JERUSALEM | Seeds of Peace helps develop young leaders by exposing them to multiple narratives. This involves Seeds meeting with people and hearing stories and narratives that are often otherwise inaccessible, all with the goal of deepening their understanding of conflicts, their history, and ideas for transforming them.
On September 28, Seeds of Peace led a hiking tour to do just that. The program was run in partnership with Zochrot, an Israeli nonprofit that raises awareness and acknowledgement of what happened to Palestinian communities during the 1948 War and advocates that refugees be granted the right of return to them.
Sixteen Seeds—all either Druze or Palestinian citizens of Israel—toured communities that were depopulated and demolished during the war by Israeli forces, and heard personal stories of families who were displaced from them and prevented from returning to them. Sites included al-Bassa, Balad al-Sheikh, and Iqrit, formerly a Palestinian Christian village.
At the end of the program, one Seed shared how frustrated she was with herself, her family, and her community. She had never heard these stories before, since her family and her school avoided talking about what happened during the war. Previously, she believed that only a few communities were destroyed, rather than hundreds. The experience inspired her to lead change by getting her community to talk honestly about the past, and to help her peers gain a deeper understanding of what happened.
