Change Agent:
Young Palestinian sows seeds of peace where peace seems impossible
| THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR

Mahmoud Jabari, who attended a Seeds of Peace camp, has learned to better understand both sides of the deadlocked Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Twenty-year-old Mahmoud Jabari is a Palestinian photographer and journalist from the West Bank city of Hebron. He believes that youths will provide a way forward for the long-standing, seemingly perpetually stagnant conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Territories.

His hopefulness is a small island in a sea of dubiousness, mistrust, and frustration [...]

Seeds of Peace is an international summer camp in Maine that brings together youth and adult leaders from areas around the world marred by conflict to learn resolution skills and develop empathy for each other. Over the past 18 years, participants have come from Israel, the Palestinian Territories, Egypt, Cyprus, South Asia, and the Balkans.

After the participants return home from the summer camp, they ideally maintain ties to Seeds of Peace through regional initiatives, where they exercise their new knowledge of dialogue and mediation. The hope is that the participants, who are referred to as “Seeds,” sow peace among their communities at home.

Mahmoud Jabari attended the Seeds of Peace International Camp in Maine five years ago. It changed his life.

Read the rest of Rachel Signer’s article at The Christian Science Monitor »