BY CAIT ROHAN | Summer camp is a pretty typical youth pastime; attending summer camp with your political and religious enemies is not. Such is the experience gained through Seeds of Peace (SOP), an internationally-recognized leadership program that started in 1993 by bringing together 46 Israeli, Palestinian and Egyptian teenagers to a summer camp in Maine.
Today, after expanding to other regions like South Asia, Cyprus and the Balkans, Seeds of Peace has brought together over 4,300 young people in regions of conflict, and Seeds (the name given to program graduates) have been involved in everything from meeting Michelle Obama to the recent protest movements in Cairo. I got the privilege of speaking with two Seeds, Sawsan and Noa. Here are their stories.
Sawsan is a Palestinian Diaspora, meaning she grew up longing for a land and culture she had never experienced. Adding to Sawsan’s curiosity was her family’s silence, “My parents never spoke about how they fled in 1948 and again in 1967,” says Sawsan. “They also never spoke to us about who we are; they just wanted us to assimilate with the people for our own safety.” Longing to understand her roots and the conflicts surrounding them, Sawsan joined Seeds of Peace to learn not only where she came from, but the Israeli story as well. “I formed really strong friendships with Israelis,” says Sawsan, who is now 28. Eventually, Sawsan’s experience allowed her to facilitate between younger Israeli and Palestinian campers—and she recently met First Lady Michelle Obama.
On the other end of the spectrum, Noa, an Israeli Jew, first met a Palestinian her age (14 at the time) through Seeds of Peace. Since that encounter, Noa, who is now 27 years old, has kept in close contact with several Arab Seeds of Peace, even recently making the trip to Switzerland to visit one of them. But can forging these friendships really help peace? Noa thinks so. “…The best experience for me was the week I spent in Villars, Switzerland, in 1998, with a group of 100 Seeds (Israeli, Palestinian, Jordanian and Egyptian) negotiating the final status issues of the conflict,” says Noa. “I was on the Jerusalem Committee and it was so amazing to see how 17-18 year olds were able to reach breakthrough creative agreements, which we later presented to Secretary General Kofi Annan at the UN.” That’s not to say there haven’t been stark reminders that there is still progress to be made—one of her close Arab friends was killed by Israeli forces in 2000. He was wearing his green Seeds of Peace shirt.
So, what do these two young women from such different yet similar backgrounds hope for the future? “It was always our dream to have Seeds in power so that they can change the way the negotiations are working, and actually propose possible solutions,” says Sawsan. “I hope Seeds of Peace will continue until the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is resolved.” Noa shares similar dreams. “There’s the ‘romantic’ hope that one day members of SOP will face each other at the official political negotiations and draw on their experiences and mutual trust to reach a peace agreement,” she says. “That may well happen. But before and beyond that, I hope that Seeds of Peace continues to grow and transform the lives of young, talented and ambitious youths from regions of conflict so that these young people can become agents of positive change in their communities.”
Find out how you can get involved with Seeds of Peace by volunteering, becoming a Seed, educating others and more. Seeds of Peace’s Young Leadership event on Thursday, April 7 at Pacha NYC from 6:30-11 p.m. is a great way to start. Purchase tickets now, and start planting the seeds of peace.
GIRL TALK TIME: How will you help grow positive change with Seeds of Peace? Had you heard of Seeds of Peace before this article? What do you think of the cause?