“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I’ll meet you there.”
Start-ups for peace
NEW YORK | Sofia (Executive Director of Afghans for Progressive Thinking) aims to empower Afghan women to become financially independent by providing professional skills, leadership training, and legal knowledge. Ahmed (Founder of the Lincoln School System) believes that girls must have equal educational opportunities in his native Pakistan. Stanford University graduate Justin (Founder of Bandura Games) uses the start-up culture of San Francisco to equip NGOs with better tools to build communities and reach cross-conflict audiences.
Tel Aviv-based activist Keren (Executive Director of Shutafot) combines an entrepreneurial spirit with her skills as a lawyer to expand the Jewish-Arab Shutafot coalition. She will continue to tackle gender injustice by creating resources like an interactive map of women’s organizations. Meanwhile, Zoe, a lawyer from Lahore, is building an app to connect young professional women with mentors all across the globe.
Seeds of Peace is proud to announce its second class of 17 highly accomplished GATHER Fellows from the Middle East, South Asia and North America. What unites them is their optimistic start-up spirit and their unwavering passion for peace despite intensified regional tensions. Among their social change endeavors are projects that address education, gender equality, the power of cross-cultural theater and music productions, as well as the creation of efficient mentoring networks.
The 2016-2017 GATHER Fellows embody courage to lead change. Their devotion to conflict transformation inspires people in their communities and across borders. The Fellowship will help them to deepen their impact by providing intense leadership training and networking opportunities.
“I strongly believe that just like you need different strings and keys to play a tune, bringing changemakers from all over the world to learn and explore strategies together will strengthen their individual efforts,” says 2016 GATHER Fellow Pious, the first African-born Muslim immigrant to be elected into public office in Maine, and who is now running for city council.
“I am looking to meet, learn and share my thoughts with my peers from around the world during the opening week of the Fellowship in London.”
The GATHER Fellowship is part of a larger initiative launched by Seeds of Peace in 2015 that invests in inclusive, practical social change led by alumni of Seeds of Peace and other emerging changemakers. The year-long program supports innovation and practical action by providing Fellows access to the resources necessary to unlock the potential of their vision.
“Our first class of Fellows has made enormous progress with their projects during the one year training that Seeds of Peace provided to them. We are glad that our program has had such an enormous impact on their work and on their respective commmunities,” says Seeds of Peace Executive Director Leslie Lewin.
The GATHER Fellows will convene in London from November 13-20, 2016, to take part in trainings, workshops, and expert-led presentations that speak to their professional and personal needs. They will benefit from an individually-tailored leadership development curriculum that offers coaching, networking, and opportunities for them to engage with their local community.
This year, Seeds of Peace is excited to be cooperating with Alan Harlam, Director of Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship at Brown University’s Swearer Center for Public Service. Alan founded Brown’s Social Innovation Initiative along with a group of visionary students in 2007; the program now reaches hundreds of students and alumni each year. He developed a course on Social Entrepreneurship that introduces students to the transformative impact that social entrepreneurs have in society.
“Alan has coached hundreds of successful changemakers over the years, and our Fellows will certainly greatly benefit from his expertise and leadership,” says Jerusalem-based GATHER Director Jonah Fisher.
“The collaboration with program partners such as Brown University and Burson-Marsteller is a fantastic asset for us,” says Lewin. “We are grateful for their generous pro-bono support.”
The 2016-17 GATHER Fellows receive a stipend to support their initiatives. They come from diverse professional backgrounds and include lawyers, community engagement experts, tech entrepreneurs, educators, youth and women activists, musicians, and theater directors.
For media requests, please contact huberta@seedsofpeace.org
About Seeds of Peace
Seeds of Peace is a leadership development organization committed to inspiring and cultivating new generations of leaders in communities divided by conflict. We equip them with the skills and relationships they need to accelerate the social, economic, and political changes essential for peace. Our network now encompasses nearly 6,400 alumni throughout the Middle East, South Asia, Europe, and the United States who are uniquely positioned to lead change.
Children are talking peace in the woods of Maine.
BY JERRY SMITH | At Camp Seeds of Peace, about 20 miles west of Portland, 175 Jewish and Muslim teenagers are living together “as one nation” in a camp under the Seeds of Peace flag. The teens are from Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Morocco, Palestine, Qatar and Tunisia, and unlike many adults in their homelands, they’re finding ways to resolve conflict without bombs, bullets or stones.
I spent more than a week teaching table tennis and listening to the young people at the camp, where my son is head counselor. The teens split their days between recreation and attending what are called “coexistence sessions.”
In the sessions, the Arab and Israeli teens learn skills that they draw upon while they live, play and work together each day.
This is not easy for these young people, who have been taught prejudice by adults and by life experiences, such as the recent bombing in Israel and the offensive paintings on th wall at a Muslim mosque in Palestine.
The camp began five years ago as the embodiment of the vision of John Wallach, who left a 30—year career in journalism to become president of the privately funded Seeds of Peace. During my visit to camp, one morning before breakfast I talked about the program with this ambassador of peace, who told me much about the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict. He was enlightening with dates and events from 1000 B.C. to 1997, ranging from the impact of the Roman Empire, the birth of Mohammad in 636 A.D., British and French control after World War I, the effects of World War II and the Holocaust, the United Nations land treaty in 1948, the Arab and Israeli wars, and the ongoing initiatives by Arabs and Israelis for peace.
At the flag—raising ceremony on the opening day of the camp, I listened as Wallach told the assembly, “This is the first day you are standing together. No where else in the world are your people standing together in peace this way. You are here to show your people that there is a better way.”
At another meeting he told campers, whose ranks included a nephew of Palestinian president Yassar Arafat and a cousin of Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netan Yahu, “You are here to think for yourself. You are not here to represent your government.”
