The Olive Bronch is o youth magazine written ondedited by youth from Afghoniston, Albonio, Bosnicr,

Bulgorio, Crootio, Cyprus, Egypt, FYROM, Creece,

Indio, Isroel, fordon, Kosovo, Morocco, Polestine,Pokiston, Qotor, Romonio, Serbio, Tunisio, Turkey,Yemen ond the United Stotes. who ore oort of theSeeds of Peoce progrom.THE OLIVE BRANCH StaffSeth Wikos, Editor-in-ChiefDono Noor, Monor Al Notsho, Assistont Editors

fen Morlowe, |enifer Voughon, Stoff Editors

Contributing Writers & Artists

Afghaniston: Mir Akhgor, Yoldo Foqeerzado,Mustofo Nossery, Pornion Nozory, Khobir Solloh,

Ahmod Hemmot Shoh, Shabneum Hosonzado,Motiulloh YomoBolkons: Denis Boftijori, Erblin Mehmetoj, AilindMukacu, Agon Myftori, Gent Solihu, felenoTrojkovic, Snesko VoveskoCyprus, Greece, Turkey: Loizos Kopsolis, NotolioKouhortsiouk, Fezile Lokodomyali, Resat Sobon,

Aylin YordimciIndio/Pokiston: Andrew John, foneen Modrn,Sobo Mumtoz, Shonoor Seervoi, Siddhorth Shoh

Middle Eost: Zeno Abu Roed, Somi Ammous,Mohmoud o]-Ashi, Abeer Assouli, Yoron Avni,Kherollah Bazabaz, Roy Cohen, Sogi Gonot, Sood

Hoj Yehyio, Royo ol-Holowoni, Mino Hoosom,Amoni Jober, Nordine Jildeh, Shiro Koplon, Soroh

Khotlb, Foroh ol-Khoyed, Eldod Levy, MohomodMotor, Monor Al Notsho, Agom Rofoeli, DorioRotiner, Mostofo Sollom, Anno Tunkel, YoroUwolyed, Adir Yonko, Tolo el-Yousef, Reem Yusuf,

Nodeen Zoorba, Numon ZourubUSA: Rochel Heosly, Miriom Liebman, ElizobethNguyen, Soroh Pelletier, Zoch Ruchmon, TchotchoTeko

All submissions ore property of Seeds of Peoce, orid

moy be edited for length, content or style. Send

correspondence to:

THE OLIVE BRANCHP.O. Box 25045, ferusolem 97300Iel. 97 2-2-582-0222 Eox. 97 2-2-582-222Emoil: olivebrqnch@seedsofpeace.org

The Olive Bronch is printed by Kol Ho'ir onddesigned by Orno Korniel

Seeds of PeoceJohn Wollach, FounderAoron Miller, President

Bobbie Gottscholk, Executive Vice President

fonet Wolloch, Senior Vice PresidentTim Wilson, Vice President, Comp ond Center

DirectorBorboro Zosloff, Vice PresidentChrlstine Covey, Vice President

Center for Coexistence Stoff, ferusolemIsso Abed Robbo, Genny Adel, Mazin ol-fundi,

Somi Al-fundi, Reuven Bomes, Wolid Abed Elhodi,

Ariel Huler, )en Morlowe, Reem Mustofa, |oredWillis, Tim Wilson

Seeds of Peoce is o non-profit, non-politicolorgonization thot helps teenogers from regions "conflict leom the skills of moking p3oce. Set otown comp in Moine, a sofe environment is cr":

where youngsters con oir theirriews ond l,lor'

leodership ond conflict t.' ''1u1i61 1e.4'niorequired to end the cYcles r' i

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Seeds ofPeace CookbookSeeds of Peoce is beginning o proiect

to help support the Seeds of Peoceeducotion fund: on internotionolcookbook, consisting of recipes donotedby Seeds, their fomilies, SOP Supportersond SOP stoff.

We are oppeoling to everyoneinvolved in SOP to donate o fovoriterecipe to this project. You con do thisby e-moil, fox or post. You con e-moilyour recipe to Koren Abu Zont (porentof Seed fomol from 2000) otpolkoren@hotmoil.com (pleose put"cookbook" in the sublect) or fox ormoil it to the SOP Center in ferusolem.

AII recipes must be in English ondshould use Imperiol meosurementswhen possible, but if submitted inmetric, we will odd Imperiolequivolencies to the recipe ingredients.

We hope to finish this project by Foll2004. Therefore, we would opprecioteo quick response to our oppeol.

We would olso love some other Seedporents to portner with me in helpingwith this project! If you hove o porentwho might be interested in workingwith me on this, pleose osk them tocontoct mel

Thonk you for your onticipotedsupport of this proiect.

Kqren Abu Zont (Tulkorem)

Responses by soldiers in the IDFSeeds in the Israel Defense Forces respond

to last issue's Coexistence Hotline aboutbeing a Seed and a soldier

My nome is Yono ond I om on Isroeliseed from 2000 (and 2001) ond likemost of the fewish Isroeli seeds of myyeor I hove joined the Isroeli ormy. Theormy tokes up most of my time thesedoys ond mokes it pretty muchimpossible to participote in Seeds ofPeoce octivities ond meetings. Still, Ifeel I om oble to stay o Seed.

In the course I om toking in the ormy,every week someone is given 20minutes or so to teoch the rest of thecloss obout ony topic thot comes tomind - theoter, wine, dreoms, topdoncing, whotever you wont to tellobout. This week I used these 20minutes to tell my closs obout Seeds of

The Seeds of Peoce Student Advisory Council, pictured here in Washington, DC, is o group ofSeeds from oround the world who study in the United Stotes and orgonize events for Seeds

ond their compuses.

region, ond for the lost five months Iserved in the north. When I took myunit's course we hod the some thing,ond I spoke obout Seeds of Peoce in mypresentotion, for o bit longer, ondoctuolly the others just wonted to heorMORE AND MORE!

Yono Koplon (ferusolem)

I feel thot my iob in the ormy ispretty much similor to being o Seed.

It's obout being open minded, building(work) relotionships with soldiers fromother ormies, ond most importontly,whot we coll CBM - confidence buildingmeclsures - which I hove token frommy experience in Seeds.

Liot Morgolit (ferusolem)

Apology and CorrectionIn the Winter 2OO4 Edition of TheOlive Bronch, an article submittedby Nicolos Popomichoel, o GreekCypriot from Nicosiq, included theterm "Turkish Cyprus." Mr.Popomichoel never used such oterm in his originol orticle ond thiswcrs cl grievous ond unfortunotemistoke by the editoriol stoffduringthe editoriol process. I hove olreodysent o personol opology to Mr.Popomichoel ond would like toossure him ond oll of our reodersthot a mistoke of this sort will neveroccur ogoin.Seth Wikas, Editor-in-Chief, TheOlive Branch

Peoce. It moy sound stronge to tolkabout peoce in the ormy but to me itseems the most logicol thing in theworld. The ormy is one of the ploceswhere it is eosiest to lose trock of thenormol people on the other side sinceyou ore constontly deoling with theenemies on the other side.

I told my class obout |ohn, oboutcomp, coexistence, identity ond obouthow Seeds of Peoce stoys octive in theregion. My clossmotes took interest ondosked questions ond still, when the 20minutes were up I knew there weremillions of things left to soy. All ondoll I think it went well, I hope it openedo small view to people of things theyhod never stopped to think of before.I hove been in the ormy for o bit over3 months. I still con't reolly see myselfos o soldier. The ormy moy hove modeit hord for some of you to see me os oSeed. I do think thot I con be both - osoldier ond o Seed.

