OTISFIELD, MAINE | As two teen-agers—one Israeli, one Palestinian—head home this week from summer camp, they’ll be taking more than the memories of a new, unlikely friendship.
They’ll also take with them an expanded perspective on the conflict in their region, after spending three weeks at the Seeds of Peace International Camp for Conflict Resolution in Otisfield, Maine.
Bunk mates Sharon Koren, a 15-year-old Israeli from Haifa and Amani Zuaiter, a 14-year-old Palestinian from East Jerusalem, both arrived at camp June 24 at the encouragement of their families with an open mind, ready to get to know other teens they normally would never meet.
“My goal is to be as understanding as I can, to be open to hear the other side and respect everyone,” Koren said. “Everyone wants peace and it will be hard, but I think we are going to make peace.”
For them—and for 100 other campers there from the Middle East—the conflict hit uncomfortably close to home.
“I know people that have died,” Zuaiter said. “We live in Jerusalem. We live safely. But we hear the news and everything, and sometimes we don’t go to school because of the situation.”
Koren said terror attacks have greatly affected her life, even though none of her family members has been killed.
“I have family in Jerusalem. So, after every terror attack, we get on the phone quickly to see if everything is OK,” Koren said. “I didn’t go to a mall for a year; it changes your life, and we are so much more careful now.”
Tension heightened in 2000
According to Kymberlie Charles, who has been a counselor at the camp for six years, the camp’s atmosphere changed in 2000, the summer before the second intifada started.
“Camp became intense in a different way,” she said. “The kids were coming from a place where there was a heightened sense of frustration.”
Seeds of Peace, a nonprofit, non-political organization, has hosted camps for 10 years, combining sports and activities with conflict resolution sessions. Campers from regions of conflict are encouraged to learn to respect each other and work together.
“The Israeli girls are friendly with me; I don’t feel like what it’s like in Palestine,” Zuaiter said. “Maybe because here everyone has the feeling that we are going to do something to improve the situation.”
Screaming eventually subsided
Peaceful discussions replaced screaming disagreements as the group sessions progressed. Of the 165 teens in attendance, 50 were Israelis and 25 were Palestinians. Other campers attended from Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States.
“Some sessions were very, very hard, one even about the Holocaust,” Koren said. “But something happened between the 8th and 12th session. We had an understanding, and you could see the change.
“Before we were just screaming and yelling at each other. And at the end there was no screaming, no yelling, just people who respect each other, and it was amazing,” she said.
Zuaiter was surprised by the animosity during the early sessions.
“What I thought was that everyone would be peaceful and look for a solution, but we shouted a lot,” she said. “Most of the time when we shouted the facilitators told us that [we] had to respect each other, even if we didn’t agree.”
Charles noticed changes in both Zuaiter and Koren during the session.
“I observed them becoming very articulate and really being very interested in expressing themselves,” she said. “I think they left feeling like they were empowered to actually talk about their experience and to talk about what it means to coexist and what that process is.”
Campers reflect on change
The campers culminated their camp session on Tuesday in Washington, D.C., where they met with members of Congress and Vice President Dick Cheney.
Despite their homesickness, Koren and Zuaiter said the time passed quickly and they would miss camp very much.
“I think that I will miss most the quiet environment where no one will hurt you, no one will do you wrong. And, everyone inside wants peace and the same thing,” Koren said.
Charles hopes that both girls will take their camp experience and the emphasis on respecting others that they learned this summer back home with them.
Both Koren and Zuaiter hope to keep in touch with their new friends, but admit it may be tough. They also worry what their friends will think.
“You don’t know how much I’ve changed in the past few weeks. I didn’t expect to become such good friends with [Zuaiter], but we did,” Koren said. “But I don’t think I’m going to share everything with [my friends at home,] because they didn’t really support me in the first place,” Koren said.
“I don’t regret that I came,” Zuaiter said. “I wanted to come and see the others’ opinions. I don’t know what my friends’ reaction will be back home. You can’t know.”
Read Stephanie Morris’ article at CNN »