At a news conference with the Maine press, Wallach told reporters about the focus of Seeds of Peace: “It’s a sensitizing process here for the kids. We teach them how to listen, how to respect one another. It is back to the basics, almost like a detoxification process.”
Returning home from the peace camp, where several days earlier I witnessed Arab and Israeli teenagers walking with their arms around each other, I was broken-hearted to hear about the bombing in Jerusalem.
The suffering and loss that the children had talked about in the coexistence sessions seemed more real now. It was easier to understand what the teens meant when they said that they distrusted compromise but feared the no—compromise attitude of conservative elements from both sides.
I empathize with the teenagers. They hardly have time to be children before they must face the cultural, political and ethnic conflicts in their homeland.
I went to Maine to teach table tennis to children from the Middle East and to spend time with my eldest son. Thanks to a tip from a Moroccan teenager, I am a better table tennis player; however, my greatest satisfaction is that those Arab and Israeli children will take seeds of peace planted in America and transplant them to Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Morocco, Palestine, Qatar, Tunisia and other countries in the Middle East.
One day these seeds will bear the fruits of peace in the land where Elijah, Mohammad and Christ once walked. Then the people of that land will walk as the children did at camp—with their arms around one another.
BY TERRY AHWAL AND DAVID GAD-HARF | A few months ago, the two of us shared an incredible experience that has changed the dynamic of how we relate to each other. Along with five other Detroit-area leaders in the Palestinian and Jewish communities, we traveled to a small town in Maine for the dedication of a children’s camp called Seeds of Peace.
For years we had crossed paths, giving Jewish-American and Palestinian-American viewpoints on issues in the news. Our debates were on television and radio, but never done face-to-face. Eventually we seized the opportunity represented by the 1993 signing of the Middle East peace agreement, and we began to talk directly to one another.
We continue to disagree on many fundamental issues: the proper interpretation of Mideast history, the reason for the Arab-Israeli conflict, the causes of terrorism, and the best way to reach a comprehensive peace agreement. Our commitments to our particular communities have never wavered. We do agree, though, that a just peace is necessary for the survival of our people.
Our trip to the Seeds of Peace camp created a new bond between us and a bond among all of us who traveled there. We realized all of us share the same hope for peace. With this shared commitment, we have dedicated ourselves to support Seeds of Peace and other initiatives that will help bring a brighter future to the Middle East.
The camp is the brainchild of John Wallach, a journalist who cared deeply about the Middle East and wanted to contribute to its stability. It brings together young Israelis, Palestinians and other Arabs for four weeks in which they share sleeping quarters, participate in camp activities and talk about co-existence.
During our visit to the camp, we observed heated discussion on subjects such as Jerusalem, terrorism and history. Facilitators helped the youngsters convey their feelings honestly and then explore solutions to even the most complex problems. The youngsters did role-playing to try to experience each other’s perspectives, an activity that would have been impossible to do in their homelands.
Listening to the intense debates, the conclusion could be that there is no hope for the future. But as the discussions ended, the youngsters began interacting in ways that showed some real friendships had developed during their weeks at camp. They had arrived as enemies, but they were able to cross the boundaries that divided them.
At the camp dedication ceremony, government officials from the United States, Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Jordan attentively listened to the campers as they voiced their hopes, dreams and distress. The leaders seemed inspired by the children and took the opportunity to get to know one another in this informal setting. The children had taught the diplomats a lesson in diplomacy.
The future of the Middle East depends on young people such as the ones we observed in Maine. Their attitudes have not yet hardened and experiences such as those at the camp can provide a foundation for the rest of their lives. In an age of cynicism and despair, especially in the Middle East, these children can hope for a better future. A durable peace will be achieved only if tomorrow’s leaders can break from their past stereotypes and hatreds of each other.
Although the camp environment is artificial and bears no resemblance to what the youngsters will encounter when they return home, a “seed of peace” has been planted. We wish today’s leaders could be mandated to attend the camp, to learn from the children the art of negotiation and mutual respect.
For generations, conflict in the Middle East has shattered the lives of the people entangled in it. Years of battle have left them insecure and fearful of each other, unable to carry on a normal existence. From the children, we have learned that being on different sides of this conflict does not mean that we have to be enemies.
Terry Ahwal serves on the Board of Ramallah Club of Detroit. David Gad-Harf is executive director of the Jewish Community Council of Metropolitan Detroit.
BY IRIS BURKE | Last Monday, Seeds of Peace finished up the first session of a new program called Beyond Borders, a summer camp where Arab and American teens come together to learn about each other.
The new Seeds of Peace President Aaron David Miller, who worked on the Middle East conflict for the State Department for 25 years, created the program.
Founded in 1993 by John Wallach, an author and journalist, Seeds of Peace is a place where young Israelis and Palestinians, Indians and Pakistanis, and other conflicting groups live, work, and play together. The idea is that eventually they will learn to look beyond their conflicts and understand each other.
According to Rebecca Hankin, Seeds of Peace director of communications, the organization noticed the misconceptions being created after 9/11 about Arabs and Americans, and decided to apply the philosophy of Seeds of Peace to this new problem, and Beyond Borders was born.
The new program follows the same basic model as the other camps, with a month-long summer session and then later in the year a conference where the participants, known as “seeds,” reconnect.
Beyond Border Seeds are chosen in much the same way as the participants for Seeds of Peace. They go through a series of tests and interviews and are chosen by their academic and leadership abilities.
The camp is much like any other summer camp with the exception that Seeds meet daily to discuss issues specific to their conflicts with professional mediators on hand. Those same groups rotate together through the rest of the day.
Hankin said that through activities like sports, bonds are formed between traditional enemies. Participants learn tolerance and respect in the daily dialogue sessions, and later to trust each other through games and everyday living situations.
Many wonder if this is necessary, if there is really that much of a cultural rift between the United States and Arab worlds.
