lights-out. They might even short-sheet a bed or two. Camp life becomes the glue that, along with conflict resolution sessions, cements friendships.

Asel Asleh, 16, a Seeds of Peace graduate in 1997 from the Galilee, calls himself “an ex-Palestinian, currently an Arab Israeli.” Mr. Asleh described feeling like a stranger in his own land.

“My father was in political prison for five years and I have lost many friends,” he said, adding that it is an Arab Israeli’s duty to be involved, “to go out to riots, to talk, to argue.”

Still, Mr. Asleh said camp opened his eyes. “I see that person playing baseball against me. He is not an enemy. His people maybe did many mistakes, but he is my friend and that’s what is important.”

The Arab and Israeli delegations are chosen by their governments and composed of English-speaking teen-agers who often arrive with strongly held opinions. “It’s so much more important to turn kids like that around,” Mr. Wallach said. “These are extraordinary young people, tomorrow’s leaders. I tell them, I don’t care what you think, but I want the ideas to be your own. I want you to listen to the other side and realize they are human beings, too.”

David Sermer, 14, of Watertown is one of 10 Connecticut teen-agers chosen to be a host-delegate. “I’m ready to listen to both sides,” he said.

“The job of the Americans is to be neutral, a buffer, which is what the United States is supposed to be in foreign policy,” said the camp director, Timothy Wilson, who was once a school teacher and football coach. Mr. Wilson’s ethnically diverse team of counselors leads campers step-by-step through confrontation and the sharing of pain to empathy, reconciliation and friendship.

At camp, Arab sleeps next to Israeli, a reality that makes the first night difficult. Heba Kwaik, a 15 year-old Palestinian from Gaza, said she was petrified. “I didn’t realize Israeli girls would be sleeping in the same room. I was sure I’d be dead in the morning.”

Dr. Stanley Walzer, 70, the camp psychiatrist and the campers’ unofficial grandfather, said, “The kids arrive frightened, many of them very homesick.”

Campers gradually relax in an environment sensitive to individual and cultural needs. Meals are kosher. Everyone wears the Seeds of Peace green T-shirt with its olive branch logo. The religious, either Muslim or Jewish, might choose a long-sleeved shirt and jeans instead of shorts. Some Muslim girls wear head coverings, religious Jewish boys the yarmulke. “Most kids wear the same stuff Americans do,” Mr. Wilson said, “the drop-down pants, the caps turned sideways.”

Although romance at the camp is forbidden, hugs are encouraged as confirmation of friendship. Whenever campers hear that an Arab or Israeli is killed as a result of the Middle East conflict, campers and staff share a minute of silence.

“There are tears, but they are perhaps the most hopeful sign of all,” Mr. Wallach said. “To be unafraid to cry in front of each other, to be so vulnerable and so human, that’s ultimately what draws them together.”

Carole Naggar, an Egyptian Jew and artist-in-residence for the Kent session, pointed to a stack of Middle Eastern newspapers brought from home by the campers at her request. “We’re going to grind all the negative headlines into a pulp,” she said. “The kids are going to destroy all the bad images: the Palestinians throwing stones, the Israelis shooting Arabs and make clean, new paper.”

The campers use the pulp to make the new paper and a very long scroll is emerging day by day. By next Saturday, the end of the session, every camper will have contributed a drawing, poem, photograph from home, handprint or other artifact. The finished scroll will be displayed at the new year-round Seeds of Peace center in East Jerusalem, which opens this September in a building chosen because it straddles the old border between Arab and Jewish sectors.

“We’re excited to finally have a place to offer a year-round program,” Mr. Wallach said. “It’s been very challenging to help more than 1,000 kids maintain camp friendships back home where visiting is difficult, even dangerous. And, of course, we are trying to reach as many other children as possible.”

An interactive compact computer disk called “Teaching Peace” replicates the Seeds of Peace conflict resolution process and will soon be introduced into Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian school curriculums, Mr. Wallach said.

Through good times and bad, Mr. Asleh keeps in touch with almost 300 Seeds of Peace friends through E-mail. “What we are doing at camp, it changes you so deep,” he said. “To believe that maybe we can make a difference is like music to my spirit and food to my mind.”

Correction: September 12, 1999, Sunday Because of an editing error, an article on Aug. 29 about the Seeds of Peace camp in Kent for Israeli and Palestinian teen-agers described the food incorrectly. Kosher meals are available at the camp, but only on request.