My nome is Liot. I am20 yeors old,ond wqs in camp during summer of1998. I om in the Isroeli militory for oyeor ond 4 months now, ond I serve inthe IDF Lioison ond Foreign RelotionsDeportment, which is octuolly o greotploce for Isroeli Seeds to serve.

I work with foreion forces in the

Letter from the Editor

t oppeors thot summer in ferusolemhos finolly orrived. The doys ore hot, thesun hos stqrted to become oppressive,ond every doy I oppreciote the cool oirot the Center. But the longed-for vocotionmonths hove not qrrived smoothly. Inmy mind, o lot of folse storts qndsputtering occurred to get us to this timeof yeor. There wos o week of unbeoroblyhot weother followed by o week thotforced me to weor my sweoter ond jocket.

During lote April, it seemed like fourseosons come ot different times on thesome doy. Summer wos unsure obout itsorrivol ond winter ond spring did notwont to vield the stoce.

As with the weother, so with worldevents. The relotlve peoce ond stobilityof lost summer in the Middle Eost, whichollowed us to hove o fontostic Summerot the Center progrom, bringing Seeds

from Isroel, Caza and the West Bonktogether for the first time since 2000, nowseem but o distont memory, in the wokeof the violence in Rofoh thot hqs tokeno horrific number of lives. The opporentcolm felt in the Bolkons since the 7999ceosefire wos shottered in Morch withrenewed ethnic closhes, loss of life ondmossive property domoge. And in Cyprus,

o chonge was felt in the oir with oreunificotion plon thot ultimotely foiled.

But there ore bright spots-os the stoffput together this issue of the mogozine,Indio ond Pokiston, but o yeor 0go onthe verge of nucleor wor, crofted o novelstrotegy to settle the conflicts thot dividethe two notions. Indo-Pokistoni cricketmotches, which sow over o thousondIndions flock to Pokiston, brought thetwo notions even closer together. InAfghoniston, SOP stoff led o number ofworkshops for Seeds there, instilling inthem the hope thot they con moke odifference in their communities ond theircountry. And since lost summer, therehove been efforts to bring fordonion ondEgyption Seeds into the regionol fold, byholding more ongoing progroms betweenthem, Polestiniqn ond Isroeli Seeds.

Perhops one of the brightest spots overthe post few months is Seeds of Peoce'seffort ond reolizotion thot it must trulybe the orgonizotion of its porticiponts.Groduotes of our progrom from oll overthe world hove met of vorious seminors,workshops ond conferences to discuss thefuture of the orgonizotion, how it con bemore effective, whot it does well, ondwhere it con improve. In this magozineissue, some of our oroduotes recount these

octivities, ond Olive Bronch stoff evencought up with two of them obout theirIife ond octivities since groduoting fromSeeds of Peoce.

Finolly, while ensuring thot ourorgonizotion oddresses the concerns ofour porticiponts, groduotes ond futureleoders, we hove tried to moke The OliveBronch follow o similor model. Insteodof being o publicotion composed of Seed

orticles ond monoged by Center stoff,Seeds from oll over the world ore nowossisting os regionol ond ossistont editon.

My deepest thonks for this issue go toAssistont Editors Dono Noor from Holonond Monor Al Notsho from Hebron, Seeds

olumni who contributed involuoble inputond odvice on moking this mogozineoccurotely reflect the interests ondconcerns of our Seeds, who ronge in ogefrom 14-25.

Now thot summer is here to stoy, I hopethot there will be no fits ond storts in theweother or the globol politicol situotion.We hove onother amazing comp inMoine, o busy summer progrom in theMiddle Eost ond ongoing progrommingin the Bolkons, Cyprus ond South Asio.Drink lots of woter, get lots of rest, ondhove o greot summerl a A

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Letter from the Comp ond Center DirectorSeeds of Peace Vice President and CampDirector Tim Wilson was appointed inFebruary of 2004 to be the Director of theSOP Center for Coexistence in lerusalem.Since February, Tim has been in the regionmonthly and will join the Center staffpermanently in September 2004.

When Seth osked me to write, I wosnot very willing, qnd thot probobly hosto do with my newness ot this job. Plus,whqt do I soy to mony of you, whom Ihove known os just compers? Now I omin your HOUSE, very humble ondIeorning eoch doy from old Seeds ondnew ones. As the Center Director therewill be progrom chonges, most of thosecoming os cr result of continuing diologue

with Center stoff, new Seeds, groduotes,os well os older qlumni. I could try tosoft soop things but os you know, thot isnot me. The Center stoff is working onworthwhile summer progromming, os

ore other folks in qll our regions. Soon,I will be more fofthcoming with ideos forthe future. But I need your help. I olsoneed you to keep focused on these things:respect, communicotion ond trust. Afterbeing in the region every month sincelost November, I con only osk you towork with your fellow Seeds to developo meoningful progrom in your locolcommunities ond continue to discussyour differences with respect ond dignity.Let us be o reol light of hope. Yes, compwos ond is importont but the region is

more important. 24 doys vs. 341 doys.THIS IS WHY I COMMIIIED MYSELF TOYOU. Whether you ore from South Asio,Cyprus, the Bolkons, Middle Eost or theUS, pieose try to be supportive of eochother, but crllow yourselves room todiscuss issues using The Olive Bronch orSeedsnet. Finolly, I thonk this big fomilyof Seeds for urging me on.

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Losing on Angel:Albo Turoni

Ef*t+EE*n*F n Morch 14,2004, Albq Turoni, o Seed from Albonio,wos trogicolly killed in o cor occident. Albo first cometo the Bolkqns Comp in Olympio, Greece in 2000 qndhod been involved with Seeds of Peoce ever since. Albowos o deor friend ond kept in touch with mony of herSeeds friends over vio emoil and letters. Below, BqlkonSeeds shqre tributes in memory of their beloved friend.

Dear Honorqble Alba's Fomily,

Words connot express our deeppoin for the loss of AIbo, our deorfriend. Although we hod o possibilityto know her for only one week, itwos enough to know her pretly well,to be oble to reolize the kindness ondsincerity of her soul. Albo wos reollyfriendly, she wos sweet for everyone.

The best memories of her willolwoys be olive in our heorts. She

is not deod, she will olwoys beomongst us. We'll remember herwith lots of love ond respect.

Agon Myftari, Arto Osmonoj,Erblin Mehmetoj, Gent Solihu, qndRinor Sodiku

Deqr Seeds stoff, counselors,friends and everyone who hqdo chqnce to know her:

For oll of those who knew or didn't,guys I om sorry, we hove lost o greotfriend, o wonderful person, one ofthe greotest Seeds SOP hos ever hod.No words con express the sorrow ondpoin we oll feel obout Albo. I willolwoys rememberyou my deorAlbo.Moy God rest your soul in heoven.

Agon Myftori (Pristino)

Memories with AlboIt wos luly 23,2003. In the chilly

morning of this scorching doy Iended up ot the bus stotion woitingfor Abi ond Albo to orrive fromAlbonio in order to join us for theworkshop in Brezovico, Kosovo. Iwoited ond woited until I lost mypotience ond os I wos moking thefirst step bock home here they come.I wos very hoppy to see them ond inthe meontime very relieved from ogreot stress.

Becouse they hod orrived hoursoheod of the workshop I took themto my house for o little rest. My momgot to know ond Iike them, especiollyAIbo very much. Albo who seemedshy of first wos very communicotiveond discerning.