Tamer Omari and Amer Kamal, two USM students who have participated in the Israeli/Palestinian camps, said yes, there has to be something out there to help people understand each other.
Since 9/11, many Arab-Americans say, they have suffered from a steretype that casts them all as Islamic extremists. At the same time, many in the Middle East see Americans as gluttonous and selfish.
Both Omari and Kamal pointed out that the media is partially to blame, saying that it has blinded people on both sides of the conflict.
Seeds of Peace says they are a-political, but some activists accuse the organization of being biased, based in America and Jerusalem, and influenced by Jewish-Americans.
Burke points out that there are no offices in Hebron, Gaza, or other Palestinian territories and that it is extremely difficult for Jews to go to the Palestinian areas.
When asked about these complaints, Kamal, a senior business and international relations student, said the organization used to be strongly influenced by Jewish-Americans, but after Miller took over in 2003 things became more balanced with more Arab counselors.
He said that one of the ways that the program avoids being biased is by allowing people to talk about anything they want during the dialogue sessions.
Kamal, who didn’t speak to the Israelis at the camp for the first two weeks, said, “You grow up knowing that person is an enemy and when you go to the camp it helps break the ice, and you realize that person is human like you … It made me able to listen to them … I wouldn’t say its always successful because even though I understand them, I’m still angry. My country is still occupied.”
For Michael Garber, a 15-year-old from Massachusetts, the Beyond Borders program was a great experience. Before he participated in the camp he thought that most Arabs agreed with the extremists.
After spending time with them, he learned that Arabs are not all extremists and he now believes their religion is very peaceful. He was also able to teach them about American culture. He said that a lot of the Arab kids didn’t understand that what the government does in America is not necessarily what all Americans want or believe.
Since he is Jewish a lot of the Arabs asked about his views on Israel, and he was able to help them understand his point of view.
Many of the activities were geared toward helping the Seeds understand themselves while also looking through each other’s eyes. One activity Garber said was especially challenging was one where he was asked to list the 10 most important parts of himself. Then he was asked to cut seven of those things, forcing him to decide on the top three. When the lists were made, Seeds switched chairs and were told to read each other’s lists and try to imagine themselves as that person.
Garber said, “Its hard to cut out pieces of yourself. It’s hard to think of yourself without your family … but it taught us a lot about ourselves and each other.” Garber said that his time at Beyond Borders will be useful as he plans to go into international relations and now he has a better understanding of Middle Eastern cultures.
He said perhaps one day, some of the participants will become leaders for their countries and these experiences will help them communicate and understand each other’s side.
Garber plans to continue the friendships he built at Beyond Borders, saying “there is a second session in Jordan later this year and I can’t wait to see everyone again.”
NAUSHEEN RAJAN (SEED, 2010) | Have you ever wondered what it would be like living in the Middle East? Each day brings new struggles, which can be frustrating. However, there are many high school students in the Middle East who have to live with the fear of not knowing what will happen and have courage to face it.
Luckily, these kids attended an international camp called Seeds of Peace, where teenagers from the Middle East come together for three weeks to exchange ideas.
This is a chance to hear all sides of the story and hopefully, to create a step near achieving peace.
The Middle East conflict has more depth and breadth than we can imagine, which is why these kids from the camp volunteered to give us a glimpse of what goes on in the Middle East from a new perspective.
Seeds of Peace is thrilled to have been chosen as one of State Bag’s charitable partners.
Not only did they donate a portion of the proceeds from their summer bag collection to our organization, but State Bags is raising the visibility of our work and mission through its #WhatDoWeTellTheKids campaign. Watch this video featuring six of our Seeds!
And meet Scot Tatelman, founder of State Bags.
Seeds of Peace: Tell us about State Bags. We understand there’s a connection to summer camp.
Scot: I’ve been a camp person my whole life. I worked at a for-profit summer camp in Maine and saw an opportunity to bring kids from underfunded communities in Boston to this beautiful, empty camp facility after the summer camp kids left. I worked with the Mark Wahlberg Foundation and the Boys and Girls Club. In 2005, we launched Camp Northbound and it became a huge success. It opened my eyes to giving the gift of camp to kids who wouldn’t otherwise have that opportunity.
Eventually, it became a well-oiled machine and I wasn’t needed anymore. I moved to New York City and worked in nonprofit in every underfunded community across the city. I wanted to take the model of Camp Northbound and adapt it to kids locally, so I put together a vision for what is now Camp Power. We bring kids from all across New York City’s underserved neighborhoods and take them out of the city for a week to a summer camp in Pennsylvania.
I bring up Camp Power, because we spent a lot of time in the neighborhoods where our campers live and we noticed that many kids were coming to camp, or going to school, with their belongings in ripped shopping bags. I thought ‘This is nuts!’ There are all these companies doing great work overseas with one-for-one models (you buy a product, and the company donates the same product to a person in need), but very few companies were focusing on kids here in the United States.
So we wanted to take the one-for-one model home to serve kids locally, but to do it with the energy and spirit and vibe of Camp Power, which is all about role models and positive messaging. We started State, which at the time was a one-for-one bag brand. For every bag we sold, we donated a fully-stocked backpack to an American child in need through our bag drop events. We went all across the country and put on rallies. We still do work with big name celebrities like Beyoncé, Chance the Rapper, and President Obama.
It just kind of turned into a business. I don’t want to say it was accidental. But we were like ‘How did this happen? We just wanted to do something good.’ And now we have this brand, and part of the beauty of it is that my wife has a really deep background in fashion, which we blended with my background in philanthropy.
Seeds of Peace: What charitable initiative are you most proud of?
