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Remembering Asel Asleh,
20 years after his killing

Oct 2, 2020 / No Comments

Today is the 20th anniversary of the killing by Israeli police of Asel Asleh, a 17-year-old Seed who first attended the Seeds of Peace Camp in 1997. Below is a tribute to Asel written by Seeds of Peace co-founder Bobbie Gottschalk. Learn more about Asel, his life, his killing, and his legacy at www.seedsofpeace.org/asel.

Asel initially had a hard time finding a role for himself at the Seeds of Peace Camp. As a Palestinian citizen of Israel, he felt Jewish members of the Israeli Delegation distrusted him, and as a member of the Israeli Delegation, so did Palestinians.

He asked me to help him. As a clinical social worker, I had always tried to help people capitalize on their strengths, rather than focus on their perceived weaknesses. So, I told him that he was in a perfect position to be a “bridge person.” In other words, since he was part of both groups, he could help them understand one another. This designation immediately gave him a role at Camp. He took it on and ran with it.

Asel made friends from all delegations. After Camp he stayed in touch with them by visiting and writing to them regularly. He even organized AOL chats late at night where they joked and teased each other, as well as debated serious political subjects.

Asel also wrote prolifically in Arabic, Hebrew, and English. Eventually, he wrote essays that were either published in our magazine, The Olive Branch, or sent to everyone on a listserv that appeared daily in all the Seeds’ email inboxes. His writings inspired others to respond to his essays. Eventually, the work involved in posting the letters written by Seeds from all over the world became too burdensome, so I took it over as an official Seeds of Peace project called SeedsNet. SeedsNet went on for eight years and only stopped when Facebook became popular.

Asel once asked me what he could do to make himself an interesting person. I was surprised that he didn’t think he was interesting already. I suggested that he start by reading some of his parents’ books and newspapers and sitting in on conversations his parents had with visitors to his home. Not long after that, Asel began to discuss the ideas of various philosophers and I could barely hold up my end of the conversation.

Another time, Asel told me that his high school seemed really boring to him. I asked him if he had any other options. He didn’t think so. Soon after, I just happened to meet Father Elias Chacour from Ibilin, the next village over from where Asel lived. He ran a Christian school in Ibilin. I asked him if he would accept a Muslim student from Arrabe. He said he might but first he wanted to meet him. Asel did go to meet Father Chacour and was immediately accepted to that school, where he excelled until his killing about two years later.

There were two lines from a poem by the 13th-century poet Rumi that seemed to perfectly describe Asel’s view of humanity. When I told him about it, he said he could totally identify with that perspective. Asel used it almost as a mantra from then on, using it in an essay he wrote, called “Peaceful Thoughts” and in many other writings.

Out beyond ideas of wrong-doing and right-doing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there.

If you’re a part of the Seeds of Peace community, you’ve likely heard these words in one way or the other—through songs, the name of our organizational newsletter, on countless messages sent between campers, and on a sign next to the sports field at Camp which is visible to everyone every day, where a group of 2008 Campers painted “This is the field” in memory of Asel. Before Asel, those lines in Rumi’s poem had no relationship to Seeds of Peace.

Asel’s story resonates with so many Seeds and their eye-opening experiences at Camp. They are all faced with decisions about how they will live together with people they have been taught to fear and distrust, even hate. His legacy is to encourage us all to go beyond blaming and threatening, beyond head-coverings and other outward differences. Instead we should look for the essential human being in every person and relate to that person, not to the costume or the reputation of their group identity.

A Letter To Ahed Tamimi On Her Birthday, From One Teenage Girl To Another
The Forward

Jan 31, 2018 / No Comments

As seen in The Forward on January 31, 2018

Dear Ahed,

I know that you’ve grown up facing the daily brutality of the Israeli Occupation and that right now, on your 17th birthday, you’re sitting in Israeli prison.

But I need to tell you something: I am alive because of Israel. I mean that literally. My paternal grandparents were able to escape Nazi occupied Poland by coming to what was then called Palestine and what would soon be called Israel. That land gave my grandparents a place to go, a place that saved their lives and made mine possible.

So, it was only natural that, growing up in America, I viewed Israel as a safety net. Israel was the place my grandparents had grown up, and a fun vacation destination. I remember so clearly visiting the “Mini Israel” theme park on my summer visits to Israel. I would look proudly at the the model Kotel, the tiny tanks and army bases, and the miniature camels. Mini Israel was exactly what Israel was to me, a playground where I felt safe.

It’s amazing how different two childhoods can be.

At my Jewish day school I was taught to rely on Israel. I was reminded that only the Jews will protect other Jews, that we are hated, and that without Israel we will have nowhere to go when “it” happens again. I didn’t know there was any opposition to Israel. I didn’t know the word Palestinian. It wasn’t obvious to me that there had been people living on the land to which my grandparents arrived. When I was growing up, I could never have even imagined someone like you, Ahed.

My narrative was clear: Israel was a land without people for a people without land; Israel saved me and my family; anyone who says otherwise is an anti-Semite who wants to hurt me.

But Ahed, my narrative began shifting a few years later when I came out of the closet. I felt rejected by my Jewish community; the reaction of people around me was negative and I felt angry. All my life I had been told that what’s most important about me is that I am a Jew and suddenly I felt like I couldn’t even be that anymore. I pretended I wasn’t Jewish for a few years because I thought the only way to protect myself was to reject my community before it rejected me. I became someone who was “raised Jewish” but made sure people knew that I wasn’t a “Jew.”

As I distanced myself from the community in which I had grown up, I started to hear different narratives about Palestine. I got used to seeing Instagram posts and news headlines that made me sick to my stomach and angry at the country I had been taught to love — who knows, maybe one of those headlines was about you or your family. They are all a blur now.

Then, this past summer, I went to a camp called Seeds of Peace. Seeds is a small camp in Oatisfield, Maine that looks exactly like all other Maine summer camps; a bunch of ramshackle wooden buildings in the middle of the woods clustered around a beautiful lake. The international sessions of Seeds hosts delegations of kids from Pakistan, Indian, the US, the UK, Jordan, Egypt, Israel, and Palestine. Everyday we would do normal camp things like playing sports, choreographing dances, or writing parody songs on the guitar. We would also have two hours of dialogue about “the conflict,” either in South Asia or the Middle East.

It was in those dialogue sessions that I first met a Palestinian person and heard a Palestinian story firsthand. All my life I had heard stories of Israeli suffering, Israeli soldiers and civilians killed by Palestinians. I knew those stories and had steeled myself against them, but the Palestinian stories overwhelmed me. My Palestinian friends did not feel safe anywhere. Daily life under the occupation is a nightmare for them, a nightmare that no one deserves.

Every day in dialogue we would hit the same wall. A Palestinian kid would talk about something that was causing them suffering, like checkpoints or the Israeli military presence in their everyday lives, and the Israeli kids would say that those things were necessary for Israeli safety.

Ahed, it became clear to me that there was a direct price for Israeli safety: Palestinian lives, Palestinian joy, and Palestinian safety. Your life, your joy, your safety.