We storted conversing on differenttopics ond the yeors we hod been otSeeds of Peoce. It wos thot verymoment when I got to know thotshe hod been denied US viso ondtherefore she could never toste thecomp in Moine. Ouch it touched medeep down but she wouldn't showlny sign of roge orincomprehensibility. So, I hod juststorted to know the brilliont cherubicAIbo who wos thoughtful, motureond extremely understonding.

During the workshop in Brezovicowe wonted to moke the most out ofit, to use every minute ond spend os

much os possible time together. Iwish the stoff hod let us ossemble(boys ond girls in one ploce) ondspend more time together ot nights.This woy we would hove been obleto cherish her more.

Her kindness mode her be o friendto everyone. She hod mony friendsond it mokes me think os thoughshe reolly followed the words of ouroll-time best ond forever Seed, ]ohn:"Moke one friend."

Once the workshop ended ond shewent bock home, she sent me, Artoond some others postcords vio Agonwho went to Albonio on summerholidoys. This showed how friendly,coring ond groteful she wos. I keepit in my drower ond eoch time myeyes foll upon it orouses the bestindelible memories on me which inthe meontime sodden me greotly.

The deoth of Albo wos o trogic lossnot only for her fomily but olso forme, Seeds of Peoce ond everyone else

who knew ond surrounded her. She

wos 0 wonderful humon being -ogreot Seed with the copobility toeffect greot things in both her countryond obrood. I feel super proud tohove met ond hod her os my friend.I feel greot sorrow ond I know oll ofthe Seeds of Peoce Fomily no longerhos her omong us but I know shehosn't obondoned us, she still lives-AN ANGEL IN HEAVEN.

Erblin Mehmetaj (Pristino)

LnMoy, odult Egyption, Isroeli, fordonion qnd Polestinion Seeds met in Cyprusto discuss the future ond priorities of Seeds of Peqce. While differing in outlook,eqch Seed - older ond wiser - remqins committed to the orgonization's mission.

Pioneering SpiritYaron Avni (Ashkelon)

Tr^^ r^^^^,. ^r ^ lioneer includes therrrs rqyuLy vr u !continuqtion of his greot contribution to society,

the foundotions of the life he hqs lived ond thesense of responsibility he leoves to his followers.Ihe followers must not let their heritoge dieond must moke their dreoms come true of allcosts. They qre the first, usuolly do not see their vision come true,yet see it vividly in their heort. This feeling is in the oir between thesucceeding generotions ond those generotions feel obligoted to thenew trodition not by some sort of force, but by honor.

This pioneering spirit mode Americo whot it is today. The londwhere everything is possible would not be thot woy, if it wosn't forthe spint. In mony ways, the first fewish pioneers hove mode mygreot country whot it is todoy: democrotic, Western, strongeconomicoily qnd militorily. They were the ones who made it ollcome true - ond we ore trying, olthough unsuccessfully sometimes,to follow their humon, but gigontic, footsteps. Robert Frost soid,

"Two roods diverged in the wood, ond I, I took the one less troveledby - ond thot hos mode oll the difference." By ottending Seeds ofPeoce, we oll took the rood less troveled by.

During the Groduotes Conference in C1prus, we storted to exominethe foundotions of our Seeds of Peoce heritoge. Someone soid inCyprus, "ln the beginning, no one thought how this orgonizotionwould look like in 10 yeors." Ten yeors loter, we see whot it looksIike: bigger but still with os much intimocy os possible, o lot moreconnected to the thoughts ond feelings of its eiders ond runningmore oppropriote octivities for both younger ond older Seeds. Itolso serves os o link between oll the Seeds who hqve ever ottendedthe progrom ond still feel obligoted to its founding principles. Byollowing Seeds to reqch their enormous potentiol (os shown by theseminor in Cyprus), the orgonizotion is groduolly moving towordthe concept of the older Seeds "running the show." We ore committedto developing an organization thot is for more connected to thesocieties in which it is working, ond toking omong its lines the finestto leod their communities in vorious fields.

The Middle Eost is in o very delicote position. It is ot o fork in therood. We must let it toke the rood less troveled by. We must be thepioneers who will rqise the flog of peoce ond prosperity to theregion. Sounds like o dreqm? Not for o true pioneer

Overdue Reunionsin Cyprus

Sqmi Ammous (Cairo)

During the GroduotesConference in Cyprus in Moy, onumber ofSeeds from 1998 ondeorlier discussed the moturing ofthe SOP orgonizotion ond whereit's heoded. Much wos discussedond tolked obout in the conference, but whot got methinking most wos how those who were there hovemotured since I'd lost seen them.

I got to see people I hoven't seen since '97 or'98.On the outside some hoven't chonged much, othersI borely recognized, but oll of them hove becomewiser. Thot first night when I got there, I wosintroducing myself to people ond soying hello topeople I olreody knew, but os Shiro (from Isroel) putit, I hod to reintroduce myself to most people. Youheqr thqt he did so ond so, ond she impressed everyoneby soying so ond so, ond o bunch did thot ond somedidn't like it. It would toke o smoll book to cover whqt30 people did in eight yeors, but eqch person'soccomplishments were omozing on their own scole.Some went through things thot mode them stronger,others hove become more forgiving ond others becqmeongrier.

But there is one thing thot hos not chonged in thesepost yeors: the belief in peoce. Through theirexperiences, eoch hos developed his/her unique visionof how thot peoce should be ond how it's supposedto be occomplished, but whot did not wover wos theoveroll consensus thot violence would leod nowhere.Some wonted more closeness between Arobs ondIsroelis, others thought thot contoct should be personolbut not public. Some thought the orgonizotion shouldexpond into community service ond do more thqnpeoce-moking. The diversity of the opinions ondstqnces wos greot ond whot we were oble tooccomplish in these three doys quite fronkly surprisedme. But whot surprised me most is thot though thingsore os bod os they ore, there remoins o spork of peoce

in the minds of everyone who ottended comp monyye0rs 0go.

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Shiro Koplon (first row, right) ond fellow Seeds qt the UWC conference

1.tt in New Mexico

tJ eeds of Peoce groduotes, those who hqve finished high school, continueto be active, toking port in octivities thot give them new skills to chqrt theorgonizqtion's future. A mediotion workshop in ferusolem ond groduoteconference in New Mexico were two such octivities.

Leorning to Mediqte f a,snng Importont Questions

Kherqlloh B azboz (f erusolem)"lt is o third porty thot helps the porlners

of conflict reoch on ogreement thqt serves

the interest of the two porties." This iswhot the Mediotion Course heid for Seeds

of Peoce groduotes during the summerof 2O03 wos oll obout. I enjoyed thotcourse o lot, not onlv becouse of thecompony of my friends, but becouse of the simulotions weheld eoch week to help us build our mediotion skills. At firstthey storted with negotiotion: the simulotion hod o messoge

thot cooperotion between the porties is the eosiest woy tomoke the most profit.

In order to reoch o solution to q conflict, we leorned skillsfor octive listening ond mirroring. We leorned to osk questionsthot give the person in the conflict the chonce to listen tohimself or herself in order to reolize his interests ond those ofthe other porty. Personolly, I felt thot most of the problemsond conflicts between people con be solved if they iust listento eoch otheq reoily know whot they wont ond not corry onfighting ond orguing just for the sqke of hoving the lost wordor being stubborn. This observqtion wos shown os o pyramid:interests lie ot the bqse ond the gool lies ot the top.