Scot: We started to separate ourselves from a one-for-one brand to a brand that took risks to stand on the right side of history through our What Do We Tell The Kids platform. Our first project was for Black Lives Matter, then we moved into LGBTQ issues, and then harmful language around disabled communities. We did it in parallel to what was going on in the political sphere, with people feeling marginalized and scared and fearful of their present and future. We would focus on a city or cause and find ways to shed light on that issue and work with people who were passionate about it and doing incredible work.
Seeds of Peace: What was it about Seeds of Peace that drew you in?
Scot: I can’t put into words the power of camp. For me, as a kid who had the resources and was privileged to be sent to camp from 8 years old to probably too old … 27! … I was a changed person. I learned about myself, I learned that I wanted to work with kids. I shaped kids. I could reach kids on a level that I never could have in another capacity.
Seeds of Peace not only provides that gift of camp, but brings kids together into a place and does what I’m trying to do for my own kids … teach empathy. I feel like that’s what’s missing in the world right now. Understanding each other, and each other’s differences and struggles. And I feel like the beauty of Seeds of Peace is creating that sense of understanding. State Bags is a company that’s built on camp and built on empathy; there’s no better organization than Seeds of Peace to rally our resources around.
Seeds of Peace: Do you see a common thread between a lot of the problems we’re facing in this country and in the world?
Scot: There’s so much venom and so much hate and lack of empathy right now that when issues arise, it’s just fuel on the fire. I’m struggling with this—for me to find common ground with people who support the travel ban or support taking away LGBTQ rights to marriage— if you can conversate and create dialogue and say ‘Tell me why you feel like this,’ then maybe you can empathize with their fears. But we’re at a point right now where we’re short fused and everyone’s angry. And that’s a really scary world to bring kids up in.
Seeds of Peace: What should be the role of business in addressing some of these issues?
Scot: I’m a huge believer that if you have a platform, and you have a voice to speak to the masses—whatever those masses are—it’s a responsibility. Especially in today’s world. Whether you’re leaning left or right, or right in the middle. This is too important a time to too many people to not utilize your voice to get people to think. We made a really kind of scary, but conscious decision that we were going to be on the right side of history and we were going to talk about things that we felt needed to be talked about, shed light on things that other businesses would shy away from. And I understand the risk. We’ve lost Instagram followers and email subscribers. But I’m a big believer that everybody is passionate about something and people work for companies that have certain values. It’s almost a duty now for companies to take a stand on something and to use their voice to do that.
Seeds of Peace: What advice would you offer a young person today?
Scot: I know it’s an extreme example but when you look at what happened in Parkland and you see people like Emma Gonzalez and these other young kids who have been part of something so tragic, and then all of a sudden just become these enormous influential people across the globe, it speaks to the fact that the power of your voice is real. And there are different ways to utilize it now. Social media, mobilizing, whatever. Unfortunately, a lot of youth feel that they’re not heard or they’re glazed over. But I look at the Parkland kids and they have truly created change at 16, 17, 18 years old. When young people come together for a common cause, incredible things can happen.
Have faith in the fact that there are for-profit companies out there that are committed to doing the right thing, beyond making and selling stuff. When you start pursuing your career, start to look at those types of companies if that’s of interest to you. Be the change. If those companies can do things better, show them new ways. There is good out there. You just have to find it.
Days 1 and 2 | December 1-2, 2009
The final component of the Women’s Leadership Training Program has officially launched in Washington, DC. Fourteen Egyptian, Israeli, Jordanian, and Palestinian Seeds reunited after seven months apart while they launched women’s empowerment projects in their home countries.
Two day-long trainings helped Seeds share best practices, challenges and project achievements. After reviewing the main components of the initiative’s April Amman Summit, such as experimental learning cycles and program management, the group focused on taking its projects to the next level.
Day 3 | December 3, 2009
In the morning, participants presented their projects in front of the group as well as staff from CEDPA and Seeds of Peace. The presenters detailed the process of turning their ideas into actions, narrating the challenges and triumphs of their journeys. They told the audience of their process in the form of a story, which made their ventures into facilitating economic independence in women more than just statistics; their stories turned the issue of economic empowerment into something personal, putting names and faces to those they are helping. Each woman also emphasized that their endeavors had a huge effect on them. Rather than being at the endpoint of their initiatives, the majority of women are planning on continuing on their path of serving others.
Upon learning about the ventures each participant undertook, the group offered support and encouragement; they inspired each other to continue their work. In discussing each program, the group also made recommendations to help the program’s founder or founders further their goals and endeavors. Many participants received contacts and connections, while others received content advice and materials.
In the afternoon, the groups were able to engage in deeper reflection on their programs. The participants divided into their project groups and elaborated on their accomplishments while listing their goals for the future. Each received suggestions in order to accomplish their plans and to reach more people.
Day 4 | December 3, 2009
As the training began to wind down, the participants learned the value of monitoring and evaluating their projects. The facilitators emphasized the importance of having both quantitative and qualitative benchmarks that measure the progress and the results of each initiative. The data they collect will help them improve their programs and demonstrate to donors their effectiveness and validity, creating an opportunity to obtain more support for their continuation.
The participants then learned to identify obstacles and opportunities for empowering women in active and post conflict settings. Each woman expressed great interest on the topic of including their projects in the peacebuilding process.
The group also gained the skills to construct elevator speeches in order to prepare for their meetings with members of Congress and the State Department. Condensing their programs into 60 seconds seemed difficult to some at first, but each person was able to create an articulate summary of her project with ease. Everyone finished the day feeling prepared for next week’s presentations.
Day 5 | December 5, 2009
Participants had the day off today to explore the US Capitol. Groups toured the National Mall and monuments and took in some of DC’s shopping scene. Many chose to rest and prepare for their meetings at the White House and on Capitol Hill.