A few weeks into Seeds, I felt hopeless, confused, and crushingly guilty. I felt guilty because it hurt to see fellow Jews, parts of myself, commit atrocities. I felt guilty because my life is so much safer than that of any Palestinian or Israeli, and I don’t deserve safety any more than they do. I felt guilty for being guilty because my emotions seemed worthless and selfish.

Slowly, I started to realize that the main root of my guilt was that I felt like my life had been traded for the life of a Palestinian. My life traded for yours.

If I am alive because of Israel, if I am able to feel safe because of Israel, and Palestinian children my age — like you Ahed — are not alive or not safe for the very same reason, then my life was traded for theirs. As I met and befriended the people whose suffering was caused by the same entity that had brought about my existence, my guilt ate me alive. My safety was traded for your safety, for the safety of every Palestinian person I met at Seeds, and safety of the over 300 Palestinian kids sitting in an Israeli jail with you.

Why should I be safe while you are not, Ahed?

I don’t know the balance between my safety and your safety, but I do know that we are all equally deserving. I know you deserve better — that all Palestinian kids deserve better and Palestinian people deserve better simply because you are human. I know that my guilt is worthless unless I use it to motivate me. I owe my life to Israel, and to me that means I owe my life to Palestine. As long as I have somewhere to go and you don’t, Ahed, I must work with all of my might to change that.

Read American Seed Ariela’s post at The Forward â€șâ€ș

Youth Chorus Unites Israelis and Palestinians, at Least for a Few Hours
The New York Times

Jun 27, 2015 / No Comments

JERUSALEM — Avital Maeir-Epstein and Muhammad Murtada Shweiki live about 150 yards apart in Abu Tor, a Jerusalem neighborhood that straddles the pre-1967 armistice line, a mostly invisible but politically charged marker of this city’s Israeli-Palestinian divide.

The teenagers live on opposite sides of that divide, but for a few hours each Monday afternoon, they come together.

Avital, 16, is a soprano and Muhammad, 15, is a tenor/bass in the Jerusalem Youth Chorus, which brings together young Israelis and Palestinians for singing and dialogue sessions run by professional facilitators. Established in 2012, the chorus is one of the few coexistence initiatives to weather the hatred and violence that have erupted on both sides over the past year.

Meeting in one of the rare places here that are considered neutral ground, the imposing Jerusalem International YMCA on King David Street in West Jerusalem, the group does not ignore the politics but creates an alternative environment where young Israelis and Palestinians can discuss their differences while producing music together.

“It was very hard last year during the war,” said Avital, who was dressed casually in shorts and a T-shirt as she sat with other singers. She was referring to Israel’s 50-day offensive against militant groups in the Gaza Strip last summer, when Gaza was under Israeli bombardment and rockets fired from the territory reached the outskirts of Jerusalem. “We were getting different news — ‘Arab’ news and ‘Israeli’ news,” she said. “It was complicated, but we went through it together.”

Muhammad, looking more formal in a white dress shirt, with his hair shaved and sculpted, immediately recalled the “shahid,” or martyr, Muhammad Abu Khdeir in a discussion of the traumatic events of the past year. A 16-year-old Palestinian from East Jerusalem, he was kidnapped, beaten and burned to death by three Israeli Jews in early July after the bodies of three Jewish teenagers who had been kidnapped and killed by Palestinians were found in a shallow grave in the West Bank.

Avital and Muhammad, who had not met before joining the chorus, were speaking at a final rehearsal before the Jerusalem Youth Chorus left for its first tour in the United States. The group has performed over the last two weeks in the Yale International Choral Festival in New Haven and at various other stops, including New York and Washington, and is scheduled to appear in Philadelphia on Sunday.

The Israeli-Palestinian youth chorus was the idea of an American, Micah Hendler, who grew up in Bethesda, Md. Mr. Hendler, 25, attended Seeds of Peace summer camps in Maine with Israeli and Arab youths, studied Arabic and Hebrew, and majored in music and international relations at Yale. He said he came to Jerusalem three years ago to see if the sense of community that evolved in the controlled environment of a summer camp in the United States could be recreated in the gritty reality of Jerusalem.

With the bravado — some might say naĂŻvetĂ© — of an outsider, Mr. Hendler went into schools on both sides of the city. Within weeks, 80 youths showed up for auditions, a majority from East Jerusalem, where Mr. Hendler had less competition in the realm of extracurricular activities. He picked 35 teenagers aged 14 to 18. There has been some natural turnover over the years, but about half of the original team is still involved.

“What I saw in starting the chorus was that if you look at things only through a political lens, the situation is pretty hopeless,” Mr. Hendler said. “But if you consider it, people are not only political objects. They have lives; they want to connect.”

“There are ways,” he added, “of getting beyond the intractable structures we have set up for ourselves.”

Mr. Hendler runs rehearsals mostly in English, but also in Hebrew and Arabic. The teenagers translate for one another as necessary.

Political, religious, social and cultural issues add layers of complexity. There is only one Israeli boy in the chorus. Palestinian boys are more naturally attracted to the idea, coming from a tradition of mawwal, an Arabic vocal genre based on poetry. (“We have some excellent female tenors,” Mr. Hendler remarked.) Conversely, Palestinian girls from conservative Muslim families are more likely to go home after school, not get on a bus to the west side of town to sing with Israelis.

Many Palestinian political activists are also increasingly rejecting what they see as unnecessary interactions that could be construed as a normalization of relations with the Israeli occupier. Some 300,000 Palestinians — about a third of Jerusalem’s population — are residents of East Jerusalem, territory that Israel conquered from Jordan in the 1967 war and then annexed in a move that has never been internationally recognized.

Given the sensitivities, several Palestinian boys said they had told only their closest friends about their involvement in the chorus, and Mr. Hendler is careful about where the group performs, avoiding overtly nationalistic events on either side.

Then there are the starkly different musical backgrounds. Parts of the repertoire combine traditions of Western harmony and Arabic rhythms. The chorus performs Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” in the style of the Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum and has composed an original song that incorporates rap and mawwal. A highlight was the recording of a special version of a Phillip Phillips song, “Home,” with Sam Tsui, a YouTube star who sang with Mr. Hendler in college.

Outside the community they have created, the teenagers keenly feel the turmoil around them. Over the past year, there have been tensions over a contested East Jerusalem holy site, a deadly terrorist attack on a West Jerusalem synagogue, a series of vehicular attacks against Israelis and violent clashes between Palestinians and the police, including in Abu Tor, which is normally peaceful.

“Every single day was different,” said Avital, who lives on a mixed street. “I didn’t know how I felt about it — safe or not safe.”

Amer Abu Arqub, 18, from the Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Hanina, said that he had found himself in West Jerusalem on Jerusalem Day, when hard-line Israeli nationalists take to the streets to celebrate the reunification of the city, and that he had been careful to speak in English on his cellphone.

The chorus members have begun to socialize outside of rehearsals, connecting through a WhatsApp group and going to movies or to one another’s homes for birthdays.

But looming in the future are more divisive issues to grapple with. When the Israelis turn 18, for instance, they will be drafted for compulsory military service.