The mediotion process hos o well-shoped structure thotconsists of severol stoges of work between both porties togetheror individuolly. These stages depend on open questions, so os

to iet the porties be more open ond oble to speok. This requireso very importont foctor in this process: trust. Thot sets theright tone for the truth to come out. Eventuolly, q mediotordoesn't hove the onswer or the solution for the problem. Themediotor is just helping the porfies to come up with the solutionthemselves.

During the course I discovered thot I wqs ovoiding lots ofproblems in my life, ond I didn't reolize thot we use negotiotionond mediotion in our doily life. After this course, however,with oll the simulotions ond movies thot we wotched, I sowmediotion, negotiotion, ond difficult conversotions ore o portof life. It storted to help me to look ot things ond deol withfham rlifforonflrr

After thot course we hod smoll workshop obout "difficultconversotions." Whot I most remember from the workshop is

thot lots of the time we don't know much obout the people orthings oround us. We stort building ossumptions thot shopethe woy we deol with these things or people. We don't botherto osk, to leorn whot we don't know or we ore oshomed orofroid moybe to qsk. The worst thing is when our ossumptionsbecome focts thot we believe in qnd never wont to chonqe.

Shiro Koplon (Herzliyo)

Seeds of Peoce is moking every possible effort to troce itsolumni ond gother them in one ploce. Even if it is just for thesoke of honging out, the very foct thot we, the olumni, meetofter seven or eight yeors of not hoving seen eoch other hoso remorkoble effect on our lives. Whether we ore studying inthe Middle Eost or living in the United Stotes, reuniting withour long-lost peers from comp meons revitolizing oldfriendships. Moreover, it meons odding onother nome - whichThe Morch conference held in Montezumq, New Mexico wqs

on ottempt to bring together nine Seeds olumni who studiedot the United World Colleges (UWC). UWC is o choin of 10

internqtionol schools scottered oround the world, from Conodoto Singopore, where students from 80 countries study on oscholorshin ond qdhere to the mottos of peoce ond internotionolunderstanding. As the two progroms (Seeds ond UWC) orefundomentolly similor ond promote porollel ideols, they hovecome to ocknowledge eoch other throughout the yeors. Theoutcome is thot nowodoys there ore some 30 Seeds betweenthe oges of 16 ond 18 who ore studying in one of these schools

obrood.The oim of the conference wos to estobiish on officiol link

between the two orgonizotions ond to encouroge theircooperation in the future. Another objective wqs for the olumniof both progroms to know eoch other ond constitute q

Seeds/UWC forum. As these olumni hove o lot in common -both the Seeds of Peoce progrom qnd the UWC two-yeorexperience - they ore likely to find o common longuoge ondwork with eoch other more eosily in certoin fields (communityservice, NGOs, etc).

We were invited to Montezumo, o smoll town in the greenheights of New Mexico, by Phil Geier, the heodmoster of theUnited World College of Armond Hommer (UWCAH). Duringthe conference we ottended presentotions mode by 16-yeor-old UWC students on the Arob-lsroeli ond the Indo-Pokistoniconflicts, shed o teqr ot the touching monologue of the Isroelistoryteller Noo Boum ond swom in the hot springs thot belongto the college. On the third doy of the conference we gotheredwith Seeds stoff members Bobbie ond Megon ond debotedsome serious issues concerning Seeds of Peoce: Where is theorganizotion heoding? Whot is our role os Seeds olumni inIeoding the orgonizotion? And, should Seeds of Peoce hove omission stotement, like the UWC one? We did not onswer ollof these questions during such o short conference, but these

were importont issues thot we, os groduotes, discuss on onongoing bosis in order to ensure o heolthy future for Seeds ofPeoce.

hard to keep trock of qll of them. But two Olive Bronch writers, Adir Yqnko ondNqrdine fildeh, cought up with graduotes - Kqrim Mahmoud from Coiro qndAnnq Tunkel from Ashdod - who ore making o difference in their communities.

"Seeds Wos o Turning Point" -Korim Mohmoud (Cqiro)

His nome is Karim Mohmoud. Cunentlyhe is in his second yeor of communicotionond electronics engineering study ot CoiroUniversity. However, his interests ondinvolvement seem to be different fromhis studies. He likes the orts, octing, music,literqture ond sports, ond writes poetry in both Arobic ondEnglish. Korim even worked for a while os o Df, wos o gooliefor severol youth soccer teoms ond currently procticeskickboxing. He hos o number of sociql ond charitobleinvolvements with o voriety of orgonizotions. Yup, Korim is

o busy guy.What is Seeds of Peace for you?

I would soy thot for me Seeds meons the people within ondthe relotionships thot evolve. I hove not been bock to compin seven yeors, but I'm still connected.What have you done since you came back from camp?

You know, the first thing thot year (1997) wos thot I modeso mony friends sociolly equipped with the skills from compond all. I storted focusing on community service. In Egypt it'scolled chority. I olso took port in simulotions ond workshopsheld ond conducted by youth, such os MAL (Model ArobLeogue). In the post yeor most of my work hos been involvedwith Seeds of Peoce in Egypt. I om concentroting nowodoyson lounching the SOP Groduotes Alumni Associotion, whichI hope will be huge, on event bookmarked in the orgonizotion'shistory.How do people around you accept you being in Seeds?

Well, people oround me usually know me. They know thotwhen Korim is into something it meons thot he hos given itgood thought ond it must be on odvontoge to him os o person.

Therefore they respect my choice. Some of the close peopleeven tend to get in ond porticipote.Do you think Seeds helped in developing your leadership qualities?

I reolly beiieve thot within everyone lies o leoder's spirit inslumber. All you need is to get it out. In order to get it going,you need either o mojor turning point or o very determinedpersonolity. Seeds of Peoce oppeors to be the mojor turningpoint. So, the onswer is yes, Seeds of Peoce helped. I wouldlike to soy something obout the leodership quolities: somepeople think thot it is the power or obility to boss everyoneoround or coll on things qnd moke decisions. I'm convincedthqt leodership is bosic. Simply, it is the skill to leod your life,the power to control ond plon for the future.

Adir Yanko (Ashkelon)

W rrnseeds of peqce porticiponts spreod throughout the world, it is sometimes

"Eoch of Us Needs to Put in theEffort"- Anno Tunkel (Ashdod)

You are currently working at the Hotline forMigrant Workers and have also worked atPhysicians for Human Rights. What were youractivities at each of these places?

I om currently the coordinotor for theHumon Trofficking Project ot the Hotline

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for Migront Workers. We deol with migront workers detoinedin Isroeli joils owoiting deportotion. They did not commit onycrimes but ore in Isroel illegolly. My orgonizotion ossists themIegolly ond emotionolly, ond provides support for fomiliesond ottempts to prevent inhumone treotment. My project,onti-humon trofficking, deols with horsh coses involvingwomen who ore brought into forced prostitution. Some ofthese women ore interested in prosecuting those who forcedthem into this line of work. We record their stories, lobby theKnesset, do fundroising ond keep in touch with women whotestify.

Lost yeor, I worked ot Physicions for Humon Rights. Itprovides olternotive heolth core for Polestinion territories ondbelieves thot Polestinions should be provided with medicoltreotment since they ore under Isroeli influence. It works topromote oworeness ond rights for the Bedouins in the Negev.

It olso promotes the rights of prisoners within the Isroeli joils.

I helped to promote heolthcore rights for migront workers, byproviding heolthcore olternotives ond informotion for potentiollowsuits.How did you get interested in these organizations?

