NEW YORK | Seeds of Peace marked 20 years of empowering young leaders from conflict regions with a celebration on May 21 at 583 Park Avenue in New York City.
The evening honored Janet Wallach, President Emerita of Seeds of Peace, for her contributions to the organization’s success, and featured legendary peacemaker Senator George Mitchell.
Over 500 distinguished supporters, including politicians, diplomats, journalists, and policy-makers, joined Seeds from the Middle East and South Asia to celebrate the impact these Graduates are making in their home communities.
Speakers included Hashem, a Palestinian Seed from Arroub Refugee Camp and community organizer; Tal, an Israeli Seed and Knesset lobbyist; Warda, a Pakistani Seed who leads microfinance initiatives for women; and Mohamed, an Egyptian Seed who recently joined the staff as Director of Graduate Programs.
SPEECHES: SEN. GEORGE MITCHELL, JANET WALLACH AND SEEDS
MORE VIDEOS: Full 20th Anniversary Celebration ›› | Growing Seeds ›› | Clinton ››
20TH ANNIVERSARY DIGITAL JOURNAL
20TH ANNIVERSARY PHOTOGRAPHS
Janet Wallach Remarks
Senator Mitchell, distinguished diplomats, and all of you are here tonight:
I am deeply, deeply honored. But this is a night to celebrate John’s vision and the 20 years of hard work to carry it out. It’s a night to applaud the dedication of Bobbie Gottschalk and Tim Wilson, the leadership of Leslie Lewin, the passion of our staff, the commitment of our Board, the courage of our Seeds, and the generosity of you, our supporters.
In 1993 John, the son of Holocaust survivors, announced after the first World Trade Center bombing, that he would try to break the cycle of violence that had invaded our shores. He would bring together young people from the Middle East to a camp in Maine and let them see that the enemy has a face.
I listened to him. I smiled. I shook my head. It wasn’t only that as a kid, John never liked camp; but that it was that his optimism had really gone over the top this time.
But John was a journalist who had covered many conflicts, and he understood the need to give the next generation the tools for building peace. He understood that governments sign treaties; people make peace.
His simple message, the enemy is a human being just like you and me, captured the imagination of Arab and Israeli leaders who were willing to take the risk to send youngsters from their region to a camp in the woods of Maine. Not only that, they sent their own children to Seeds of Peace. Indeed, just a few of those who have done so:
The Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the Chief Negotiator Sa’eb Erakat, the Former Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, the Egyptian former Foreign Minister Amr Moussa, the Israeli Prime Minister’s spokesman Mark Regev, the former army spokesman of Israel and Director of Channel 2, Nachman Shai, the Director of the Israel Museum, James Snyder.
And here in the US diplomats Jock Covey, Aaron Miller, Frank Wisner, journalists Tom Friedman, David Remnick and Esther Fein, and Congressman Robert Wexler.
And international business and social entrepreneur leaders: in Saudi Arabia Lubna Olayan, in the UK Sir Ronald Cohen.
It isn’t, though, just the offspring of the influential and the rich who come.
Seeds come from refugee camps in the West Bank and from settlements over the next hill, from Islamist homes in Hebron and from orthodox homes a few streets away. They come from families of hard working Arabs in Jaffa and from struggling Yemeni Jews in Tel Aviv, from families dodging bombs in Gaza, and from families ducking missiles in nearby Sderot.
Since those first Middle Eastern Seeds arrived 20 years ago, they have been joined by youngsters from divided Cyprus, from the Balkans, from the Gulf, from India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, and from England and from the U.S.
Those 5,000 Seeds, and we, live in a world that sends us spinning in clouds of euphoria and then in cyclones of despair.
When Seeds of Peace started in 1993, it was illegal for any Israeli to meet with any member to the PLO (which in effect meant any Palestinian). It was illegal to show the Palestinian flag in any form, and it was illegal to sing the Palestinian anthem. All of which, by the way, we did at Camp.
We went from there, that same summer, to the Israeli/Palestinian accords and the signing ceremony on the White House lawn with Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat and the Seeds in the front row, thanks to President Clinton.
And from there we went to the 2nd Intifada, and to the continuous building of settlements, and now to the abandoned table of the peace talks.
We all felt exhilarated by the Arab Spring in 2010, and deflated by the disarray in Egypt, the wrenching horrors of the Syrian civil war, the sectarian violence throughout the region, and the overhanging threat of Iran.
And of course, we have witnessed the bloodshed in India, the chaos in Pakistan, the carnage in Afghanistan.