Day 6 | December 6, 2009
Today, participants had the chance to reconnect with the Seeds of Peace staff and community in Washington, DC. This began with a meeting between the participants and Ashleigh Zimmerman, Seeds of Peace Coordinator for Graduate Affairs, on the relevancy of the Seeds of Peace experience in their adult lives. The participants agreed that trainings such as the Women’s Economic Empowerment, which provide concrete skills for graduates are highly beneficially to older Seeds. The discussion also included how Seeds of Peace can continue to support these women as they begin to scale and take their projects through their next steps. Finally, they discussed how the Seeds plan to reinvest their new skills back into the Seeds of Peace Community by holding similar trainings for younger Seeds in their community and serving as volunteers, advisors and mentors for Seeds in their home countries.
Later in the evening, the Women’s Empowerment participants joined Seeds from all Camp years, Seeds of Peace Camp counselors and former staff at the Busboys and Poets restaurant. This evening gave the DC community a chance to meet the participants (and members of the New York staff).
Day 7 | December 7, 2009
What a busy day for the Seeds! The participants spent the morning utilizing their skills in delivering elevator speeches while in a roundtable discussion with State Department officials. The group spoke about the necessity of programs directed at women’s economic participation in the formal sector and how it will aid the development of their respective nations. In turn, the officials gave the ladies resources they can employ in order to further their projects.
Being away from their projects and regular lives, the women were able to reflect on the lessons they learned from the Women’s Economic Empowerment Program. Most expressed that self and community awareness is one of the greatest lessons that the ladies acquired and that they were able to apply it to all aspects of their lives. The women spoke on how the skills and knowledge they obtained helped them with their jobs or school as well as the manner with which they communicate with others. The majority of women also spoke on their delight at being able to make a difference and fulfill one of the needs of their countries.
The Seeds concluded the day with a reception at CEDPA to showcase their programs in a more relaxed setting. The women were able to utilize the lessons they learned throughout the training process to ensure that they expressed their thoughts and ideas in a clear and precise manner.
Day 8 | December 8, 2009
In the interest of continuing with their projects, the Seeds asked for a training that specifically dealt with fundraising. The women were able to learn about an assortment of places where they can obtain capital for their initiatives. The ladies also learned about various methods and tips in their approach to possible donors.
Later, the participants had a busy day meeting with political leaders. The first stop on the itinerary was the White House where they met with White House staff members Tina Tchen, Jenny Kaplan, and Jane Thomasine. Throughout the afternoon, the Seeds patiently explained their projects with each of the four—five for some—meetings scheduled.
It may have been a long and tiring day, but it was not apparent when the ladies were presenting. They spoke with so much passion, almost as if they were discussing it for the first time. It was apparent that all their practice, dedication, and trainings paid off as they eloquently discussed a variety of issues with political leaders and their staff.
Day 9 | December 9, 2009
Seeds started the morning with CEDPA’s surprise announcement of a grant competition to support the women’s empowerment teams with up to $1,000 of additional funding to continue their projects. Teams will need to submit a proposal to CEDPA explaining how their projects would benefit from additional funding and detail the amount needed to implement their next phase.
Following this exciting announcement, the group met to evaluate the program and brainstorm ideas for future efforts. They shared their opinions on the best aspects of the program and those which could be improved upon in the future. The group also discussed possibilities for additional training to continue their development as leaders. It was decided that the women would try to meet again in Egypt six months from now. Finally, they spoke about ways they can be further integrated into both Seeds of Peace and CEDPA future programming.
The group was then joined by additional Seeds of Peace and CEDPA staff members, in addition to Lori Jackon, Director of ExxonMobil’s Educating Women and Girls Initiative. During the graduation ceremony, Ms. Jackson congratulated the group and shared how their work exceeded all of her and ExxonMobil’s expectations for the program. She also shared her excitement in bringing Seeds of Peace and CEPDA together for this venture and hopes for continued partnership between the two organizations.
Representatives from CEPDA and Seeds of Peace then made their own remarks about the success of the partnership and participants’ projects. Seeds Rasha Mukbil and Keren Greenblatt thanked the three organizations for providing this opportunity before receiving their certificates of completion with the 12 other graduates of the program.
The day concluded with a lunch for all the staff and participants with Lori Jackson. From there the group said their goodbyes and headed back home with new ideas, and a renewed belief both in the power of women to change the world and their ability to create that change as Seeds of Peace.
In February of 2015, over 200 changemakers from 20 countries around the world met in Jordan for GATHER+962 to take practical steps towards transforming conflict in and between their communities.
GATHER, a Seeds of Peace initiative, marked a new milestone in Seeds of Peace’s journey as a leadership development organization. Matt Courey, Vice President of the Seeds of Peace Board of Directors, shared why this matters at the opening of the inaugural event.
“The world has changed since Seeds of Peace was founded in 1993. In some ways the paths to change seemed clearer then. We said things like, “Treaties are signed by governments, Peace is made by people.” We didn’t spend much time thinking about if treaties are NOT signed by governments. Well—now we have to. For better and for worse, non-state actors are taking the initiative all over the world to affect the change they want to see. Now it’s our turn to thoughtfully and strategically create the change that we want to see.
“Drawing on lessons from conflict transformation in places like Northern Ireland, South Africa or even going back to the Civil Rights Movement in the US, we are building the infrastructure for change out of a much broader array of career choices—journalists and businessmen, artists and educators, women leaders and entrepreneurs—equipping all relevant actors to accelerate the social, political and economic change necessary for peace to take root.
“Seeds of Peace was founded with the goal of empowering new generations of leadership. Well guess what? Here we are, one generation later, demonstrating a belief in professional aged changemakers to be that new generation of leadership—in practice, in the present, like right now.”
Watch video of Matt’s opening remarks.