“That’s the plan,” said Aviv Blum, the Israeli bass. Some of the Palestinians “have very defined views” on the issue, he said, adding, “I guess we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

Read Isabel Kershner’s article at The New York Times â€șâ€ș

Alumni Profile: Anis
Music education for refugees

Jul 10, 2018 / No Comments

Our alumni are working in ways small and large to make an impact in their communities. This “Alumni Profiles” blog series will feature some of our over 7,000 changemakers in 27 countries around the world who are working to transform conflict.

Over 27,500 refugee children are living in Greece today, displaced from their countries and their homes. They are vulnerable, having departed in a hurry, endured a dangerous journey, and lost nearly all elements of their previous lives.

In 2016 Anis, a tour manager for renowned orchestras in one of the world’s leading classical music agencies, volunteered at a refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos. The sense of hopelessness pervading the children he worked with left him distraught—but also emboldened him to take greater action.

“As I got there and saw the situation of neglect and loneliness the refugees live in, I immediately knew I needed to connect with my work and bring a music education program to the numerous children I got to know,” said Anis, who is a 2018 Seeds of Peace GATHER Fellow.

His experience in the refugee camp inspired him to embark on a project that uses music education as a tool to bring opportunity and humanity to refugee children: El Sistema Greece. The NGO’s mission is to transform conflict through music, friendship, and mutual human support.

Anis recognized a need for opportunities that not only help to empower children in refugee camps, but also help integrate them into their new societies. Having travelled the world with various orchestras, Anis understood art, and music especially, to be a universal language. In Anis’s words, he was “inspired to use it as a tool for consolation, regeneration, empowerment, and education for the children of the camps.”

El Sistema Greece started with only two dozen participants in a refugee camp near Athens; it has since grown to over 500 participants in six different “nuclei” that participate in El Sistema-organized music classes and concert performances.

The organization is now offering free music classes not just to refugee children, but also to migrants and Greeks as well to foster social inclusion. More than 20 different nationalities are represented in these music classes, and Anis is dedicated to embracing this diversity—what he calls the “new face of Europe and, by extension, the new face of the world”—by creating as inclusive and harmonious an organization as possible.

Anis immediately saw the potential of joining efforts with Seeds of Peace because of their shared goal of finding innovative methods of conflict transformation. The GATHER Fellowship has connected him to a community of other individuals dedicated to similar goals, and the exchange of ideas and resources has had a meaningful impact on both Anis and El Sistema Greece.

“We all realized from the beginning that being part of this community will allow us to dream bigger and make joint projects happen,” he told us.

“Today El Sistema Greece is partnering with the other Fellows’ projects, giving a more international frame to what we try to achieve locally.”

Anis sees his organization as a way to create communities that recognize the value of refugees through an education model that embraces understanding, openness, and teamwork. He believes that conflict can be overcome through shared creation, and that El Sistema Greece functions as a social equalizer: all the participants of student performances, regardless of their background, are equal contributors to making the best music possible.

Anis hopes that this work will show others that an inclusive society is possible, and that it will help to change the perception of refugees from a burden to society to individuals who bring talent and richness to new communities. Beyond empowerment, education, and community-building, Anis believes the music lessons and performance opportunities El Sistema Greece provides serve as an emotional outlet for children of conflict suffering from trauma.

“El Sistema Greece [seeks to have refugees] transform their loneliness into creative citizenship,” he said. “The physical act to sing or to play an instrument releases stress and tensions. Traumatized children can find a relief with music. This model is replicable to other conflictual zones in the world and could well be one of the solutions to providing a better education to all the children that are experiencing post-war traumatic anxiety.”

Education through music is not only a passion for Anis, but a responsibility. He sees it as society’s collective responsibility to do more to give refugees, especially youth, the opportunities they need to achieve social inclusion.

Learn more about El Sistema Greece â€șâ€ș

VIDEO: Hey, we’re all different, that’s cool
WCSH (NBC/Portland)

Feb 9, 2018 / No Comments

As seen on NBC Portland on February 9, 2018

The Maine Girls Academy has a program that addresses what is different, and other things too, of course.

Naissa and Priscilla Isaro saw a need for civil discourse in their school and in the wider world—a way to talk about tough topics with respect and an open mind. Over the last two years, they’ve worked with their classmates and faculty at The Maine Girls’ Academy to create “CivilTeas”.

It was the idea that talking to each other—having dialog and conversation—ought to be civil, and respectful. Students in this school could take on hard topics with patience, openness, and understanding. So Naissa, now a senior, and her sister Priscilla, now a freshman in college, embarked on a journey—with the hope of making civil conversation the centerpiece of life at their school.

The sisters had both done work with Seeds of Peace; it was there that they began to build their skills and understand the importance of open dialogue. They came away from that experience with new tools—and the seed of their own idea. And so, CivilTeas, took root, and—now part of the curriculum at MGA—these ‘Teas” happen every other month. Before each topic is presented to the student body, student facilitators work together to prepare themselves to lead the small group discussions. These are no easy conversations—the young women tackle topics like race, immigration and body image.

Watch Peggy Keyser’s report at WCSH/NBC â€șâ€ș

Developing leaders, building community: Middle East Programs update

Mar 3, 2022 / No Comments

From honing skills that can change their communities, to practicing dialogue that can change their futures, it has been a busy and impactful season for youth in Israel, Jordan, and Palestine.

While COVID-19 continued to play a role in the ways in which our young leaders came together this winter, these dedicated and courageous youth showed up in-person and online to share their voices, explore new concepts, and work toward building the kind of future they want to see.

30 Israeli youth graduate first Core Leadership Program

After more than 50 hours of programs, including 30 hours of dialogue, 30 Israeli youth officially became Seeds in November.

They were the first Israeli graduates of the Core Leadership Program—the new regionally based starting point for all Seeds as of 2021. Together, they gained skills in community building, action taking, and using dialogue as a tool for change. Hailing from communities stretching from the north to the south of Israel, they explored the varied realities that their peers face on both hyper-local and national levels.

“This year I realized that we don’t have to agree with each other, but we have to understand each other, and to accept other opinions that are not like mine,” said Eldad, a participant.

November also brought the close of the 2021 Teen Leaders program—a new program in which 10 Israeli Seeds who attended Camp in 2019 received advanced leadership training and an introduction to dialogue facilitation while supporting their younger counterparts in the Core Leadership Program.

“Connecting all those realities and stories leads to a much deeper understanding and willingness to explore and tackle issues on larger scales, while helping youth make an immediate impact in their communities,” said Jonathan Kabiri, Director of Israeli Programs and 2011 Israeli Seed.

In Jordan, inspiring change and designing peaceful solutions

The 40 youth of RISE—Jordan’s Core Leadership Program— have been busy this winter with trainings that expanded their views and enriched their skills for bringing about change at home and beyond.

A rock-climbing activity in November provided a gateway for participants in the year-long program to explore, identify, and, ultimately, to defy issues like stereotyping and exclusionary social constructs that can hinder creating more just and inclusive societies. In January, the youth completed “From Gandhi to Floyd: Non-Violent Resistance and Social Movements,” a two-month training aimed to inspire and empower youth to create personal transformation and social impact with nonviolent tools.