But if turmoil is churning up the lands, we in our organization, and you, our supporters, are planting and nurturing seeds. Just to give you a small sample of how they are bearing fruit:
In government, Laith, has worked as a senior advisor to the Palestinian prime minister.
Tamer, international lawyer, served as an advisor for the Egyptian constitution.
Gil is spokesman for the Israeli Kadima leader in Israel Tzipi Livni.
Parnian is on a commission to advise Afghan President Karzai on women’s issues.
With NGOs: Sandy, a Jordanian, served on the UN High Commission for Refugees.
Bushra, a Palestinian, is the EU advisor for the Palestinian Ministry of Justice.
Noa, an Israeli, is the CEO of Middle East Education through Technology.
And Aneeq founded an organization for leadership education in Pakistan.
In media, Ariel is anchorman for the Israeli Channel 10 News. Fadi is Director General of Palestine Note and a blogger for the Huffington Post. Mona, is a journalist covered events in Tahrir Square in Cairo for The New York Times
In Business: Palestinians Badawi and Aboud are building homes, kindergartens, and libraries across the West Bank. Yoyo is developing initiatives for a worldwide Israeli enterprise. Sherife teaches social entrepreneurship to Egyptian youth. And others are working as facilitators for Seeds of Peace in the Middle East, in South Asia, in Europe, and right here in the U.S.
On a daily basis, our organization engages in building peace. Within just the last three months, we initiated a project with Harvard University, convening 30 organizations to work together on peacebuilding.
And with Harvard Law School and funding from AID, 36 Palestinian and Israeli Seeds held a three day training program in mediation and negotiation, so they could lead community dialogue sessions at home. Ameen, a Palestinian, said, “It made me rethink everything I do. I’m able to reach a middle ground without anyone feeling as though they are on the losing side.”
Seeds of Peace organized over 50 Egyptian, Israeli, Jordanian, and Palestinian educators to increase religious and cultural understanding and integrate them into education. When Heba, an Egyptian, told Yehuda, an Israeli, that she didn’t understand a phrase in the Quran, he explained it with a sentence in the Talmud. “It was amazing, amazing!” she said.
A team of Seeds graduates from India and Pakistan have co-produced the History Project, a look at textbooks on both sides. Five Pakistani members traveled to India and presented the project to 1,100 students and educators in four different schools. When the husband of one of the Indian delegates read the contrasting texts, he said, “Now I know why they feel the way they feel, and why I feel the way I feel.”
That is the beginning of change.
Our graduates know that, as Emerson said, “Peace cannot be achieved through violence; it can only be attained through understanding.”
John loved to tell the story of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat who was stymied after a meeting with the Israeli leader Menachem Begin. Sadat couldn’t understand why Begin kept saying “pluff,” “pluff.” It wasn’t until later that he realized that what Sadat meant was “plough,” “plough.”
We know that as brutal events occur, and everything seems to go “pluff,” we can shake our heads, and we can shrug our shoulders, Or, we can plough, and we can lay the groundwork for peace.
A few days ago, Ambassador Dennis Ross told a group of people here in New York that he thinks it will take 10 to 20 years until we see the outcome of the new Middle East. Twenty years. It’s a dot on the pages of history.
The Bible tells us when the Jews who had fled Egypt complained that life was too difficult in the desert and they wanted to get to the Promised Land, God told them they weren’t ready. No. They would have to stay in the desert for 40 years. Forty years. Two generations. It would take two generations to develop a free, independent minded people who could establish a new society.
Two generations of Seeds, two generations of new thinking, will validate John’s optimism.
His dream was that someday an Arab-Israeli summit would take place and some of the leaders would be graduates of Seeds of Peace.
As I reflect on the achievements of our Seeds over the past 20 years, I am certain that John was right.
Even more than that, as we look forward, we can see, that whether at summit talks or seaside chats, high powered or low keyed, in large groups or small, global or local, that government leaders, media figures, educators, business leaders, technology innovators, Arabs and Israelis, Indians and Pakistanis, whites and blacks, religious and secular, will meet with dignity and they will reason with respect.
They will see the world not through their fathers’ and forefathers’ hostile eyes, but with the vision of tolerance, trust, and understanding that they gain from being part of Seeds of Peace.
“I have a dream,” said Martin Luther King.
John had a dream.
We all must dream. So dream with me, and together we can create a changed, and more peaceful reality.
And we’ll all sleep better at night.
Thank you.
Here’s to 20+ more years for the wonderful Seeds of Peace!