At first I did not know whot these orgonizotions did, butreqlized they did importont work. There is o lorge migrontworker populotion ond they do not hove mony rights. It is

cruciol thot Polestinions, crs well os migront ond guest workers,

be oble to receive medicol core ond services. Physicions forHumon Rights opened on open clinic in south Tel Aviv, wherethey hove doctors thot work voluntorily ond receive migrontworker patients.How do you believe the future will be for Israelis and Palestinians?

I'm hopeful there is o solution but it's very hord to be

optimistic. The sociol ond politicol situotion is extremelyfrustroting. People ore hungry ond don't hove money to feed

their children. Doily, I foce the ugly reolities inside Isroelisociety, deoling with migront workers ond seeing how theirrights ore being violoted. I hope thot it will be o better world.For thot to hoppen, eoch ofus needs to put in the effort, eochin his respective niche.

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A New Ploigct is BornNadeen Zoorba. (ferusalem)

The Polestinion refugee cose is over 36yeors old. Although mony countries ondorgonizotions hove tried to find solutionsfor this cose, they hoven't foundsomething suitoble except helping themwith food ond shelter. Durino our Seeds

of Peoce seminor in Romolloh in Februory 2003, we tried toolso come up with suggestions with o project designed to helpthose living in refugee comps.

I brought up the ideo with other Seeds, while we held theworkshop in the Grond Pork Hotel in Romolloh. We discussedmony projects we wonted to do for our fellow Polestinions ondin the end we decided to help o refugee comp. Between mclnyplons I decided thot moking o porty for those living in thecomps wos o suitobie one, ond it would give the refugees ogood impression obout Seeds of Peace.

The proiect is now under woy ond I om in discussions withthe stoff in the Center on how to get the project off the ground.This project will be done with the Old City youth orgonizotionin ]erusolem. I olso told the students in my school obout theproject ond they ore interested, so two people from the stoffwill visit my school, Al-Neithomyo, ond will tell them aboutSeeds of Peoce in general ond specificolly obout the project.

When I wos osked by people why I wos interested in doingthis project, I told them thot it wqs for two reosons. The firstone is that the project is

deoling with o very lorgeport of my community,whose life is very difficult,so the ideo of helpingrefugees interested me oIot. Secondly, this is thefirst time thqt I omplonning o serious, longterm project, ond it is nolonger just on ideo.

This experience mokesme wont to give adviceto everyone: if you wontto do onything, don'tthink it is impossibie. Youmust try until you reochyour gool.

Ho_pe for q Blighter lutureZenq Abu Roed (Nablus)

Liberty is o meoningful word for thosewho live it completely, either politicolly,economicolly or sociolly. It is meoningfulfor those who hove on independentcountry, Iive in good situotions ond conmoke decisions freely. But I, olong withmy friends from Seeds, forgot the horrible situotion for o fewmoments ond reolized thot we could moke decisions forourselves ond our future.

We ottended the seminor thot took ploce in Romolloh inFebruory ond there we hod been told thot we should doongoing projects in our cities. So we, the Seeds of Noblus,decided to work on o project, making a party for the orphonsond the children of the refugee comps in our oreo. We plonnedmony meetings and decided on the dote we would hold oporty. We hoped thot nothing would hoppen ond everythingwould be OK: no curfews, no ottacks, etc. Unfortunotely, lusta few doys before the porty the ossossinotion of Sheikh AhmodYossin occurred ond the porty wos concelled becouse of thot.

We tried to reschedule but the ossossinotion of Dr. Abd EI

Aziz Al-Rontisi occurred o few doys loter ond the plons wereunfortunotely postponed indefinitely. It is unfortunote thqtwhile ot the seminor in Romolloh we felt we hod the powerto moke positive chonges, the horrible situotion we ore inprevents us from doing so. We live for the doy thot we con

plon the projectthqt we wouldlike to hove.

I hove hopethotitwill comeond I believethot once wefeel the justice,the freedomond theequolity, thenpe0ce willspreod out overoll of thepeople.

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wSeeds toke o breqk betvyeen sessions at the Grand Pork hotel in Romolloh

o Polestinion Seed and qn Isrqelistudent during one ofthe first SOP school presentations

I n order to spreqd the messoge of Seeds of Peace, since 1997 lsroeli and PolestiniqnSeeds hove conducted ioint presentotions of schools throughout Isroel ond Polestine.Seeds who presented of their schools in ferusolem ond Hoifo, qs well os one of theoudience members, reflect on the presentotions qnd reoctions.

Exploining My Side

Tolo el-Yousef (ferusalem)

In the foll of 2003,1 went to on Isroelischool for o presentotion obout the Seeds

of Peoce orgonizotion. It wqs one of themost remorkoble experiences in my life.It was the first time I hod ever entered onIsroeli school ond it wos very differentfrom mine. During our presentotion, we tolked to the ninth-grode students. Our oim wos to moke them understond whotSeeds of Peoce is obout ond to moke them reolize thot thereis o possible solution for this endless conflict. We wonted themto know thot this unremitting conflict could end only if we

moke o true effort to end it. Before going to comp, I thoughtthere wos no ploce on Eorth where you could feel thot ollpeople were equol ond olso thought thot every place wos filledwith onimosity ond preludice. But, I reolized during my stoyin Moine thot WE con moke it possible to reside in o plocewhere it is sofe, just os it wos in comp. I know thot we live ino world of ideols but we con moke it hoppen. The presentotionwos to try to corry this messoge to these students.

Even though this presentotion lqsted for obout on hour, I'msure thot we chonged some of the people's perspectives ondmony become interested in opplying to comp. Our oim wqs

not to broinwosh them, but whqt we reolly wonted to do wos

to moke them reolize thot everything is possible ond somethingcon hoppen to olter the situotion thot we ore living in ondexperiencing everydoy. If we ore wiiling to corry this messoge

to oll of the people in this country, then moybe o solutionwill be found ond moybe this conflict will ot lost come to onend. People could reiox without being ofroid or tense obouttheir future.

During our presentotion we showed o documentory filmobout Seeds of Peoce comp in Moine. The film wos iust to give

them o toste qbout how everything goes on there, ond whofirst estoblished it. As soon os the film finished, the studentsstorted to osk us questions obout Seeds of Peoce. At first, theyosked us generol questions obout comp, like how monynotionolities come, but then they storted osking us some morepersonol questions. One of these strikingly conspicuous inquirieswos if I, os o Polestinion, foce ony predicoments or humiliotionfrom my friends or fomily members becouse I om o memberof the Seeds of Peoce fomily. I onswered thot some of us cope

with mony hordships trying to convince others thot whot weore doing isn't wrong ond is worthwhile. Some of the people

thot you opprooch moy be persuoded, but you will olso find

other types of people who stick to their ideos ond oren't copobleof chonging their outlook. But I still hove hope.

The Isroeli students osked me, os o Polestinion, obout myemotions when I'm in on Isroeli port of the city. I stortedonswering them obout my doily life qnd told them thot bothsides of this conflict ore suffering on the some scole, which is

vost. In oddition, I stoted oll the problems thot we deol within our lives such os checkpoints, curfews ond the AnnexqtionWoll thqt is being built. In oddition, we tolked obout thecurrent situotion thot we ore experiencing in our own lives

ond we shored some personol stories thot I believe elicitedsome emotionol reoctions. I believe we opened their eyes tothe bloodshed thot is toking ploce eoch doy ond opened theireors to heor the sobs of o homeless young child not knowingwhot to do with his life or where to go!

