Seeds of Peace

Media Story

Seeds of Peace alumni rededicate themselves to peace mission Seeds of Peace program tests alumni dedication to dialogue

This article was originally published by The Washington File on August 19, 2005. By STEPHEN KAUFMAN Washington File White House Correspondent

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(Article I) Seeds of Peace Alumni Rededicate Themselves to Peace Mission Older participants gather in Maine for workshops, networking, dialogue Washington — Approximately 125 Israeli, Palestinian, Egyptian, Jordanian and American participants of Seeds of Peace remembered coming to the organization’s Otisfield, Maine, camp as 14- and 15 year-olds, forming close friendships with peers whom they, only days before, would have considered their enemies. Now these alumni have returned to Maine as adults in their mid-20s many with university diplomas and careers, and others with their military service completed. Seeds of Peace invited alumni to participate August 12-20 in what it describes as its “Graduate Leadership Summit” — workshops on politics, business, media and conflict resolution. The summit also creates an opportunity for them to reconnect with old friends and establish networks for the future. Welcoming the alumni, Seeds of Peace President Aaron David Miller told them August 13 that governments can end conflict but cannot create the transformations that are required to change people’s attitudes and character. Miller encouraged the Seeds to lead the organization, create their own network and invent a more peaceful future. Seeds of Peace, a nonprofit organization dedicated to conflict resolution among young people, invites 14- to 15-year-olds from the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia and Southeast Europe to attend three-week camp sessions in Maine, where they interact with peers on the opposite sides of their conflicts, learn to communicate with them, and even form lasting friendships. According to the organization’s most recent annual report, the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development made grants totaling nearly $850,000 to the program in fiscal year 2003. Those funds were given to support specific Seeds of Peace coexistence projects in the Middle East and beyond. WORKSHOPS FOCUS ON LEADERSHIP, COMMUNICATION For the graduate summit, Seeds of Peace acknowledged the new level of maturity and skills of its alumni, and gave participants like 22-year-old Dana, who served on the event’s Israeli steering committee, much control over planning and making decisions on whom to invite to speak to the participants and run the workshops. “This is a leadership summit so we’re really trying to apply the leadership theme of us taking more lead and taking more part in planning our life in the organization and our life wherever,” Dana said. In her media workshop, the participants focused on ways to raise outside awareness to Seeds of Peace in their home countries, as well as improve its image. “Either they don’t know it or they hate it,” she said. Suggestions included conducting public service announcement campaigns and building networks between the participants with the Internet and through web cameras “so we don’t lose touch again [and] we don’t have to come to Maine whenever we want to talk.” Khalid, a 25-year-old Palestinian who participated in the business workshop, is returning to his home in Ramallah with two plans of action. He wants to develop a comprehensive alumni network database to make sure all Seeds participants, past and present, will be in contact. He is also coordinating and seeking more funds for a conflict management program for Israelis and Palestinians in order to teach them “how to negotiate and do conflict resolution [and] mediation.” “Everyone has their own way of thinking, but what we’re working on now is building the base of the new future coming up,” he said. Sarah first came to Seeds of Peace in 1995. Now 25 years old, the Jordanian participated in the political group in the conflict resolution workshop, where participants discussed having an activist network for Seeds from all participating countries and organizing political action, as well as a study group that, over the next two to three years, will closely examine political texts and treaties. The group’s focus will include issues such as Israeli settlements, Palestinian refugees, Jerusalem, Israel’s security wall, and will ultimately hold a conference to negotiate a final status solution. She explained that one of the main ideas behind Seeds of Peace is that if the people who are negotiating are friendly and understand each other, they will arrive at a solution that will be acceptable to both sides. “Because it is a solution done by people who care about each other, it actually is feasible for both sides … it’s something that people can actually sign on to. It’s not an unfair, unjust kind of solution,” Sarah said. The workshop would then present its negotiated solution to the