And most recently, in February, participants were introduced to an effective, structural process for reaching creative solutions to social problems in “Stronger than all the Armies: Design Thinking and Innovation.” Using the five modules of Design Thinking—empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test—the youth identified real problems faced by their communities (including living in poverty, drug addiction, unemployment, and sexual harassment) and together, honed ideas for solutions.

Their views sometimes diverged in the latter phase, said Jordanian Programs Director Farah Bdour, but “the enthusiasm, commitment, bright and innovative ideas that came out showed that Jordan has one thing stronger than all the armies of the world: its innovative youth!”

K4P-Jerusalem youth look beyond the surface and to the future

Two in-person gatherings provided bookends to a series of meaningful programs for Kids4Peace participants this winter. Before COVID-19 restricted their ability to gather, K4P youth came together in December for an overnight seminar that centered on challenging and overcoming stereotypes. Together, the 21 Palestinian and Israeli youth, ages 12-13, learned the importance of looking beyond the surface, and deepened their friendships in the process.

The new year kicked off with a virtual program focused on using their voices to make change by learning skills to deliver impactful speeches. The following month, in early February, youth had the chance to meet virtually with Omri, a Palestinian alumnus of Kids4Peace who, at just 20, is making an impact through his love of photography and storytelling. (See his work at instagram.com/omrimassarwe.) He shared how he kept pushing to pursue his passion, even when doors seemed to close for him, and encouraged the youth to do the same.

“I want you always to stay curious, to keep this little idea in your mind and find the answers for whatever is your passion,” Omri told the youth. “Be the captain of your own destiny.”

Later in the month, 15 Israeli and Palestinian senior youth from East and West Jerusalem gathered for a program exploring the roles that art can play in forming national and personal identities.

After discussing the iconic images of Srulik and Handala—drawings by Dosh and Naji al-Ali that often represent Israeli and Palestinian identities in both the popular imagination and in protest—participants drew a picture of how they would choose to represent their national story today.

“When we made a gallery of all the kids art at the end of the program, the kids all noticed that no two pictures were alike, representing the diversity of what it means to be Israeli and Palestinian as a youth in Jerusalem today,” said Ittay Flescher, K4P-Jerusalem director. “Some of the images also expressed deep pain about the injustices that exist, which was very moving for everyone to see.”

Speaking up and leaving a mark in Palestine

“In Bassmeh, I learned to not turn a blind eye when there’s something wrong going on, but instead speak up and be active,” said Malak, a participant in the first Seeds of Peace Palestinian Core Leadership Program, titled Bassmeh ŰšŰ”Ù…Ű© (Arabic for “imprint”).

Since August, Bassmeh’s 28 courageous youth from across historical Palestine have taken part in geopolitical tours and awareness-raising workshops, worked with farmers to replant trees on land threatened by Israeli settlers, explored personal and collective identities within the Palestinian community, and examined the systems of power enforced on them by the occupation. For Malak and his peers, it has been a chance to better understand their voices as leaders, as well as Palestinians.

“Having a safe environment to be able to discuss different issues was the perfect setting to reconsider what I thought I knew about the world and to understand the amount of injustice there is.”

Now that they’ve crossed the halfway point of the program, the cohort will soon have the practical skills in dialogue, community building, nonviolence tactics, and collective action-taking to begin building a more hopeful future.

Applications are now available for 9th and 10th grade Palestinian youth to apply for the next round of Bassmeh at seedsofpeace.org/pse Seeds of Peace Palestinian alumni and educators interested in helping plan and lead future sessions can get involved at seedsofpeace.org/bassmeh2022

In a tense Jerusalem, an inside look at the city’s youth movement for peace | The Times of Israel

Oct 16, 2022 / No Comments

On an organization that equips young Israelis and Palestinians to build trust and confront a generational conflict together

By Avi Meyerstein

By the time I got to the large community building just steps from Jerusalem’s Old City walls on a cool December evening last year, I had been waiting to see Kids4Peace, a program of Seeds of Peace since 2020, in action for a very long time. A couple years earlier, I had been impressed when their group joined a delegation from the Alliance for Middle East Peace (ALLMEP) in Washington to meet with lawmakers and diplomats, all of whom were spellbound by these kids.

At the time, peace talks had collapsed amid a series of stabbing attacks, many by young people (in some cases, in the very neighborhoods where these kids lived). Yet these Israelis and Palestinians talked about how they met regularly in Jerusalem to learn about each other, discuss the most difficult of issues, and build the most unlikely of friendships.

Their words in those meetings mattered. Based in part on their presentation, US officials made special efforts to ensure that the Quartet’s 2016 report concluded by calling for more investment in exactly these kinds of people-to-people encounters to “strengthen the foundations for peace and countering extremism.”

Though it was by now years later, tensions in Jerusalem — just minutes away from me in Sheikh Jarrakh — were palpable once again. As I approached the building where Kids4Peace meets, I wondered what impact the storm outside might have on the middle school and high school students gathering tonight. What does a program engaging Israeli and Palestinian, Arab, Jewish, and Muslim youth in Jerusalem look like when some of their peers are facing off on the streets?

Around the corner, a world apart

That evening, two groups were meeting. On one side of the hall was a group of kids from 6th and 7th grades. Across the way were 8th and 9th graders. In the hallway between them stood a small table with light snacks and drinks. The focus of the evening sounded ambitious for any group this age: teaching them how to debate respectfully.

The atmosphere was relaxed and cozy. As the kids began to trickle in, they’d get a high five, a hug, or a “how’s it going” from one of the young adult counselors. True to their age, they all reacted to these greetings differently. Some offered a nonchalant shrug or a quiet look around the room. Others returned a wide smile or an enthusiastic gesture. Some came in twos or threes from a carpool; others came on their own.

Less obvious but equally important: Some had come from just around the corner while others had to travel an hour or two through the stress and uncertainty of military checkpoints. Some of the Jewish boys wore a kippah on their heads while one of the Muslim girls wore a hijab. The statistics — and anyone who lives here — could tell you that if not for the trailblazing work of this program, it’s unlikely these kids would ever have a chance to meet.

The evening launched with icebreakers. The younger kids began a game, where each person had a word taped to their backs to identify who or what they were. Everyone else would walk around the room and give them clues to help them guess their identity. As the kids stumbled around in search of clues, giggles and laughter bounced off the walls.


Middle school and high school students from across Jerusalem’s communities at a regular Kids4Peace meet-up. Courtesy of Kids4Peace.

On the surface, I simply couldn’t help but smile. These kids were having a blast. They navigated the room and interacted without regard to who they were, where they came from, or how the society outside would label them. People outside would be in shock or outrage to see this, but in here it was just plain fun.

It seemed to me the game was full of meaning, too. It was a reminder about the identities we carry inside versus the ones we wear on the outside, not to mention how we sometimes need a community to help us figure out who we really are. What community we choose can make a big difference in who we become. These kids had found a community like none other.

Tel Aviv vs. Ramallah

As the game continued among the younger group, I ducked out and crossed the hall, quietly opening the door to the senior program in progress. The eighth and ninth graders here were sitting on chairs in a big circle around the room with two facing each other in the center, one marked “agree” and the other “disagree.” When I walked in, the room was full of lively conversation. Something was under intense debate.

