OTISFIELD, MAINE | Hundreds of teenagers from conflict areas of the world met in Maine at a camp to ease the tensions between people from warring nations.
Seeds of Peace hosts high school-aged kids from all over the world. Sunday’s flag-raising ceremony welcomed 178 campers from Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Egypt, the United States, and the United Kingdom to the 24th summer of the Camp.
“For some of our campers, this is a really powerful and proud moment for them,” said the camp’s assistant director Sarah Brajtbord.
Brajtbord is also the U.S.-based program manager for Seeds of Peace.
Many of the teens said they were raised to treat certain nationalities as enemies. During Sunday’s ceremonies, Israelis and Palestinians, Egyptians and Jordanians, Americans and Britons, stood side by side.
“It was really difficult, especially to have people from the ‘other side’ next to me, sleeping with me,” said Elizabeth, a second-year camper, who is from Palestine. “We are raised to hate them. So when you come here with that idea and hatred in your heart, and you come here and you find out they’re actually people. They’re nice.”
Brajtbord said these campers face an inner conflict.
“It’s a learning moment to say, ‘this is part of who I am, but it’s not all of who I am.’ It’s an emotional and intellectual sort of struggle constantly throughout camp, but from that struggle and from that conflict comes a lot of growth,” said Brajtbord.
Aviv, a teenager from Israel, said her friends ridiculed her and called a “traitor” for speaking and playing with Palestinians. Aviv also attended the camp in 2014.
“The worst feeling was that sometimes I felt like they forgot me and they told me that I was changed,” said Aviv.
At camp, the teenagers spend 90 minutes each day in “dialogue sessions,” discussing the truths and feelings of living in a conflict zone.
Brajtbord said the goal is to create a “safe space” for teens to discuss these feelings, and oftentimes, stereotypes.
“Conflict is a moment for either breakdown or breakthrough. We try to make conflict about breaking through and coming to a different level of understanding,” said Brajtbord.
“You feel like you can breathe. Everywhere you go, you can talk to someone,” said Aviv.
Experienced campers, such as Aviv and Elizabeth, said the camp gives opportunities that many of their peers would not get.
“We are learning that we are only human — just humans. Your nationality, your religion, where you come from, what color are you, what do you love, what do you hate, it doesn’t matter,” said Elizabeth.
Seeds of Peace will host a “domestic session” in August for United States students to focus on issues of racism, immigration, policing, bullying, poverty, and education policy.