general public, hoping that “people would really take it into consideration,” she added. She criticized those in the region, not living directly in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, who condemn peace efforts but “don’t do anything,” describing that attitude as “a denial of the conflict in a sense.” “It’s very easy to have simplistic views about an ‘evil enemy’ who has to be destroyed. … [But] you have to start thinking ‘no, this is not the way it is, and if I want to solve it I’ll have to acknowledge the complexity of the situation.’” ***** (Article II) Seeds of Peace Program Tests Alumni Dedication to Dialogue Graduate summit in Maine comes after years of increased Mideast tension Washington — When the original Seeds of Peace participants first came to the camp in Otisfield, Maine, in the mid 1990’s, political developments such as the Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestinians and Israel’s 1994 peace treaty with Jordan encouraged optimism across the Middle East. But the situation in the region following the second Intifada (the violent Palestinian-Israeli conflict that began in September 2000) is far different, and all of the 125 Israeli, Palestinian, Egyptian, Jordanian and American alumni who are participating in the organization’s August 12-20 “Graduate Leadership Summit” have been affected in their own way by the political events that have increased tensions in the region since their initial visit. (See related article.) For Sarah, a 25-year-old participant from Jordan, the principles of peace she learned at camp 10 years before have not changed. However, after the events in the region, as well as the required army service for her Israeli counterparts, “more baggage has accumulated that has to be … worked through,” she said, and the emotions and views of the individuals have become stronger due to those events, and due to their becoming adults. “[Y]ou don’t know how people will feel after the second Intifada. You don’t know how people feel after they’ve gone to the army. It might not work,” she said. “An assumption has been made at the beginning and I think [the summit] was a test of that assumption.” Dana, a 22-year-old participant from Israel first attended camp in 1997. She said after first returning to Maine that it was awkward to meet people she had not seen in many years, and difficult to hear of their hardships. “We all have a personal difficult story. I mean, after all we’ve been living in Israel and Palestine for the last five years of fighting. … So I think maybe we’re just less naïve and maybe less optimistic, but if we come here then we believe in this idea [of peace],” she said. Khalid, a 25-year-old Palestinian from Ramallah, remarked that the camp experience was similar to his first visit in 1994 in terms of having communal meals in the dining hall and sleeping in the cabin bunks with some of the same campers with whom they had originally attended. However, the discussions are different. “We’re sitting and having a dialogue but attitudes are different than they used to be, the way people talk, the way we open subjects and close them. It’s more like adults,” he said. Those discussions, Sarah said, were “unbelievably intense.” “It wasn’t like we were lovey-dovey and we agreed. It was much more difficult,” she said. “But … people had a much clearer vision and … there was no fight about facts in that sense. It was much more like ‘OK, so how do you see the situation, how do I see the situation, [and] how can I really hear what you’ve been going through.’” BUILDING HOPE FOR THE FUTURE The summit occurred just as Israel began its withdrawal of troops and settlers from Gaza an event celebrated by Palestinians, but which was difficult for many Israelis. Dana recalled being worried that a close Egyptian friend would be indifferent to the distress many of the Gaza settlers felt in losing their homes. “[B]ut she was so sympathetic and I saw in her eyes that she really understood how hard it is for us and that the [Israeli] society is very divided.” Her friend’s sympathy inspired her, she said, “because this is what we’re trying to build here to just understand. We don’t have to agree but just to understand where we are coming from.” Dana felt hopeful, saying, “Not all Arabs hate us and a lot of them also understand our pain, as much as we [Israelis] should understand their pain.” As the summit concludes August 20, Dana expressed her view that it will have proven effective just by “igniting the fire in people’s hearts” and redirecting them to Seeds of Peace, and also for rebuilding relationships and facilitating efforts to stay in touch for the future, which she said “is the most important thing.” As for the assumption that the Seeds would be able to closely reconnect as they had a decade before, Sarah said, “It turned out to be true in a lot of situations.” “Even if you believe in something, sometimes you kind of need that affirmation, and that was extremely important for me,” she said.