It quickly became clear what the raucous excitement was all about: Barcelona or Real Madrid? The kids in the center were debating each other, and everyone around the room was listening and cheering them on. When someone in the larger circle thought they could do better, they would tap a shoulder to take one of the places at the center. And that was just the start. The next hot topic: Instagram vs. TikTok. And then: Tel Aviv vs. Ramallah.

As needed, Yarden and Mohammed, the Israeli and Palestinian counselors, provided help with real-time translation into Hebrew and Arabic. And soon they introduced new rules: No shouting. No interrupting the other person. Before you respond, first you have to repeat what your debate partner just said. And always refer to your opponent respectfully as Mr. or Ms.

More topics followed in debates for-or-against: Everyone should be vegetarian! Mixed-gender schools are better! Parents should be able to read everything on their kids’ phones!

Watching from the sidelines, it was clear what was happening. First, the kids were re-aligning themselves, not along national or religious lines but based on their ideas. Second, they were learning tools for engaging in respectful debate. And third, they had a chance to reflect on how it felt to play different roles and engage with each other in different ways.

After the activity, the counselors led a de-brief, posing questions for discussion. How did it feel to sit on the chairs in the middle? How did it feel to sit on the outside? What did it feel like to argue for something you don’t believe? How did the debate change after we added the rules? What would your life be like — what would the world be like — if everyone debated this way?

A little later, the kids took on more issues. They broke into small groups to consider various ethical dilemmas they might encounter in their teenage lives: Should you invite your whole class to a party? What do you do if you find money on the street? What to do if a student cheats on an important test? Again, a thoughtful conversation followed: How did it feel to disagree with people? Was it harder or easier to disagree with someone of your own or a different religion? Do you learn more from people with whom you agree or disagree?

These were just a couple segments of a lively two-hour evening program, which concluded with talk of Hanukkah and Christmas celebrations and everyone singing the Kids4Peace song. Before parting ways, the students exchanged more hugs and high-fives goodbye as they filtered out of the room.

When they return after winter break, the journey continues. With this early work under their belts, some of the issues will become a bit more challenging, focusing on conflicts, leadership, role models and, of course, national narratives.

What the kids say

Seeing the program in action, it speaks for itself. It’s obvious that these kids are getting not only a high-caliber evening activity but also best-in-class leadership development, an opportunity to meet extremely diverse peers, and a chance to work together to sift through issues that several generations of adults have not managed to solve.

Youth who have gone through Kids4Peace talk about a transformative experience. When he was a 9th grader, Jewish alum Evyatar explained that he joined the group to “learn about ‘the other side’ for myself,” and soon “it wasn’t ‘the other side’ to me anymore. Because of the Palestinian friends I’ve made through K4P, I don’t see it as an ‘us against them’ thing anymore.” He says it’s “really special that we can talk about hard topics
 we can be such close friends and respect one another deeply even if we have different opinions and beliefs.”

Another alum, Kareem, a Palestinian Muslim, said when he was a 9th grader that the program enabled him and his Kids4Peace friends to hear and tell stories grounded in each other’s very different realities. “[T]elling your story shows them and gives them an experience that is stronger than their illogical misinterpretations.” Indeed, while some on the outside accuse these programs of ignoring the conflict, they are nearly the only places where people can share their realities with the other side and advocate for allies and change.

Impact rippling outward

What these young people do every week at Kids4Peace Jerusalem is often not easy or popular. Yet those who participate — and their parents — seem to have discovered its rewards and know what an opportunity it presents. They walk away with relationships and skills that are simply unheard of in today’s reality.

And if they have a little more hope than most, it’s not from naivete. Quite the contrary, it’s because they’re grounded in reality. Unlike most of their peers, they enter adulthood prepared for the toughest issues. They become adult community members having had this experience building trust and confronting a generational conflict together. They also become part of a growing network and community of graduates from many of the 150 organizations within the ALLMEP network.

Walking out into the cool Jerusalem air that evening, I couldn’t stop thinking about where these remarkable kids will be in just a few years and imagine: What could the next generation of voters and leaders look like if there was so much more of this? The implications could spread wide and far beyond this city. As the next year of programming soon gets underway, the power to step closer to that reality is once again in the hands of local parents and kids alike.

About the Author

Avi Meyerstein is the founder and president of the Alliance for Middle East Peace (ALLMEP), the coalition of 170 NGOs building people-to-people cooperation and partnerships between Israelis and Palestinians, Arabs and Jews in the Middle East. The views expressed are his own.

Read Avi’s blog post at The Times of Israel â€șâ€ș

Graduates to watch in the class of 2015: Mohamed Nur, Deering High
Portland Press Herald

Jun 7, 2015 / No Comments

We asked area high school administrators to identify seniors who, because of heart, talent or toughness, are likely to make a difference in the world.

Mohamed Nur was in seventh grade when he first faced the challenge of being a person of color in a Maine classroom.

The moment came one day in math class, when certain students at Portland’s King Middle School were summoned to the library to take an assessment test that’s given to English-language learners.

Though Nur was born at Maine Medical Center in Portland, his parents are Somali immigrants, so English wasn’t his first language. He stood up and looked around. He was the only kid in the room who had to take the test. He saw judgment in the eyes of his classmates.

“They saw me for the first time as different,” Nur told a Brunswick audience in a 2013 TEDx video. “I saw myself for the first time as different. The only person of color in the whole room.”

Since then, Nur has wrestled with that difference and triumphed, becoming a student leader at Deering High School and beyond. As a student member of the Portland School Board and the NAACP Portland Branch, he is recognized as a gifted public speaker on issues of race, religion, poverty, education, peace and unity.

Nur credits his parents, Nadifo and Muqtar Ayanle, with having the courage and tenacity to leave their war-torn homeland, adapt to a different culture in the United States and work to provide a better life for him and his younger sister.

“The amount of love and admiration I have for them, I can’t even quantify,” Nur said.

Nur also praises the Otisfield-based Seeds of Peace global youth leadership program. That’s where he discovered the power within himself and every individual to fight and overcome prejudice, division and hatred in the world.

“I figured out who I was—not only a proud Somali son, but also a proud Mainer and a proud American,” Nur said.

Nur will attend Bowdoin College in the fall. He plans to study government, economics and Arabic, with an eye toward working in international relations. He has heard stories about how beautiful and prosperous Somalia used to be, before nearly 25 years of civil war.

“My dream is to go to Somalia and help with stabilizing that country,” Nur said. “I hear people describe it as a failed state and it upsets me because it sounds like they’ve given up. If I could help bring the beauty back to Somalia, it would benefit the whole world.”

Read Kelley Bouchard’s article in The Portland Press Herald »

March 2021 Notes from the Field Newsletter

Mar 28, 2021 / No Comments

Dear Seeds of Peace Community,

As we step into spring, I am feeling hopeful. The days are getting longer, the kids are dreaming of getting off Zoom for the summer, and steadily increasing rates of vaccination give us a tantalizing preview of a world where COVID-19 is under control.

It’s a long way from where we were this time a year ago, and it is with this renewed sense of hope that we are launching applications this month for a wide range of online and in-person programs in all the regions where we work.