Read Leslie Chess Feller’s article in The New York Times »

New leader named for Seeds of Peace
Lewiston Sun Journal

Jan 14, 2003 / No Comments

Aaron David Miller helped formulate U.S. policy on the Middle East and Arab-Israel peace process.

OTISFIELD | Seeds of Peace announced that Aaron David Miller, currently the senior adviser for Arab-Israeli negotiations at the U.S. State Department, will become president of the international nonprofit organization Wednesday, Jan. 15.

Miller replaces Seeds of Peace founder John Wallach, who died last summer. Wallach established the summer camp on Pleasant Lake to foster peace among teens from war-torn countries.

Miller joined the Department of State in 1978, where he helped formulate U.S. policy on the Middle East and the Arab-Israeli peace process. He has served as an adviser to six secretaries of state, as the deputy special Middle East coordinator for Arab-Israeli negotiations, as a senior member of the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff, in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research and in the Office of the Historian. He has received the department’s Distinguished, Superior, and Meritorious Honor Awards.

Secretary of State Colin Powell said in a statement about Miller’s departure: “ Seeds of Peace reflects the type of effort so desperately needed in the Middle East to bring Arabs and Israelis in contact with one another at a personal level. Aaron Miller is uniquely qualified to lead this effort. Although my colleagues and I at the Department of State will miss him greatly, the work he will be involved in is vital to Arab-Israeli peacemaking. I wish him much luck and success in this new career opportunity.”

Miller received his doctorate in American Diplomatic and Middle East History from the University of Michigan in 1977. During 1982 and 1983, he was a Council on Foreign Relations fellow and a resident scholar at the Georgetown Center for Strategic and International Studies. In 1984 he served a temporary tour at the American Embassy in Amman, Jordan. Between 1998 and 2000, Miller served on the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. He has written three books on the Middle East and lectured widely at universities and Middle East symposia across the country. His articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Orbis and numerous other publications.

Wallach’s wife, Janet Wallach, will remain at Seeds of Peace and head up Seeds’ New York office as senior vice president.

Miller will work out of the new Washington, D.C., Seeds of Peace office located in Canal Square at 1054 31st St.

Since 1993, Seeds of Peace has graduated more than 2,000 teenagers representing 22 nations from its internationally recognized conflict-resolution and coexistence program. Through these programs, at the International Camp in Otisfield and at its Center for Coexistence in Jerusalem, participants develop empathy, respect, communication/negotiation skills, confidence, and hope—the building blocks for peaceful coexistence. A jointly published newspaper, listserve, educational conferences and seminars ensure year-round follow-up programming.

American/UK & New York City Seeds reflect on Camp and plan program year

Sep 18, 2017 / No Comments

NEW YORK | Twenty-six new American/UK and New York City Seeds who graduated from the Seeds of Peace Camp this summer met for a day of planning and reflection on September 17.

The Small Hall Sessions program was held at the headquarters of Street Squash. The program gave the Seeds a chance to share about their experiences at Camp and their return home, as well as look ahead to Seeds of Peace programs in the coming months.

“Many of them talked about feeling that friends and family don’t truly understand the breadth and depth of their experience and longing for similar conversations as the ones they were having at Camp,” said Clarke Reeves, Seeds of Peace’s Programs and Development Manager, who organized the event.

“It was exciting to get feedback on what types of programs the Seeds were hoping to see and how we can make them logistically more feasible.”

The day also gave the Seeds an opportunity to learn about their respective programs—the American/UK Seeds took part in dialogue at Camp focused on the Middle East or South Asia, whereas the New York City Seeds focused on divides in the United States.

Six Seeds who were unable to attend the program in person took part in a phone call that followed the same trajectory as the in-person meeting.

Oklahoma City Memorial honors Seeds of Peace with Reflections of Hope Award | Newsletter

Aug 2, 2007 / No Comments

Message from the President, Nicolla Hewitt

The second session of camp has begun, and it couldn’t come at a more critical moment. With the regions in the Middle East at the forefront of headline news each day, it is clear that the greater mission of Seeds of Peace is more vital than ever. As the new Seeds of Peace President, I embrace this opportunity to make a difference in areas of the world where the need for peace and a strong generation of young leaders is so urgent. As we welcome the campers for the first session, we are reminded of the founding principles of this organization: to empower leaders of the next generation.