GATHER+962 opening Remarks delivered by Matt Courey
My name is Matt Courey. I am a Managing Director at Credit Suisse, a Swiss bank, where I run a bond trading desk. In 2002, I met Bobbie Gottschalk, co-founder of Seeds, and I asked the question you are all thinking: What in the world could a bond trader possibly do with an organization like Seeds? The answer would follow. I started with the Young Leadership Committee in New York. I helped found Seeds of Peace UK in London. I quit my job to work as a Camp counselor. And I traveled to the region to see our programs and visit our amazing graduates.
My Story
So here’s my story: I’m the grandson of immigrants from Syria and Lebanon. I grew up in the US during the awful Lebanese Civil War, and struggled to create a life and a career that had meaning for me as a Lebanese American. In my travels to over 90 countries, in my day-to-day work with colleagues and clients, and of course with my circle of family and friends, Seeds of Peace has shaped how I engage other people, how I listen and value what people share with me as a gift to be absorbed and processed, slowly but surely building my own sense of purpose.
Over the last five years, I’ve served on the Seeds of Peace board, which has grown dramatically and diversified. I have personally experienced the incredible evolution of our organization and our community—bottom to top—culminating here with our flagship graduate program, GATHER.
Seeds of Peace GATHER Initiative
I want to acknowledge the difficult choice that many of us made to come here today. It was likely unpopular. And the logistics of physically moving yourself from your homes to get here was probably difficult and even dangerous. So take a look around: from Palestine and Israel, from Egypt and Jordan, from Cyprus and the Balkans, from Pakistan and India, from the US to Afghanistan—all of us are coming from realities that are violent and oppressive in one way or another.
So with a solemn appreciation of the realities that we all overcame to get here and a reiteration of our common conviction that we refuse to accept those realities, I want to warmly welcome each and every one of you to GATHER.
From the beginning, Seeds has meant a lot of things: bringing people together, communicating to break down barriers, reflecting on and affirming identity, building and sharing dreams.
The world has changed since our founding in 1993. Back then, there seemed to be clearer paths to creating change—we would hope for a couple of our graduates to end up as president or prime minister of their country. We said things like “Treaties are signed by governments, Peace is made by people.” We didn’t spend much time thinking about if treaties are NOT signed by governments. Well—now we have to. For better and for worse, non-state actors are taking the initiative all over the world to affect the change they want to see. Now it’s our turn to thoughtfully and strategically create the change that we want to see.
So while we re-worked our language and broadened our goals, at our core we are still the same Seeds of Peace: bring people together, talking and respecting, sharing a vision of a world where we don’t have to accept what is, when we know what can be.
Drawing on lessons from conflict transformation in places like Northern Ireland, South Africa, and even going back to the Civil Rights Movement in the US, we are building the infrastructure for change out of a much broader array of career choices—businessmen and journalists, artists and educators, women leaders and entrepreneurs—equipping all relevant actors to accelerate the social, political, and economic change that is necessary for peace to take root.
So while we’ve re-worked our language and broadened our goals, at the core we are still the same Seeds of Peace: bring people together, talking and respecting, sharing a vision of a world where we don’t have to accept what is, when we know what can be.
Let’s be Tough on Ideas and Gentle on People
So let’s use these next few days to connect people, ideas, and resources. We want to balance the need for rigorously-researched ideas with our fundamental value of respect. So let’s be tough on ideas and gentle on people.
Speaking of people, let’s talk about who’s here. So the community we’ve assembled includes Seeds of Peace graduates, other emerging leaders from the Middle East and South Asia, and established leaders in philanthropy and finance, diplomacy and technology, and media.
Thanks to the recent growth of our board, thanks to the creation of the Global Leadership Council, thanks to our record as the oldest and largest program of our kind, and thank to our hard-earned reputation for political neutrality, we are uniquely set up to attract this caliber of human capital to support our growing community of changemakers.
Let’s Disrupt the Status Quo
Part of our mission is to disrupt the status quo, and that is a concept and a task that exists on lots of different levels, but I want you to reflect on three. First, at the basic level of individual choice: disrupting your own status quo. Learning and unlearning, allocating your time and resources to your initiative, even your choice to be here today.
Second, at the opposite end of the spectrum, disrupting the status quo in broadest sense. Re-imagining a better world—what does that mean for you? Equal opportunity for economic empowerment, gender equality, care for the environment, an end to violence in all its forms, a media which educates and empowers as much as it entertains—whatever your vision is for your initiative, embrace as a key part of the process: imagination as disrupting the status quo. JK Rowling (the author of my favorite books, the Harry Potter series) once said: “We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.”
Re-imagining a better world—what does that mean for you?
Third—somewhere between the individual commitment to change on a small scale, and imagining a better society on a large scale, disrupting the status quo means something in the middle: coming together in groups, small and large, to leverage and learn from each other’s ideas and experiences, each other’s careers and talents, each other’s resources and time. That is why we are here. Individual and collective action, inspiration and impact.
A New Strategic Direction
Seeds of Peace was founded with the goal of empowering new generations of leadership. Well guess what? Here we are, one generation later, demonstrating a belief in professional aged changemakers to be that new generation of leadership—in practice, in the present, like right now.
This is not a one off initiative but part of a new strategic direction, in line with the age of our graduates and the evolving social and political terrain in the regions in which we operate. In June of this year, for example, we’ll be running a Gather Leadership Incubator in London, to support some of the initiatives that develop here this weekend.
Here we are, one generation later, demonstrating a belief in professional aged changemakers to be that new generation of leadership—in practice, in the present, like right now.
As with all things Seeds of Peace, much of the potential of Gather rests in the days afterwards, in the ways you take it home—leveraging this network to improving on an idea, working with someone you meet here to turn an idea into action, or simply participating in the larger support system of the Gather community by helping others in function or in morale. It all counts. And it starts with you.