For months our U.S. staff has been meeting with experts and following the latest recommendations to allow us to safely bring youth together this summer. After 24 months away, we look forward to welcoming campers from the Northeastern United States back to the shores of Pleasant Lake in Maine in July.

In South Asia, and the Middle East, our newest generation of Seeds will gather locally to connect, forge new relationships of solidarity, and learn skills to create a brighter future.

In addition, we’ll take lessons learned from virtual programming over the past year to bring youth from all over the world into our network and to reach participants, schools and communities that would otherwise never have access to our programs.

We’ve all felt the heaviness of loss and disconnection this past year. We still have a long way to go, but after a year of rarely being able to gather in-person, knowing that we have a full slate of summer programs is both a testament to the persistence of our staff and our youth, as well as a source of real hope within our community. We’re happy to share with you today a few more details about those programs, as well as recent news and accomplishments from around our community.

With hope,

Josh
Fr. Josh Thomas | Executive Director, Seeds of Peace

Summer program applications roll out

Applications are now live for summer programs in several countries where we work, with more on the way in the coming days and weeks.

Ninth-grade Israelis and 14 to 17-year-old Egyptians can apply today for the Core Leadership Programs in their respective countries. This new program is an intensive course that is uniquely tailored to each region, while teaching all participants key skills around dialogue, leadership, and action-taking that will be universally familiar to all Seeds.

Ninth- and 10th-graders in the Northeastern United States are now invited to apply for one of two 2021 Seeds of Peace Camp sessions in Maine.

‱ Session I (July 11-28) is for campers from the greater Boston area (including Vermont and New Hampshire), the greater New York City area (including New York City, New Jersey, and Connecticut), and Syracuse.

‱ Session II (August 1-18) is for campers from Maine.

Youth from across the U.S. may now sign up for any of three virtual programs: the Core Leadership Program, the U.S. National Youth Summit, and a Leadership Certification in Civic Engagement.

Check back in April for more news from Jordan, Palestine, Pakistan, and India!

Now hiring Camp staff

We’re looking for people who are flexible, caring, representative of the racial, economic, religious, and political communities of youth we will have at Camp this summer—and who are dedicated to creating an environment where youth are fully seen, heard, and equipped to make change!

Please share the word with any friends, colleagues, cousins, former Seeds, Kids4Peace participants, and long-lost pen pals of yours who live in the Northeast United States (Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Philadelphia).

Applications—including activity specialists, lifeguards, health liaisons (CNA or current nursing students), facilitators, and camper well-being support (in-training or licensed MSW/LSW)—are due March 25.

If you know of someone who might be a good fit, you can connect them directly with Sarah (Stoney) Stone at sstone@seedsofpeace.org.

Seeds, staff host Black History Month Forum

Around 50 members of the Seeds of Peace community logged in to Zoom on February 25 to listen to a powerful, intergenerational discussion: “Black History and the Road Ahead: Tim Wilson and Seeds in Conversation.”

Watch the forum video »

Tim, who serves as Seeds of Peace’s Senior Advisor & Director, Maine Seeds Programs, became the first Black secondary school teacher in the state of Maine in 1966. The webinar was moderated by Seeds of Peace Senior Advisor for Strategic Partnerships Rahsaan Graham with Danielle (2018 Maine Seed), Boni (2011 Maine Seed), and Hannah Cooke (Camp Counselor) joining Tim on the panel.

In a little over an hour the conversation covered a multitude of topics, including the long road to racial justice in America, Black leadership, self-care, and how non-Black people can be allies.

As Danielle put it: “The shortest, most immediate answer I can think of is: Stand in solidarity. The true definition of compassion is suffering with, and thus, creating a sense of kinship and unity. Acknowledge humanity on a whole, and advocate for those whose humanity has often been diminished.”

Meet the Samvaad trainers

As a young girl growing up with conflict in and outside her home, Rukmini Iyer struggled to wrap her head around the concept of “peace.” Beauty queens said we needed it, Mother Teresa dedicated her life to it, but what did that mean for people in between, like her?

Decades later, Rukmini has built her own career around helping others see how we each, actually, have a large part to play in constructing cultures of peace, and as one of four trainers for The Samvaad Project, she hopes to empower educators to use dialogue as one tool to get there.

Kicking off next month, the pioneering program seeks to train university educators in Western India in interfaith dialogue facilitation over approximately six months of in-person and virtual learning.

Rukmini, along with fellow trainers Mansi Arun Panjwani, a peace educator and international consultant on peacebuilding; Sagar Gangurde, Seeds of Peace Director of Indian Programs; and Josh Thomas, Seeds of Peace Executive Director; she will support participants in the year following the program to help them create safe spaces for students to have interfaith dialogue in their communities.

“I hope they generate conversations around faith in a safe way, wherever they are,” Rukmini said. “Even if they generate one question or reflection in their inner circle, that’s good enough impact for me.”

Read more about Rukmini’s work, watch an interview with Josh and Sagar, or learn more about the program and trainers.

Faith as a starting point in Kids4Peace Jerusalem

The past year has been a unique one in the history of the Kids4Peace Jerusalem movement, which began over 20 years ago with a small group of Muslim, Jewish and Christian children wanting to meet each other and learn how to share this city in a more just and equitable manner.

Since August, we have had a few in-person meetings, but thankfully many interesting and diverse programs on Zoom, keeping youth engaged with our values of justice and equality.

Our interfaith programs begin with students in the sixth grade and continue into high school, with age-appropriate activities engaging and educating students in increasingly complex ways.

So far this year, participants have explored religious festivals, role models for change, Jerusalem inequalities, current events, and leadership. “Kids4Peace Jerusalem programs build a foundation for these kids to begin their journeys as peacebuilders and agents of change,” said Ittay Flescher, Director of Kids4Peace Jerusalem Programs.

Learn more about the program at k4pjerusalem.org â€șâ€ș

Seeds of Peace Community in the Lead

‱ Ilan (1998 Israeli Seed) writes about honoring International Holocaust Memorial Day during times of COVID-19.

‱ Adam (2007 Maine Seed) writes for The New York Times on the Palestinian-Israeli vaccine debate while interviewing Abdulsalam (1997 Palestinian Seed), Head of the Public Health Department at Al Najah University in Nablus.

‱ Moses (2014 Maine Seed) raises awareness around the COVID vaccine to reduce the social anxiety around it and encourage people to get vaccinated.

‱ Amal (2001 Pakistani Seed) wrote a heartfelt letter in The Forward to Ruth and Judea Pearl, the parents of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, following the decision of Pakistan’s Supreme Court to release his killers last month.

‱ Ariel (1993 Israeli Seed) interviews a Myanmar resident about the recent military coup and detainment of State Counsellor San Suu Kyi, and looks into Sweden’s decision to ban burqas in public for I24News.

‱ Achim Nowak (Camp facilitator) interviewed Bobbie Gottschalk (Seeds of Peace board member and co-founder) about her work with Seeds of Peace and navigating your life’s purpose over the long run in his podcast, “My Fourth Act.”

‱ Cindy (2015 Maine Seed) invited Tim Wilson to read to her classroom in February. Fortunately, she recorded Tim’s virtual story time so everyone can enjoy it.