SeedsIn addition to the excitement surrounding camp, we also have two other new additions to our staff here at Seeds of Peace. We welcome Tammy Sun as our Executive Vice President, and Richard Berman as Chairman of the Board. As the three of us enter the Seeds of Peace family we are all eager to work together to broaden the scope of Seeds of Peace’s already impressive global impact. One of our primary tasks ahead is to create even more ways to integrate and engage our network of Seeds alumni into the programs and events that take place worldwide.

I would like to close this newsletter by thanking all who have supported Seeds of Peace in the past. It is because of donors like you that we are able to achieve success and I look forward to working together with you to build an even stronger foundation from which to grow.

Reflections of Hope Award

This year Seeds of Peace became the most recent recipient of the Reflections of Hope Award given by the Oklahoma City National Memorial Foundation. It is an award that honors a group whose extraordinary work has significantly impacted a community, state or nation. It also exemplifies that hope not only survives but also thrives in the wake of political violence. The Reflections of Hope Award was created by the Oklahoma City National Memorial Foundation to recognize those who find and, by their actions, exemplify hope in the midst of tragedy, respond selflessly and give of themselves to improve the lives of others. We are honored to receive this award.

New members of the Seeds of Peace family

SpeechNicolla Hewitt, the new President of Seeds of Peace, was a network news producer for 18 years working for ABC, CBS and NBC News before joining the Seeds of Peace team. As President of Seeds of Peace she brings a unique insight and understanding to the job, having covered stories of conflict, and stories of peace. In her capacity as a journalist, Nicolla has interviewed numerous world leaders, witnessed history, covered wars, peace treaties, and Presidential Inaugurations. Her coverage has taken her to all parts of the world, with a particular emphasis on the Middle East.

Tammy Sun joins us as Executive Vice President. Previously, she was Communications Director for the Democratic Leadership Council, spokesperson for Sen. Joe Lieberman’s 2006 general election, Deputy Communications Director for President Clinton in New York and Staff Assistant to Vice President Al Gore in the White House.

Seeds of Peace also welcomes Richard Berman, the President of Manhattanville College since 1995, as the new Chairman of the Board. As President of Manhattanville College, Richard is often accredited with turning the college around. He has successfully helped Manhattanville College to balance its books, stop selling its land, improve the acceptance rate and pay back their debts on time.

Programs and special events

On Friday, July 6, 2007 24 Peer Support Seeds (second-year campers) made the trip from camp to spend the day in New York City. The day consisted of a visit with Riyad Mansor, the Palestinian Ambassador to the United Nations, a tour of President Clinton’s office, and an ice-cream roundtable discussion at the private residence of Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.

GroupWhile our focus is most often geared towards camp, there are also several follow up programs started by graduate seeds that aim to reach out to their home communities. Recently several of our Egyptian Seeds held a charity day in memory of Omar Sherein, a Seed who was killed in a car accident earlier this year, which raised money for an orphanage in a poor neighborhood of Cairo. In addition to the great efforts being made by former Seeds, the Young Leadership Committee (YLC) has also been making strides coming up with new fundraising ideas.

Another new program instituted last year is a camp in Gaza which brings together 100 kids each week during the summer to talk about Seeds of Peace values. “In Your Shoes” and “PEACEing it Together” are two binational programs currently running that address the idea of conflict resolution through a peaceful means.

Seeds of Peace announces Aaron David Miller as new President

Jan 6, 2003 / No Comments

State Department advisor to head organization

NEW YORK | Seeds of Peace is pleased to announce that Aaron David Miller, currently the Senior Adviser for Arab-Israeli Negotiations at the Department of State, will become President of the international nonprofit organization Seeds of Peace beginning January 15th, 2003.

Secretary of State Colin Powell released the following statement about Mr. Miller’s departure: “Seeds of Peace reflects the type of effort so desperately needed in the Middle East to bring Arabs and Israelis in contact with one another at a personal level. Aaron Miller is uniquely qualified to lead this effort. Although my colleagues and I at the Department of State will miss him greatly, the work he will be involved in is vital to Arab-Israeli peacemaking. I wish him much luck and success in this new career opportunity.”