A Turning Point
As a final thought, 50 years ago this month, US president Lyndon B Johnson finally took the offensive in the fight for civil rights for African Americans with an unprecedented speech to congress demanding the passage of the Civil Rights Act. Thanks to a mosaic of coordinated efforts from the likes of Martin Luther King and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference, to Rosa Parks and the Women’s Political Council, to the Freedom Riders and unnamed white and black business owners who worked together to minimize violence, it was a ten year acceleration of individual and collective action, inspiration and impact that led to Johnson’s momentous speech. He opened by saying this: “At times, history and fate meet at a single time in a single place to shape a turning point in man’s unending search.”
For him it was the search for equal rights for African-Americans. For you it could be the search for many different things. The hashtags you submitted when you applied to Gather included: #OneLaptopPerChild #responsiblerefugeereporting #EnoughWithBiasedHistory #Educategirls
When I think about the 22 years of growth at Seeds of Peace, when I think of the thankless job our staff has done in managing the logistics of this conference, when I think of the choices all 200 of you have made to be here, I get pumped for the new few days. History and fate have indeed brought us here because we refuse to accept what is, when we know what can be.
I want to warmly welcome each and every one of you to GATHER.
Learn more about GATHER ››
Read a Christian Science Monitor article about GATHER ››
JERUSALEM | In the dark and silent Seeds of Peace center, where Israeli and Palestinian teens socialized together daily a few months ago, staffer Huwaida Arraf has little to do these days other than scan Web sites for the latest death toll in the Israeli-Palestinian violence.
“Every day I check the list of martyrs, and every day I’m hoping that it’s not someone I know,” said Arraf, a Palestinian.
Arraf’s worst fears were realized once already, early in the clashes that began Sept. 28. Assil Asleh, an Israeli Arab who was a popular leader in the conflict-resolution program, was shot to death during a demonstration. Wearing his green Seeds of Peace T-shirt when he died, Asleh became an instant symbol for many Israelis and Palestinians of their shattered hopes.
Some of the best and brightest young people in both communities have been through the Seeds of Peace program, competing for their right to represent their people in what for most was their first extensive contact with “the other.” The idea was to build relationships among future leaders of Israeli and Palestinian society.
But today, Seeds’ young members find themselves on the front lines of a violent conflict that threatens to sweep away all that the program stood for.
More than 12 weeks into fighting that has claimed more than 325 lives, Seeds is in trouble—as is nearly every organization that has tried since the 1993 Oslo Peace accords to foster grass-roots relations between Israelis and Palestinians. The personal contacts such programs promoted have withered as two societies pull apart into hostile camps.
There are still organizations on the Israeli far left that send volunteers to help Palestinians harvest olives, to distribute food to people living under curfew or simply to show solidarity. But they are few, and Palestinians regard their efforts with mixed emotions.
“We welcomed the Jews, we are happy that they come to show solidarity, but it creates a security problem for us,” said Hussam Daoud, council chief in the West Bank village of Hares, where Israeli activists helped pick olives last month. “We don’t know who these Jews are. People don’t feel secure about them being here.”
The teenagers who participated in Seeds have been hit hard by the breakdown of relations. In the program, they visited each other’s homes, partied together, took trips. Now, many no longer speak to each other, and some can only exchange bitter recriminations via e-mail.
“This goes out to Rita and to everyone who thinks like her,” wrote Amer, a Palestinian living in a refugee camp, in an e-mail sent to Seeds participants last month. “The intifada will continue unless your government will DO SOMETHING different than killing people… I do go throw rocks and other ‘killing stuff,’ but at the same time I want peace, just peace… I guess this is all I can say.”
Nadav Greenberg, a 17-year-old Israeli and graduate of the program, said he still e-mails and telephones Palestinian friends, but the exchanges are often difficult.
“Initially, there was a lot of confusion and anger and disappointment,” Greenberg said. “Our daily Internet newsletter was filled with a lot of angry stuff and people frustrated by the situation. But what amazed me was that even the Palestinians who sent angry letters cared enough to write.”
Some Palestinians concluded that Seeds gave them a falsely positive image of Israelis. Najib Makhlouf is one of them. The 16-year-old disc jockey who wears fashionably baggy clothes and a large silver crucifix on a chain around his neck lives in the West Bank village of Beit Jala, a graceful collection of stone houses and churches on hillsides just south of Jerusalem.
Four months before the current intifada began, Makhlouf was delighted when an Israeli high school booked the Beit Jala disco where he works and danced the night away to the hypnotic music called trance.
Now he and his terrified family spend most nights huddled in the stairwell of their apartment building as Israeli attack helicopters and tanks fire into the village in retaliation for Palestinian gunfire on the nearby Jewish community of Gilo. His girlfriend’s father was killed in one such attack. His grandparents’ home was badly damaged in another. His 2-year-old brother screams whenever the shooting starts.
“When Israelis from Seeds called me after this started, they made me so angry,” Makhlouf said. “They said, ‘We need protection.’ I stopped taking their calls. They talked sense in camp, but now they talk nonsense. Seeds wasn’t reality, it was just words. Now I see the truth.”
Seeds of Peace was founded by American journalist and author John Wallach in 1993 and has since hosted 1,200 students between the ages of 14 and 17 at summer camps held in Maine.
Seeds is funded by the U.S. government and private donors. The governments of participating nations select delegations of students, which have included both the elites of Arab and Israeli society and teenagers from Jewish settlements and Palestinian refugee camps.
“Never before have our kids been put in a situation like this,” said Adam Shapiro, director of the Seeds of Peace center in East Jerusalem. “They have taken it harder as a group and have been caught off-guard. The shock they have felt may have been greater than [for] other people.”
The longer the fighting goes on, Shapiro said, the harder it will be for the teens to maintain their links, though he hopes the program will hold trauma counseling if and when the violence ends.