‱ Karen (1999 Israeli Seed, Board of Directors) was named one of the 100 Most Influential Women in U.S. Finance by Barron’s magazine.

How are you taking action for change? Let us know by emailing eva@seedsofpeace.org.

Our voices: Members of the Seeds of Peace family speak out about New Zealand shootings

Mar 18, 2019 / No Comments

We provide our alumni with a platform to share their voices on critical issues that impact them. We stand by and support them as they engage each other across lines of conflict and tell their truths to the wider world.

In response to the March 2019 mosque shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand, here are some of these voices, with more being added daily:

 

Pious (2008 Maine Educator)

The New Zealand shooting is terrorism, committed by a Nativist white supremacist. My heart goes out to the families of the victims and all those impacted by this act of terror. Now those of us who want to co-exist with each other, let us continue working towards countering acts like this with love and compassion for all humans.

 

Danish (2015 Pakistani Delegation)

I couldn’t stop thinking about the attack for quite a time. But then I saw love, empathy, humanity, and peace prevailing in the small acts of the people all around the globe, especially in New Zealand.

The way New Zealanders have responded to this terrorist attack is a great example of how we can fight the hate, Islamophobia, and terrorism in this world together.

Prayers for all the victims and their families. More power to New Zealand’s prime minister for standing against this horrific incident.

Let us all of us play our humble part through our words and deeds against hate, violence, Islamophobia, brutality, terrorism, and every act against humanity.

 

Ruba (1994 Palestinian Delegation)

I have watched the video of the New Zealand massacre over and over again to make sense of what happened. But it seems so unreal. It could be a movie or a video game, but definitely not reality. This guy is not mentally sick. He is blinded by his ideology. People all over the world have become blinded. When will we come to our senses?!

 

Jasir (2011 Pakistani Delegation)

Isolating the terrorist attack in New Zealand as a one random instance is hypocrisy. The event is a result of years of systematic Islamophobia through western media and governments. Reducing Islam to ISIS, Al-Qaeda, and Taliban (all products of intervention of Western powers in Islamic countries), will only increase the incidence of hate-based crimes. May the Western world have the moral courage to see through its own hypocrisies and years of discrimination against Muslims.

 

Doron (2008 Israeli Delegation)

My heart goes to all of the victims of the massacre in New Zealand. To all my Muslim friends: I am sorry. To the world: We can do better than this. We must.

 

Ahmed (2000 Egyptian Delegation)

Is there a clash of civilizations? Is there a global crisis embodied in a Judeo, Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Islamic, Atheist, Agnostic, Non-denominational, LGBTQ+, Straight, Brown, White, Yellow, Red, and Black maelstrom of a rift … etc?

No, there isn’t. But there is a clash between those who accept our increasingly multicultural world and those who want to forcibly and violently paint it in one color, be it creed, color, sexual orientation or whatever other facet that can be exploited for the dehumanization of others, and the subsequent self aggrandization.

You can see this clash in the genocide of the Muslim Rohingya in Myanmar by Buddhists, the internment of millions of Muslim Uighurs in China, the radicalism of ISIS and its targeting of civilians worldwide and its infatuation with killing other Muslims in droves, the Zionist occupation with its ethnic cleansing tactics, the rampant anti-semitism and anti-Western sentiment in Islamic and Arab countries which is fanned by the very despotic rulers that are propped by the West, the Sunni-Shiite conflicts, the specter of the Catholic-Protestant ethno-nationalist conflict in Ireland, the targeting and displacement of Muslims by Indian nationalists, the targeting and displacement of Coptic Christians in rural upper Egypt, and, of course, White supremacy in its violent form.

All these are examples of conflicts or ideological clashes that came into being due to multifactorial reasons, but what’s important is that they all culminated in ideologies where people bandwagon other groups of people based on distinguishable characteristics and then go on to vehemently and violently seek their removal from a given area. These ideologies perpetrate dehumanizing them and ultimately killing them, and can be found everywhere in today’s world, and this is the bad news.

The good news is that we are becoming a multicultural world. Nearly every major city is full of diverse groups of people coexisting and enriching their cities through their diversity: economically, culturally, and intellectually. The same goes for any major university campus. So we have two forces in play; ideologies of coexistence and ideologies of violent removal of the other.

There is a difference, however, between coexistence and assimilation. I have no qualms with a white supremacist wanting to only associate with other white people, as long as they abide by the laws of the land, and bring no harm to others.

Similarly, I have no problem with someone wanting to live in New York’s Chinatown and only associate with the Chinese community. Human beings should be free to associate with whomever they want, and to promote their way of life, as long as it doesn’t involve hate peddling, violence towards others, or breaking the laws of the land. So we are at a clash of civilizations between those who are happy with our increasingly globalized and multicultural world and those who want to violently remove one type of people from the equation.

Perhaps that’s why New Zealand was targeted. It was one of the few places left on Earth that the virus of these diabolical ideologies hadn’t touched. It would be naive to think that this will be the end of it—in fact, deaths as a result of these ideologies are happening as I write this post, and they will keep on happening. It is heart-wrenching that the violence of these ideologies has reached New Zealand’s shores, but the silver lining is that New Zealand has shown the world how best to react to the violence of these ideologies.

Thank you, New Zealand, for how you handled this tragic and heinous terrorist attack. I hope that the rest of the world is taking notes.

 

Ashraf (2015 Fellow)

We were humans once, a while ago, a long time ago. Before we were slaughtered by white supremacists in our places of worship, before we were bombed to win an election, before they put us in concentration camps, refugee camps, cages and shackles, we were human. Once … not anymore.

We are now subjects, not human. We are to be massacred, incited, incarcerated, convinced and convicted, raped, and led to believe that all of this is normal. Led to believe that somehow our existence depends on the suffering of others: slave, second-class citizen, militarily occupied, Muslim, Jew, Queer, Black, Native, woman … a hostage we can get our hands on when we’re fed up with being poor, unheard, or insignificant.

So we can pretend for a minute we are not human. Not fragile, sensitive, empathetic, reasonable, thoughtful, considerate, or afraid. We choose to represent the state and to kill those who criticize it. We are not humans; we are guns, tanks and assault rifles, patriots, and so goddamn loyal we will follow our leader to the smoky back room and choke in there with him, not her, never her, never us.

We can’t lead shit, we can’t think for ourselves, who are we to make a reasonable decision and decide once and for all to stop and say “wait, what?”

But you are human. You are human and you are alive unlike countless victims, thousands of dead worshipers, drowned refugees, starved children, and forgotten passengers.

You are not a white supremacist, F16 pilot, soldier, martyr, or agent of state.

You are not even a voter, a representative, CEO, president or prime minister. You are a human being and I know you will do anything to forget you are, but you are, and we need you to remember that.

You need you to remember that, because we are so tired of reminding you and running under the covers of thoughts and prayers.

To my sisters and brothers, be they Muslims in New Zealand and Hebron, Jews in Pittsburgh, Christians in Nigeria, or anyone, anywhere persecuted for their faith, we stand with you in spirit and through our work.