Aaron David Miller joined the Department of State in 1978 where he helped formulate U.S. policy on the Middle East and the Arab-Israel peace process. He has served as an adviser to six Secretaries of State, as the Deputy Special Middle East Coordinator for Arab-Israeli negotiations, as a Senior Member of the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff, in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research and in the Office of the Historian. He has received the Department’s Distinguished, Superior, and Meritorious Honor Awards.

Mr. Miller received his Ph.D. in American Diplomatic and Middle East History from the University of Michigan in 1977. During 1982 and 1983, he was a Council on Foreign Relations fellow and a resident scholar at the Georgetown Center for Strategic and International Studies. In 1984 he served a temporary tour at the American Embassy in Amman, Jordan. Between 1998 and 2000, Mr. Miller served on the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. He has written three books on the Middle East and lectured widely at universities and Middle East symposia across the country. His articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angles Times, Orbis and numerous other publications.

“Aaron provided invaluable support to my husband, John, when he founded Seeds of Peace ten years ago and over the years he has offered encouragement and support while the organization grew and developed,” said Janet Wallach, now serving as Interim President since her husband’s death last summer. “I am looking forward to working with Aaron now in an official capacity as he leads Seeds of Peace into its second decade.” Janet Wallach will remain at Seeds of Peace and head-up Seeds New York office as Senior Vice President. Mr. Miller will work out of the Washington DC Seeds of Peace office.

Since 1993, Seeds of Peace has graduated over 2,000 teenagers representing 22 nations from its internationally recognized conflict-resolution and coexistence program. Through these programs, at the International Camp in Maine and at its Center for Coexistence in Jerusalem, participants develop empathy, respect, communication/negotiation skills, confidence, and hope – the building blocks for peaceful coexistence. A jointly published newspaper, list-serve, educational conferences and seminars ensure year-round follow-up programming.

Please contact Rebecca Hankin, Director of Media Relations at Seeds of Peace, to schedule an interview with Aaron Miller or for more information about Seeds of Peace. She can be reached by phone at 212-573-8040 ext. 31 or via email at rebecca@seedsofpeace.org.

VIDEO: Time Out (Seeds of Peace)
National Basketball Association

Jan 18, 2018 / No Comments

This summer, current and former NBA and WNBA players, including two-time NBA Champion Matt Bonner (San Antonio Spurs), NBA Champion Brian Scalabrine (Boston Celtics), Sue Wicks (New York Liberty), and Ish Smith, Luke Kennard, and Henry Ellenson (Detroit Pistons), visited the Seeds of Peace Camp as part of the 15th Annual Play for Peace basketball clinic.

Giving Peace a Chance
New York Newsday

Aug 21, 1993 / No Comments

Arab, Israeli Kids meet in NY

BY DAVID PLANK | Middle East peace negotiations may have turned an important corner today. But it didn’t happen among stuffy old men at a table in Geneva, Paris or Madrid. It happened over hamburgers among fresh-faced boys at a table in New York.

“Ah,” Eva, 13, from Israel, said, pointing at the high-school yearbook picture of a star-to-be on a placemat at Planet Hollywood. “Michelle Pfeiffer.”

Yanya, 12, from Egypt, seated next to him, looked at the picture on the boy’s placemat and shook his head. “No. Sharon Stone. It’s Sharon Stone.”

They were both wrong. It was actually Dolly Parton. They looked at each other and started laughing when they realized that neither knew who is Dolly Parton.

They are in the United States, getting a pep talk from ex-hostage Terry Anderson at the glitzy restaurant, where they and 52 others in their group were joined for lunch by 20 New York City boys from the organization Increase the Peace. Later the 54 youths aged 11 to 14 will spend two weeks at camp in Maine, as part of a new program called “Seeds of Peace.” They are the winners of competitions in Israel, Egypt, Jordan and the Israeli-Occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Organizers hope they have started something that will, in years to come, help bring stability to the children’s war-torn homelands. For now, though, they just want them to have fun.

“I want these young men to have the best time they can possibly have,” said project founder John Wallach. “They are coming from a part of the world where death and destruction are daily realities and where hatred is in the hearts of many of their parents.”

