A ‘Kids United Nations’ Sprouts in Maine
BY JONATHAN SLONIM | The closest most summer campers ever come to geopolitics is “color war,” but for campers at Seeds of Peace in Otisfield, Maine, war is not a game that lasts a few short weeks. It is part of their daily lives. These campers are Palestinian, Egyptian, Jordanian and Israeli teenagers handpicked to attend a summer camp with an ambitious agenda—achieving world peace. At the least, these teens are expected to leave camp with newfound tolerance and respect for one another’s views.
Seeds of Peace was founded five years ago by John Wallach, a journalist who got tired of covering the news and decided instead to try and change it. “The catalyst for Seeds of Peace was the World Trade Center bombing in February 1993. It rang a bell. I realized the greatest aim of a terrorist is to instill fear. So a light went off in my head, and I said we’ve got to create something that instills hope and shows that peace is possible.”
Seeds of Peace is a program where youngsters from all sides of the Middle East conflict are brought together to discuss their differences and learn that it is possible to live together in peace. On a typical camp day campers from different delegations, as each country’s group is called, swim and play sports. At night, there are no bonfires or marshmallow roasts. The teens are broken up into groups to discuss such topics as the Israeli army’s role in the West Bank and Gaza, what happened in Nazi Germany, Jerusalem’s future and the establishment of a Palestinian state. “They break up the delegations, trying to create tension, because that is when the truth comes out,” explains counselor Amil Sni.
Each group is led by a facilitator, like Christopher Lybeltis, skilled in role-playing and other techniques used to make a difficult situation a little less tense. “We use drama. We create situations that occur in America, like the issue of race, which creates an analagous metaphor to their situation in the Middle East.” The children are then asked such questions as, “Does this remind you of anything?”
“The children would sometimes get very aggressive with each other,” recalls Mr. Lybeltis. But in at least one situation, it became clear that the camp’s message was getting through. “One time this happened, the children themselves got up at the end of the session and said, ‘Let’s hold hands.’ They were all singing the Seeds of Peace anthem at the top of their lungs.” Later, Mr. Lybeltis watched as the children left the building holding hands.
It is not easy to undo years of mistrust, misinformation and hatred. Ray’d Khalil Abu-Ayyash, an 18-year-old Jordanian, once compared the plight of the Palestinians to victims of the Holocaust. “I was trying to be neutral,” he said, unaware that his remarks would offend the Jewish campers. “Because of all the things in history, there are so many blocks already in your path,” he remarked. Laith Arafeh, a Palestinian teenager who graduated in the first group to attend the camp, describes the obstacles he had to overcome. When he first got there he had never met an Israeli teenager like himself. “I always saw them as settlers, as soldiers, as occupiers.”
When the campers return home, there are obstacles they did not anticipate. Ray’d was considered a traitor by some of his friends. “If you understand the other side, or listen to them, you are being brainwashed,” he said. Anat Regev, a 16-year-old Israeli girl and graduate of the program, was also shunned by some of her friends. They say that you’re friends with these people who have no problem killing.”
While they have problems with some of the friends they left behind, most of the kids remain close to the new friends they made at camp. Despite her wariness, Ms. Regev went to Jordan to visit her new friends. “It was nice being there,” she said. “It felt like they wanted me to be there.”
Word of the camp is spreading. Having begun with 55 children, it received 4,000 applications this year for 200 spaces. Each applicant writes an essay titled “Why I Want to Make Peace With the Enemy,” and is interviewed in person. Most of the campers are Arabs and Israelis, but Mr. Wallach is planning a Serbia-Bosnia program and an American inner-city program. The Greek and Turkish governments have approached Mr. Wallach about sending a delegation of children from the divided island of Cyprus. Mr. Wallach sees the camp “rapidly becoming a kind of kids UN.”
While Mr. Wallach believes that the true hope for peace rests with the next generation, he has not given up hope for the present. “I wish we could get Netanyahu and Arafat up to Seeds of Peace for a week, because you have to humanize this thing, you have to understand there is a human being at the other end and that he’s got problems very similar to your own.”
Ray’d agrees. Just like in the first tense days of the camp, he recalled, “Somebody just needs to break the ice.”