I hope thot more of these school presentotions will tokeploce in Polestinion ond Isroeli schools. These presentotionsolso helped me goin confidence in myself to tolk in front ofa big group ond it wos olso helpful becouse it showed these

students o Polestinion perspective in o very vivid woy.

Something to Think AboutYoro Uwoyyed (ferusalem)

In October 2003, a wonderfulpresentotion wos done ot my school, Rene

Cossin, in |erusolem. I storted plonningthe presentotion with two Seeds from myschool ond the Center stoff over o periodof o couple of weeks. After we finishedplonning we turned to tolk to my school obout doing thepresentotion. It wos done on o Fridoy ond five Polestinionsorrived to my school with the Center stoff with the shirts ofSOP. I wos so excited obout the presentotion but I wos olsoworried obout the reoctions of the Isroeli kids from my school.

When we entered the room it wos so quiet thot you could hove

heord o pin drop. During the presentotion I sow mony eogerfoces to osk questions, ond I wos hoppy thot I hqd o chonceto bring Polestinions ond Isrqeli non-Seeds together, even ifit wos for o couple of hours. During the presentotion we hqdo slideshow with some pictures of comp; we tried to bring ourexperiences to the teenogers in our oudience. After thepresentotion wos done, mony kids come up to me ond to some

Seeds to osk us questions obout the orgonizotion ond how to

loin. After thot I felt reolly owesome. I wos hoppy thqt I hodthe chonce to chonge the mind of some of these teenogers.

We gove them something worthwhile to think obout ond itfelt reollv oood.

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Overwhelming but ImportantAgom Rofoeli (Hoifa)

My nome is Agom Rofaeli. I om 16 yeorsold ond I ottend the Hebrew Reoli Schoolin Hoifo. My school is pretty old - it willcelebrote its 90th birthdov this yeqr - ondhos suffered over 250 cosuolties in the present conflict. Hovinqthis grove history, my school is known ior its militoristic noturiond it right-wing policies. One indicotor of this is thot in myclosses, we hove o few codets who study in the pre-militoryocodemy. Having this kind of orientotion, my schoolpresentotion hod on odd color. I ond the other five seeds inmy grode, Poul Roit, Roni Bologulo, Shohor Mendelovitchond EIIo Coren, set up o slide show describing comp ond otheroctivities SOP hos done for us in the region ond intemotionolly.For obout 45 minutes we spoke to them obout mokingfriendships, obout crossing un-crossed lines ond understondingthings thot were not yet known to us. As o group we spokeobout how we have chonged, whot we hove leorned and theunique experience SOP hos been for us. Following this longtolk we ollowed the students to osk questions. The reolity myfriends ond I live in wos put foce to foce with the reolity theArob Isroelis which come to the presentotion live in. Accusotionswere mode, explonotions were given ond to me it just seemedIike o big coexistence session. Topping it off were the peoplewho osked privote questions of the presenters. I think thotonybody present wos overwhelmed o bit but everyone olsotook it oll in ond thought it over. I think thot this wos onamazing chonce to poss on the Seeds of Peoce ideo ond it woso huoe success.

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An Isroeli Militory Codet's PerspectiveInterview with Itqi Martziyano, a military cadet present ata Haifa school presentation

Agom Rqfoeli (Hoifa)

HeIIo, Itai, would you introduce yourself please.My nome is Itoi Mortziyono ond I om 16 yeors old. I live inMo'olot which is o smoll city in the northern port of theGolilee. Todoy I don't live ot home but spend the week otthe militory acodemy in Hoifo. I study ot the Hebrew ReoliSchool like oll the other codets ot the ocodemy. As o codetI leorn Isroel's history, both militory ond culturol. Togetherwith the rest of my plotoon I om troined to become port ofthe future orroy of officers in Isroel's ormy.

What was your impression before the presentation at theschool?I know o few Arobs who work with my fother. I olwoys knewthot peoce wos o mutuol gool, though now ofter I got tomeet some teenogers who think ond speok like me theobiective seemed o whole lot closer thon usuol.

What was the one thing that rattled you during thepresentation?At one point one of the kids in my grode osked one of theArobs if he thought thot bombings ore o legitimote tool.One of the Polestinion Seeds onswered thot he thinks thotdefending one's home is olwoys legitimote. He osked us, the|ewish Isroelis, whot we would hove done if our home wosin peril. I hove been thinking of this ever since.

When the presentqtion ended I saw you hugging one of theArab Seeds. How did your peer cadets take that?My peer codets couldn't figure out how I, o right-winger,could hug on Arob. I lust told them thot I reolized the conflictwos something thot hovers obove ond thot the personolmotter is the importont thing. But this Polestinion Seed woso person whom I respected for his opinions ond os such heis the some cts ony one of us.

Presellipg,,, Seeds of Peace

Faroh al-Kayed (Ammon)

When Center staff member Genny Adel come to |ordon, I

wos so excited thot o counselor from comp plonned to come

to see us in fordon! And I didn't hesitote obout going. I reodthe emoil she sent, went crozy ond conceled oll my plons lustto see her!

The first meeting wos inspiring since Genny told us she is

coming back ond thot fordonion Seeds ore going to stort some

octivities here. The mojor topic in thot meeting wos thepresentotion we were going to mqke in front of people oboutSeeds of Peoce, so the Seeds who were interested offered totoke port in thot presentation. Those interested were myselfond my fellow ]ordanion Seeds: Dono, Mo, Royo, Honi ondEhqb. We hod severol meetings before the presentotion, ondwe plonned whot eoch one wos going to say, ond qwoited the

big doy.Honestly, I didn't sleep thot night thinking obout the

presentotion. Butterflies in my stomoch kept me up oll night.There were mony questions flooting in my mind but the moinquestion wos, "Will people be interested in opplying to be

compers ot Seeds of Peoce?" I meon, ore we going to be good

enough to encouroge them to go?

The big doy come, I got dressed ond ron to the Rodisson

Hotel, where the presentotion wos, and mode sure that I wos

well prepored. When I got there, I noticed thot I wosn't theonly one who was nervousl We kept jumping oround untilthe holi wos totolly full, we sot ond then one ofter qnother

storted presentingl At the end I forced my componions tocome up ond sing the SOP song for the oudience, ond onemember of the oudience, o former Seed, loined usl

Words con't describe how hoppy I wos when Genny oskedif onybody wouid be interested in opplying for comp ondthere were so mony honds up - people who were reolly excited

to gol Lote thot night I sot on my bed ond did the usuol thingI do every night - I wrote in my diory. I wrote, "lt is the firsttime in my life thot I feel I hove done something for the people

who gove me hope ond showed me thot the world con be obetter plocel" Till todoy, whenever I think of comp, I con'thelp crying becouse its the only ploce were I felt relieved oboutthe future ond promised me thot one doy thot peace whichis sooring obove, will Iond at lost. Thonk you SOP - for mokingthe world o better ploce.

I his post yeor, Seeds of Peqce hos undertqken efforts to re-estoblish its presencein Egypt ond ]ordon. While Egyption ond |ordonion Seeds come to the onnuolcomp, they now porticipote in regionol follow-up progroms such os schoolpresentotions ond group seminors.

fordanian Seeds Aoyo, Royo, Dono, Honi,Mohommod, Foroh, Rowon ond Ehob

Spreoding the Messoge from Cqiro toAlexondriqMostofa Sollom (Coiro)

Until recently, Egyptian Seeds hoven't hod o mojor rolefollowing comp in Moine. But this yeor thot hos chonged.Now, the Egyption delegotion is beginning to contributesomething bock to Seeds of Peoce. This yeor, there werepresentotions for the very first time to internotionol schools

in Coiro ond Alexondrio, to future Seeds of Peoce compers. I

took port in two of these: One ot The Modern English School(MES) ond the American School in Alexondrio (ASA).