It wasn’t easy getting them here, especially after Israeli incursions into Lebanon in the past few weeks. Wallach said the Egyptian government suddenly pulled the plug on the Egyptian kids’ passports two weeks ago. Only outraged cries from their parents and lots of last-second work by Seeds volunteers saved the day. Security concerns also weigh heavily both in the United States and after they return home. Reporters are not allowed to use any last names.

But the hard part is over, said Wallach, looking happily over a roomful of “enemies” talking, laughing, and playing together. “Two years after peace talks have started, it’s high time that the governments are sent a message that the people can get together,” he said.

U.S. Is Ending Final Source of Aid for Palestinian Civilians | The New York Times

Sep 14, 2018 / No Comments

By Edward Wong

WASHINGTON — As part of its policy to end all aid for Palestinian civilians, the United States is blocking millions of dollars to programs that build relationships between Israelis and Palestinians, according to current and former American officials briefed on the change.

The move to prevent Palestinians — including, in many cases, children — from benefiting from the funds squeezes shut the last remaining channel of American aid to Palestinian civilians.

The money had already been budgeted by Congress for allocation in fiscal year 2017, which ends this month. In the past, these designated funds went mostly to programs that organized people-to-people exchanges between Palestinians and Israelis, often for youth. Some went to programs for Israeli Jews and Arabs.

Advocates had hoped this last $10 million pot of money would remain available to projects with Palestinians, even as the Trump administration cut all other aid.

But last week, officials from the United States Agency for International Development told congressional aides that programs that benefit Palestinians alongside Israelis would not receive any new money, said Tim Rieser, foreign policy aide to Senator Patrick Leahy, Democrat from Vermont. Mr. Leahy established the broader program managed by U.S.A.I.D.

The agency’s officials did not want to cut programs with Palestinians, but had to accommodate a White House that does not want to send American funds to Palestinians, Mr. Rieser said.

As a result, only programs with Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs will get funding, contrary to the tradition of the funds and intent of Congress.

“Essentially, U.S.A.I.D. was faced with the choice of shutting down the program and losing the funds, or keeping something going,” Mr. Rieser said. “They decided to support programs that involve Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs.”

Programs currently on multiyear grants will still get all their funds, Mr. Rieser said.

In a statement on Friday, U.S.A.I.D. said it is “currently unable to engage Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza as a result of the administration’s recent decision on Palestinian assistance.” The agency said it was “continuing its support for civil society working on these issues within Israel.”

The broad push to cut all funding to Palestinian civilians is promoted by Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of President Trump and the top White House adviser on the Middle East. Mr. Kushner has been working on a peace proposal for the Israelis and Palestinians, and is seeking maximum negotiating leverage over the Palestinians.

He also has criticized the Palestinian Authority and President Mahmoud Abbas for refusing to negotiate after Mr. Trump declared in December that the United States was recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

“Nobody is entitled to America’s foreign aid,” Mr. Kushner told The New York Times on Thursday.

In late August, the Trump administration announced it was redirecting $200 million that was set aside last year for bilateral aid to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. Soon afterward, American officials said they were ending funding to a United Nations aid agency for Palestinians and redirecting $25 million intended for hospitals in East Jerusalem, which has a mostly Palestinian population.

Until those moves, the United States was one of the largest national donors of aid to Palestinians.

Before last week, advocates of aid to Palestinians had said they hoped American officials would not bar Palestinians from access to the $10 million in funds from what is known as the Conflict Management and Mitigation Program. The program receives a total of $26 million annually from Congress and was established in 2004 by Mr. Leahy. (The other $16 million is spent elsewhere in the world.)

The change means members of Congress will revisit the annual practice of setting aside $10 million, mostly for Israeli-Palestinian exchange programs, Mr. Rieser said.

“Senator Leahy regards the decision to cut off funding for the West Bank and Gaza as a sign that this White House has failed at diplomacy,” he said. “This is not a partisan view. It’s the view of those who recognize that you don’t advance the cause of peace by cutting off programs that are designed to promote tolerance, understanding and address shared problems.”

The money from the United States is almost a quarter of the annual global funding for peace and reconciliation activities between Israelis and Palestinians, said Joel Braunold, executive director of the Alliance for Middle East Peace, a coalition of nongovernmental organizations that seeks United States support for such activities. The grants are bid out for as much as $1.2 million over three years, and are by far the largest of their kind, he said.

Cutting off programs that benefit Palestinians “would deeply damage the integrity of the program,” Mr. Braunold said. “If they don’t change their track, I can’t perceive a situation where Congress would support this.”

