BY JENNIFER MCMENAMIN | OTISFIELD When Noa Epstein, a 13-year-old from Israel, grieved after the most recent bombing in Jerusalem, she was surrounded by supportive friends as she has been each time terrorism has struck her homeland.
But this time, the friends hugging her were from nations she had spent her life learning to fear—Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Qatar and Tunisia.
“At home, all I ever heard when something tragic happens is that Palestinians are dancing in Gaza. And I don’t get the chance to meet the people who do care,” Epstein said. “But for the first time in my life, I saw Arab children—my friends—come to me, support me and comfort me.”
Epstein is a camper at Seeds of Peace International Camp, an internationally recognized conflict-resolution program for Arab and Israeli teenagers.
Campers, families and foreign diplomats who usually see each other only across a negotiations table came together yesterday to celebrate the fifth anniversay of the camp and dedicate its new home in this countryside town of 1,136.
“You’re standing on very special soil today,” said John Wallach, a former foreign correspondent and founder of the camp. “There is no other place in the world where youngsters and leaders from all these nations are standing together and not fighting. We’re all celebrating the possibility for peace.”
Many of the teenagers arrived at camp dreading the thought of speaking to—let alone sleeping beside—the people they had been taught to hate.
“When I first reached camp, I saw the wooden bunks and the children from the Israeli delegation and I thought, ‘I can’t sleep with them in that bunk,'” said Amer Kamal, a Palestinian. “But now—after being at this camp—I have the courage to say that peace can be achieved between people better than it can achieved between two governments.”
Many of the campers live only miles away form each other in their homelands. Unmarked boundaries and unwritten rules have prevented them from meeting.
But at Seeds of Peace, intercultural immersion is immediate. Bunk assignments, meals and daily activities are planned to mix the 175 students from all eight countries during their four-week stay at the camp.
“I thought me and the Israelis wouldn’t get along,” said Hazem Jamjoum of Jordan. “But I’ve discovered that as people, we’re almost identical. We both have parents, play the same sports, even eat the same foods. It’s incredible.”
More important than physical contact, the campers say, are the daily coexistence workshops in which the campers develop listening and negotiation skills, empathy, respect, confidence and hope—skills that organizers hope will be the building blocks for peace in the Middle East.
The discussions give a human face to problems and violence that have existed for generations. And though they might live only miles from the violence, they had to travel thousands of miles to understand it.
“When I see [violence] on television at home, I feel sad for the victims’ families,” explained Malak Fayez, 16, of Egypt. “But when I’m here, I feel it more because you see it in front of you. People who have become my friends are upset about something that we know could happen to anyone. It puts it more in reality.”
One glance around the campgrounds yesterday proved that more realities have been made. Joining hands and standing arm-in-arm, Arab and Israeli teenagers sang and hugged each other. Each Middle East flag and national anthem prompted cheers and applause from the campers. And when the so-called tree of peace was planted and the camp’s official song was sung, even the diplomats joined arms and swayed to the rousing tune.
“I have no doubt whatsoever that a settlement will be reached between Israel and the Palestinians,” said Eliahu Ben-Elissar, ambassador of Israel to the United States. “We will live together simply because we have to get used to living together. You have accomplished here the first steps of this process.” Although the mood was celebratory, many made references to the violence that has shattered the fragile peace in their homelands.
“The latest development in Israel and Palestine is preventing any kind of exchange of views,” said Said Hamad, senior deputy chief of the Palestinian Liberation Organization. “So we need this. Had this thing happened 20 or 25 years ago, perhaps we would be looking at a different Middle East.”
Both campers and the government officials expressed confidence that someday there will be a different Middle East.
“Being at this camp and going through the feelings of meeting Arab children and listening to what they have to say and listening to my point of view, and at the end talking, arguing and maybe even agreeing has made me realize and learn some very, very important things,” Epstein said. “Being here at this camp gave me hope—hope that one day things will change.”
“You never know 20 years from now if a crisis was averted because two kids who paddled a canoe together in Maine will pick up a phone and say, ‘Hey dummy what are you doing?,'” said Roger M. Deitz, a member of the camp’s board of directors.
“That’s how we’ll measure the success of this camp.”