The one thqt tool place ot MES wos the most vital one, since

it wos the first of its kind in Egypt. And believe me when I soy

this, it isn't eosy talking to people obout the value of peoce

in times when wor is stirring. Teochers told us thot there were

numerous students who wonted to go to this comp of omityond toleronce. We storted by telling the future compers oboutthe doily routines of comp ond whot to expect when they get

there. They were cl tod shy obout osking questions ot first butthen ofter heoring personal occounts from fellow Seeds Sherien

ond Sherief, who hod occomponied me, they storted oskingwhot it felt like sitting with the "enemy" ond the experiences

thot we Seeds hod gone through. Seeing how the futurecompers were thonkful for our presentotion, I wouldn't minddoing o hundred more.

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Overlooking the Deod Seo

A few doys loter I wos on o troin heoding for Alexondrio,Iocoted 300 km to the north of Cqiro. With me were Seeds

Hotim, Yossin, Rogia ond of course, |erusolem's finest, foredand Genny. Upon our orrivol we were surprised to know thotthe school's medio closs wonted to interview us before wepresented our tolk. They were extremely moved by ourexperiences with the "enemy" ond osked us numerous questions,like if we think thot peoce is reoily possible ond whqt woscomp oll obout. After we were done with our interviewers, wewent to tolk obout comp to the students who showed up. Itwos on experience thot one hos to see for himself in order tounderstond its sotisfqction.

Generolly, the two presentotions were on overall successond hopefully there will be more to follow. It is good to knowthat now Egyptions Seeds will ploy q vitol role - in their countryond the Middle Eost - not only ot comp, but throughout theyeclr.

Impressive Activities for o New Stort

Royo al-Halowoni (Ammon)

I porticipoted in the presentotions thot took ploce in Ammonin February ond April ond they were quite good. When I signedup for toking port in this presentation, I wos o bit nervous butot the some time hoppy ond proud. I wos going to present inthe nome of the organizotion which positively chonged mywoy of seeing others' perspective, os well as improved mycoexistence ond Iistenino skills.

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These activities, helped us, theSeeds... unite and discuss the

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The presentotion wos pretty impressive. As we included oilthe topics concerning the comp, we focused on the coexistencesessions in oddition to the vorious octivities we used to do. Ifelt as if I wos there; I remembered everything. This wosamazing, especiolly becouse I hoven't porticipoted in onycoexistence octivities since comp, becouse I hod to come hereto Jordon with my fomily, from my former home in |erusolem.Despite the unstoble situotion going on in the oreo, theottendonce wos good during our first presentotion.

Two doys ofter the presentation we went to the Deod Seo.

It wos extremely exhilaroting - we ployed ond swom for thewhole doy. It wos exciting and the weother wos superb.

It wos reolly greot to do some octivities here in ]ordon, andI hope they will increose. These octivities helped us, the Seeds,

to meet ond unite to discuss some different issues concerningthe octivities in fordon ond the Arob Seeds, ond the future ofSeeds of Peoce in Ammon.

Usomo Solamo ond fordonion Seeds reloxinq qt the Morriott DeadSeq resort

L-/ uring the first hqlf of 2004, Afghon Seeds hqve porticipoted in progroms thothove brought them together to discuss their post, present and future. Seeds toughtond leorned, ond shored their memories ond their hopes for o peaceful Afghoniston.

Reolizing the Dreom ?

Ahmqd "Hemmot" Shah (Kobul) i

I qm thonkful for whot Seeds of Peocehos given me. Being in wor, growing inwor, Ieorning from war, being owoy frompeoce ond ot lost becoming hopeless onddisoppointed of peoce - these qre notstronge ond new things for Afghonteenogers. All Afghon teens hove grownup not only in wor, but through severolkinds of disosters ond difficulties likeilliterocy, poverty, indigence ondhumiliotion. Lots of Afghon teenogersore still disoppointed obout their futureond their country, ond they need tochonge, but we, Afghon Seeds, ore luckyqnd different; we hove the chance todiscuss these types of problems with teensfrom more than 22 countries and nowwe con decide whot to do. At the Seedsof Peoce comp in 2003, we hod moreexperience to overcome such kinds of

problems, ond I feel luckier thqn otherAfghon teens, hoving hod the chqnce tothink not only of wor, but of peoce ondhow to creote it. I feel I om occountqblefor helping other teenogers.

Seeds of Peoce wos the world of mydreoms, qnd it is the only shoulder forwor-rovoged countries to cry on. I believein Seeds of Peoce ond oppreciote whot ithos provided me with: HOPE. Afterottending the SOP internotionol comp,I wos oble to discuss importont issues

with friends, troubleshoot ond overcomeproblems in my fomily, closs ond society;now I om hopeful obout my future, mycountry ond peoce in the world. I hovestrongly decided to give these feelingsond ideas to every Afghon teen. I do notfeel alone or weqk. I know we can domuch, but we hove to work hqrd ond wewill show the results of this work to thepeople of the world. Before the collopseof the Toliban regime in my country, Ithought thot the fight ogoinst wor ondterror wos impossible; but now I om surethot WAR ond TERROR hove no more lifein the world. We hove to redirect humonpossions from negotive gools toword SOPgools: to creote peoce ond brotherhoodomong the nations of the world. fherecent Loyo |erga (greot council ossembly)ond elections ore moking the people ofAfghoniston hopeful obout peoce onddemocrory in their country. I wish oll thedreoms of the people in my country cometrue. These developments moke meoptimistic obout peoce in Afghoniston.

I believe in the power of peoce ondunity in the world.

Doing my J-O-B

Khobir Sollqh (Ghozni)

I hove done very greot things to promoteSeeds of Peoce in Afghoniston. I wenthvice to my hometown, o villoge whichis in Ghozni province of Afghoniston ondfor from Kobul. I've shored myexperiences ond ideos with illiterotepeople of this villoge. They come to ogreewith me ond gove me very nice supportwith lots of love. They told me thot theywere proud of me ond thqt I am the futureof our country, ond that mode me sohoppy. Recently, I held o four-hourworkshop with students of my villogeond brought together six clossmotes ofmine who know o lot obout SOP - togetherwe prepored o workshop for 150 studentsof our school. I will continue my work inKobul ond qlso in the provinces ondvilloqes of Afqhoniston.

Meditoting before o long doy's work

Building Leodephin StittgMir Akhgor (Kobul)

Holding SOP workshops in Kobul woscl new experience for us Afghon Seeds.AII of us Seeds worked very hord for twodoys in Kobul with Seeds of Peoce stoffmembers |en, Morieke, Dovid ond Noor.The points we covered during theworkshop were coexistence, behovingond communicoting monners. It wosespeciolly useful for me, ond o fun port

of it wos obout commerciols. We weretold to create o commerciol to "odvertise"peoce. In our group, we thought up ocommerciol, in which we expressed peoceand justice: when there is justice in osociety there will be peoce os well.Following the commerciols we discussedthe problems of our country such os whywe hod o wor for o long time ond whywe didn't hove potience with eoch otherond why we couldn't think up solutionsfor all of these problems. This workshophelped me to find solutions very eosily,becouse I leorned to understond theorigins of problems in our society. I usedto only understond the problems but Ididn't know from where these problemsemonoted; but one workshop helped meto understand the sources of our problemstoo.