“These people feel isolated now,” Shapiro said. “People in their communities so easily fell into the old thought patterns.” Israelis and Palestinians who participated in coexistence groups have been taunted, even threatened, within their own societies for consorting with the enemy.
Organizations that promote Israeli-Palestinian dialogue have never been part of the mainstream in either society. Even after the Oslo peace accords were signed, contact remained largely superficial, confined mostly to business ties and negotiations between leaders. But several groups did try to touch on the real issues that divide the two sides and break down stereotypes.
“I look back nostalgically to the warmth of the relationships we had before this happened,” said Rabbi Jeremy Milgrom. He is the field director for Rabbis for Human Rights, a 12-year-old organization of about 100 Israeli rabbis who have worked on human rights issues with Palestinians inside the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The groups’ activities are on hold, Milgrom said, and his friendships with Palestinians have been reduced to occasional phone calls.
“You get on the phone, you are at a loss for words,” he said. “You can’t compare the situation they are in, sitting there expecting another volley of shots.”
The work of coexistence groups has also been hindered by actions of the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority.
Early on in the current conflict, Palestinian nongovernmental organizations, with the backing of the Palestinian Authority, banned contact with most Israeli groups promoting coexistence. The Israeli military’s closure of areas in the West Bank and Gaza also limited interaction.
Faced with the reality that contact between their Israeli and Palestinian participants could be dangerous, Seeds of Peace canceled a full calendar of events for the winter and spring. It is unclear whether Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and the governments of Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and other Arab states will send delegations to the next Seeds of Peace summer camp, Shapiro said.
For now, the staff serves as a sounding board for confused, angry, and grieving program graduates. It telephones Palestinians whose towns and villages are under Israeli military siege or bombardment, and counsels Israeli Jews who are angered and frightened by the rage they have seen in the streets and heard in their Palestinian friends’ voices.
“I know that some of our kids now feel it would have been easier for them if they had not gone through Seeds of Peace,” Arraf said.
Abdel Salam Khayyat certainly does. “Oh, yes, it would have been much, much, much easier for me,” said the 19-year-old pharmacology student at An Najah University in Nablus. Since the fighting erupted, Khayyat said, he has lost Assil Asleh and another close friend, who was standing near Khayyat when he was shot to death during a clash with Israeli troops in that West Bank town. Along with many other Palestinians active in Seeds, Khayyat is taking a time out from the organization and contact with most Israelis he knows through it. But he cannot unlearn the experiences he had during four years in the program, he said.
“I cannot forget something fantastic like Seeds of Peace,” he said. “But I spent four years with Seeds and 19 years with Palestine. My people love me and I love them. Every day, I’m seeing Jihad, my friend, before my eyes and thinking about Assil dying in a Seeds of Peace T-shirt. It is a huge conflict inside me.”
Before he went to his first Seeds summer camp in Maine at 16, Khayyat said, “The only Israelis I knew of were soldiers and settlers. If a bombing happened inside Israel, I didn’t think that maybe a friend of mine has been killed.”
But at camp, after nearly going home during the first week “because I could not imagine myself sleeping, speaking and eating with Israelis who are killing my people,” Khayyat found himself arguing with and eventually befriending Israelis. Even in the current crisis, he said, there are two Israeli members of Seeds with whom he stays in touch.
“Call Inbal,” he urged. “She’s a good friend. She is a very good friend. And she’s a settler.”
Inbal Shacked, 17, has lived in the West Bank settlement of Beit Arye since she was a toddler. Ariel Sharon, now leader of the right-wing Likud party, was the driving force behind establishment of the settlement on a hilltop with a commanding view of a coastal plain and nearby Palestinian villages. The leafy community with its red-roofed villas is the only home she’s ever known, Shacked said. Until she joined Seeds, she never gave much though to how its residents were viewed by their Palestinian neighbors.
“Before Seeds, I didn’t know much about politics, but I was a supporter of the Likud and I believed my way was the right way,” she said. “I didn’t look at them as people who suffer but as terrorists who want to kill me and who are against my people. I went through a huge change in Seeds.”
She shares Khayyat’s confusion, and she too thinks life would have been simpler had she not volunteered when a teacher asked two years ago whether anyone in class was interested in politics, spoke English and might want to meet Palestinians.
“The last weeks have been so difficult,” she said. “On the one side, Seeds of Peace is saying, ‘we’re still here: You have Palestinian friends.’ On the other side, I am an Israeli and 36 Israelis have died. But so many Palestinians have died. I know that we must defend ourselves, but I ask myself: They are coming with stones and we are coming with tanks. It is possible? Is it logical? Is it fair?”
Shacked said she called Khayyat after the violence erupted. She was taken aback when he told her that he had thrown stones at Israeli soldiers.
“I thought that I couldn’t call him anymore,” she said. Instead, she turned to a Seeds counselor who suggested she put her feelings in writing as an e-mail to her friend. Then one day she found a short message from Khayyat on the screen of her cell phone, the way they used to message each other in happier times.
“He said ‘There’s another Day of Rage tomorrow,’ so I messaged back, “Take care, where are you?’” Since then, they frequently message each other, and have spoken on the phone.
“I try not to talk too much about the conflict,” Shacked said. “I think I should leave it out of my discussions with him.”
Whatever happens, she is convinced that her bond with Khayyat will survive.
“He is the Palestinian me,” she said. “He didn’t look at me as a settler or as an Israeli, but as someone who feels just the same as him. He was the one who understood me the most. I’m sure that our friendship is stronger than anything; he touched me in my heart.”
Even when she gets angry at the Palestinians and thinks her government should do more to quell the violence, Shacked said, she thinks of Khayyat and wonders how she could go on if he became the next Palestinian victim.
Maybe, she said, “Seeds is the most crazy thing to believe in right now, but it might also be the only thing to believe in, the only pure and true thing, the only thing that can help.”