Mr. Braunold stressed that any groups that receive grants this year for Israeli programs were still doing worthwhile work.

The change also means Palestinian nongovernmental groups would not be given funds, he said, adding that some such groups had won bids before.

The American aid agency previously said the funds’ aims are “to support Israelis and Palestinians working on issues of common concern.” Last year, the funding proposals sought to support “cross-border projects that bring together Israelis and Palestinians and activities that bring together Israelis, Palestinians, and Jordanians are strongly encouraged.”

The aid mission and embassy have given out 126 grants since 2004.

The program activities vary widely, such as bringing Israeli and Palestinian almond farmers together and organizing soccer games for Palestinian and Israeli girls.

One group, Kids4Peace, won a $800,000 grant for a project that “connects more than 1,000 youth and parents from East and West Jerusalem and neighboring West Bank communities in cross-border programs,” according to an aid agency fact sheet. Those include workshops, home visits, community service projects and religious holiday events.

“We’re concerned that changes in aid would hurt the people most essential to any peace agreement by jeopardizing the momentum of organizations like ours,” said Father Josh Thomas, the group’s executive director. The group sees “huge demand from Palestinian and Israeli families.”

The project’s grant runs out in 2019, and under the current decision the group would need to cut Palestinians from activities to be eligible for future grants.

“The bottom line is if you’re a Palestinian, you don’t have access to any of this,” said David Harden, a former American aid agency official who managed projects for 11 years in the West Bank and Gaza and who had been briefed on the decision. He called the decision vindictive. “Once you cut out East Jerusalem hospitals and cut out girls playing soccer with each other, it’s the end of hope.”

“Reconciliation activities should be beyond politics,” he added, saying that the programs had been very effective.

R. Nicholas Burns, a Harvard Kennedy School professor and former senior American diplomat who worked on Palestinian issues, said that “cutting off all American economic and humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people is meanspirited and beneath a great nations like ours.”

“Republican and Democratic presidents have tried for decades to position the U.S. as an honest broker between Israel and the Palestinians,” he said. “President Trump has abdicated that critical role and squandered our influence and credibility with the Arab world on this critical issue. This is diplomatic malpractice of the highest order.”

Read Edward’s article at The New York Times ››

Seed Stories: Unraveling the mystery

Jun 27, 2019 / No Comments

Six years ago, I was an introverted teenager from Palestine who was flying to the United States for the first time to attend a summer camp deep in the woods of Otisfield, Maine. I was a 16-year-old who had taken on the challenge of stepping out of my comfort zone, leaving home, and questioning the beliefs and prejudices that I had learned growing up.

For the first time in my life, I was surrounded by a diverse group of people from multiple parts of the world. It would also be my first time being part of a community that fostered confidence and celebrated difference. By the end of those three weeks, I made special connections with people I never thought I would even have a conversation with, and most importantly, I had found a second home.

This year, I am a journalism major going into my senior year, and one of my graduation requirements was that I take part in an internship program over the summer. I am fortunate enough to have the privilege of returning to that same summer camp I went to in 2013, this time both as a counselor and as an intern of the organization’s communications team. Meaning that this summer, I will be providing you a look from inside at the different aspects of Camp that are usually kept a “mystery” until our campers arrive.

This dual role definitely brings with it a challenge: how do I offer this valuable insider’s view while also not revealing too much? I don’t want to take away from the magic that participants experience when they get here, which is one of the most special things about Seeds of Peace. That being said, I will be writing a series of blog posts throughout the summer that give an intimate view on what goes on during the time spent at Camp. A “behind the scenes” of the program, if you will.

These blog posts will range from describing the training that counselors go through during orientation before the campers arrive, sharing a conversation with the kitchen staff to learn what it takes to feed such an international and diverse group of people, discovering how the campsite is maintained throughout the year, revealing moments of transformation, and describing how Seeds of Peace manages to create an inclusive community that is very different from what teens usually experience, among other things.

A large number of our campers come from areas of conflict and war, and stepping into a safe space where they are accepted and supported is an unfamiliar feeling to many of them. Six years ago, Seeds gave me the self-confidence and courage to use my voice and speak about the injustices happening in the world, and this summer I’m looking forward to seeing the impact Camp has on our participants and to share it with you all!