 

Micah (2004 American Delegation)

So saddened by the tragic deaths in the mosque shootings in New Zealand. In their honor, The Jerusalem Youth Chorus is sharing Adinu, a Sufi chant whose words in Arabic mean “I believe in the religion of love.” Hatred based on religion or ethnicity is becoming more and more interconnected. Our love must be as well.

 

Nazaqat (2004 Indian Delegation)

What compels me to write this was the manner in which New Zealand, the families of those who lost their loved ones, and Muslim communities at large responded to the mosque shootings. The choice of ‘responded to’ and not ‘reacted to’ is deliberate given the maturity, magnanimity, responsibility, and wholeness with which they are dealing with the situation.

Jacinda Ardern, the prime minister of New Zealand, has set a tone from which we can all learn. To start with, she refused to use the name of the man who mercilessly shot at those in prayer, and simply referred to him as a terrorist. This was important because very often, by naming the perpetrators, we give them the (misplaced) glory they seek.

A lot of what Ardern said in her speeches resonated deeply, most of all, the line, “They are us.” While it’s always easier to put the blame entirely outside and deal with issues superficially, as most people and world leaders do, Ardern took responsibility. She used this as an opportunity to introspect and put her own house in order by vowing to change gun laws and delivering on her promise one week later. It takes immense courage, integrity, and intellectual honesty to take one’s share of responsibility at a time like this and address an issue as fundamental and intrinsically linked as this.

Exactly a week after the shootings, Ardern, together with thousands of Muslims and non-Muslims, gathered outside the same mosque for Jummah prayer, letting the world know in no uncertain terms that New Zealand was one. Several non-Muslim women chose to wear head scarves, blurring the most obvious way of distinguishing Muslim women from non-Muslim women and sending out a strong message that the world was creating an artificial difference between Muslims and non-Muslims.

One of the names to be remembered and glorified is that of Naeem Rashid, who attacked the terrorist and diverted the terrorist’s attention to himself to give other worshippers an opportunity to escape. To have shown courage the presence of mind and been so selfless in the face of death speaks volumes about the man Naeem Rashid must have been. When his widow, Ambreen Rashid was interviewed, we learned that she had not only lost her husband but also her son, Talha.

Despite the pain, grief, and tremendous loss, Ambreen had not lost her faith in Islam, God, or the power of love and said she was ready to go to the same mosque again. She mentioned how she was not going to let the terrorist take away from her all her treasured and cherished memories of her family or the love in her heart. She felt sorry for the terrorist that he had so much hatred in his heart and didn’t have the love, peace, or contentment which she had.

Saba Khan, Naeem Rashid’s niece, made a pointed but pertinent observation during the interview. She said that she was extremely proud that the Muslim community was not generalizing the entire Australian population as the villain while acknowledging that it was the act of an individual and not of all Australians. Similarly, in the past, it was individuals who identified themselves with Islam who had carried out attacks and not the entire Muslim population.

Despite being the victim and having every reason to retaliate, Muslim communities have chosen to work towards solutions that are more long lasting and peaceful. Several Canadian mosques have joined together to invite local non-Muslims to visit and see for themselves what mosques are like and have a chance to understand Islam for what it truly stands for. The only way to dispel hatred, fear and ignorance is by shining light, and that’s what this campaign attempts to do.

Being Indian and in light of the recent attacks and airstrikes in India and Pakistan, I cannot help but acknowledge New Zealand and the Muslim community even more for the phenomenal and praiseworthy manner in which each segment of its society has responded.

 

Hannah (1999 American Delegation)

Watching Jacinda Ardern, the prime minister of New Zealand, over the past few days has felt like a perfect example of why we need more female political leadership. She not only had a child (and took maternity leave!) during this administration, but also approached this crisis with a level of humility, grace, and gentleness that is so lacking in so many other places today.

I was so moved by the images of her in a hijab, hugging mourners with what appeared to be such genuine sorrow. She did not try to hide her anger or her purpose (changing gun laws or not saying the terrorist’s name for instance), but she made people feel included and respected.

I spoke with a good friend who is Muslim who said she cried when she saw her in a hijab and noted that even some of the most liberal American politicians have never set foot in a mosque.

I struggled at first to convey these ideas because I didn’t want to put Prime Minister Ardern in a box and say that only women can be gentle. Obviously that’s untrue—men can be gentle and calm and women can be aggressive!

However, the leadership Ardern showed this weekend was an alternative to so many of the mostly male examples we’ve seen around the world.

In order for our future leaders—both male and female—to learn to respond to conflict with empathy, gentleness, firmness, and real emotion we need more models like her. We need to learn from her behavior and we need to name what about her behavior was more typically “feminine” and demand that it be just the norm. From all of our politicians.

 

Chintan (2014 Indian Educator)

I was moved by the way in which Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern responded to the terror attack. I thought it was a beautiful example of compassionate and culturally sensitive leadership. In the last few days, however, I’ve been uncomfortable with how media coverage is focused on her as a hero rather than the people who have experienced loss. I guess we’re all so disillusioned with incompetent leaders—particularly men—everywhere in the world that we want to celebrate someone we see as humane and empathetic.

 

Pooja (2018 Fellow)

It took me a few days than usual to come in terms with what happened in Christchurch. We live in a time when horrific incidents ignite a wildfire of hatred and bigotry turning every bleeding heart into stone. How do you keep the heart bleeding for another? How does one continue to be human?

I just couldn’t churn out mere words and whisper prayers; been there, done that, one too many times. What more can we do?

What sent chills down my spine wasn’t the horrific mass shooting but my own lack of shock upon hearing the news on March 15, 2019.

“Yet another one.” I felt nauseous. But I wasn’t shocked—I was numb.

There’s only a sliver of difference between being numb and indifferent. I’ve devoted my life to this constant fight between the two: how not to be weighed down by numbness or let myself or others be indifferent.

Working hard to remember my own humanity and imploring others to do the same is a difficult place to be. A place where one would hope for silver linings to give you the strength to pursue love while drowning in the deluge of hate.

I would never say that there are silver linings in this tragedy. There’s never any silver lining in any tragedy. However, there are rays of sunshine that emerge and fill your soul with the promise of a bright, sunny day.

Jacinda Ardern, the fearless prime minister of New Zealand, is redefining leadership. Muslim communities whose resilience and steadfast faith brought the world closer beyond borders and beliefs. Khaled Beydoun remembering the names, faces, and lives of the 50 precious people we lost. Artists who’ve helped expressing this belching pain in color. The youth whose zeal and vigor gives the rest of us hope. The powerful haka tributes. People who stood outside and guarded mosques. Those who walked arm-in-arm with their Muslim brothers and sisters.

These are my rays of sunshine.

I want you to place a hand over your heart and celebrate yourself for turning to love.

And if you’d like to do one more thing, just one more, write a letter with me!

The non-profit organization I founded has launched a campaign, #LettersforChristchurch, and will be collecting letters of love and solidarity for the rest of the month. These handwritten letters will be delivered to the two mosques where the terrorist attacks happened and also to the families of those deceased.

There are always opportunities for us to be human. Here’s one.

 

Want to add your voice to this campaign? Comment in the space below, or if you are a Seed, Fellow, or Seeds of Peace Educator, send your reflections to eric@seedsofpeace.org.