During the second workshop, we wroteobout o mentol or physicol scor thot

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offected us. For most of the Seeds, it wos

the first time thot we wrote somethingfrom bod memories from our lives, but itwos o good experience to do so. Some ofus wrote very powerfully, ond I leornedobout the bod experiences of my fellowSeeds ond I reolized thot there is nobodyin Afghonistan who wos soved from thetorture of the long wor in my country.

The next day focused on photogrophy.Three visitors ron o digitol photogrophyworkshop; they were photogrophers whotold us how to use o digitol comero fortoking pictures. In groups contoining fiveseeds, hvo stoff members ond one comero,we went to different domoged sites inKobul. My group wos lucky. We went toDoru-ul-Amon, which I hodn't beenbefore. We spent the day toking very nicepictures ond seeing once more the morksof 25 yeors of wor. The beneflt for me wos

to see o ploce I hod been interested inseeing but hodn't before.

This workshop wos monoged by us, theSeeds, but supeMsed by the stoff. It helped

oll of us Ieorn how to stort o workshopond how to monge it. For me, it gove me

o better sense of how to implement myhooes for the future.

Haseeb, Wohid, Motiulloh, Abido ond Sopnodebate solutions

A Scqr in My LifePornian Nozory (Kabul)During a workshop exercise, Pamian wrote

the following about her struggles inAfghanistan

In 1992, Afghonistan wos token by theMojohedeen. After the tokeover, some

unknown people come to our neighbor'shouse ond they jumped obove the wqllto nrrr hnrrqp Thpv wontpd to toke ottr

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Pqrnian discusses obstocles to peoce and how to overcome them

cor. Fortunotely, my cousin wos in ourhouse ond sow them. My cousin modenoise. My fother went out ond he chosed

owoy the thieves. When the otherneighbors informed the Mojohedeen, thethieves were orrested but qfter seven doys

they were freed from joil.They come to our house ogoin. MY

fother wosn't home ond they soid, "We'lltoke revenge." We were reolly scored. Ourneighbors helped us. They stoyed owokewith my fother for three nights on theroof. Finolly, my father decided to leove

Afghoniston so he obtoined Russionpossports for the fomily. Our flight wos

through Pokiston, but unfortunotelythieves stole the bike in which ourpossports were, os well as my mother'sprecious jewelry ond oll our money, too.

fust $200 wos left in o suitcose thot myfother brought from Germony mony yeors

o90.When we orrived in Pokiston, mY

mother's cousin wos there. He took us too friend's house, then we found o house

for rent in Hoyot Abod. Life wos reollydifficult becouse ofter hoving o verycomfortoble life in Afghonistan we foced

moteriol ond intellectuol issues. Howevelmy father went bock to Afghoniston andhe brought money. There were no iobsovoiloble for Afghans so he begon ocorpet shop.

After two or three months, we hodresponses to our request for going obrood.

One wos in Austrolio where my fother'sbest friend wos ond the other fromConoda, where my qunt wos. We were

in Peshowor ond becouse of the wormweather, my brothers hod pimples ontheir foces, necks ond bodies. My mothertook them to the doctor, but when theyreturned, their cor wos in on occidentond fell down into o dry river. My mother's

spinol column wos broken, so she couldn'twolk or stond. My older brother wos fouryeors old and suffered from o bod shock.

He couldn't remember or soy onything.The occident coused o lot of problems. Itwos o bad scor in my iife ond my fomily'slife. I'll never forget it. The doy of mymother's occident, my fother cqme home

with the good news thot we were goingto Conodo. My mother wasn't home when

he got there. We told him the story ondwe oll cried. The thing I won't forget is

my fother's teors coming from his eyes.

My fother hod never cried before ond itwos the first time in my life I hod seen

him do so. I knew how hord my mother's

occident was on him. After thot, our flightfrom Pokiston to Conodo wos concelledond we were in Pqkiston for four yeors.

My sisters went to universitY inAfghoniston ond we returned there in1996, after my grondmother's deoth.After hoving obout seven or eight monthsof o good life in Afghoniston, troublescome to us ogoin. The Tolibon entered.They closed schools for girls ond hod verybod lows. The closing of the schools wos

like onother scor on my heort. I lovedschool ond studying. Five yeors of theTolibon wqs o block mork on the historyof Afghoniston, just as it wos on mY

fother's heort.

\./ n April 30, Greek Cypriot voters reiected the United Notions-sponsoredplon by Secretory-Generol Kofi Annon to unite their islond. Seeds from both thenorth qnd south of the islond reoct to the decision thot keeps their islqnd divided;they hope for a doy when they cqn eosily visit friends on both sides of the islqnd.

We Donlt Seem to Core Anymore

Notalio Kouhqrtsiouk (Geroskipou)A fomous Greek poet once wrote:

"For some people there comes a daywhen they have to say that important 'Yes'or that important'No'.Then you can see clearlywho had the word 'Yes' inside him,and once he speaks that word he takesthe road to honor and self-assuredness.The one who says 'No' never regrets it.If he was asked once more, he would stillsay'No'.Yet that'No' - that'right'- knocks him downfor the rest of his life."(1901)

A greot port of the Greek Cypriots didsoy "no" to the Annon Plon. And Isuppose if they were osked once more,they would still soy "no," ogoin ond ogoinond ogoin. I do not Iike the foct thot wesoid no ond the Turkish Cypriots soidyes. Thot shows the real, ugly foce peoplehide. I feel os if I hove been living in oploce where people do nothing but lie! Idon't understond why for 30 years wehove been osking for a solution, for onopen door to go home; now, finolly, thereis someone who cores enough to pointout o woy to moke it hoppen, ond wejust turn our bocks ond wolk owoy.People insuited me ond colled me o troitorfor soying yes to the Annon plon. I sowfriendships being ruined becouse ofdifferent opinions ond teochersencouraging students to soy no. Myschool looks like o hooligon's place.Everyr,vhere you turned there wos o corond o house with o lobel on: YES, NO,YES, NO. I refuse to believe thot even holfof those who morched in the streetsyelling reolly knew whot the Annon plonwos obout. As I watched studentsblocking the moin roods ond writing withsproy point on the wolls, I reolized thot

some people in this younger generotionore no better thot the ones 30 yeors ogo.

They still corry those ideqs thot ruinedus before. I wos ond still om disoppointed.Now thot everything is over I om tryingto understond their woy of thinking. Icould only give one explonotion: someof us do not core ony more. I feel unobleto do onything for my country. For thefirst time, I come foce to foce with whotpeople wont on this islond. As I see it,the Greek Cypriot side refused to open odoor for us, for the future. I om oshomedthot I even heord Greek Cypriots soy,"They should stoy on thot side qnd weshould stay on our side, it's thot simplel"or "l don't wont them on our londl"I think thot o simple word hos given uso one-woy ticket. I connot see ony reosonwhy onyone would wont to help us findonother solution to our problem. I justhope thot when we woke up ond seewhot we hove done to our country itwon't be too lote.

The Annon Plon Exploined

Loizos Kapsolis (Nicosio)April 2004 wos probobly the most

important month in the history of Cyprusin the lost 30 yeors. The four-porty tolksfinished in Switzerlond; o proposol for ocomprehensive solution to the Cyprusproblem wos drofted by UN Secretory-

Turkish Cypriots morch in o demonstrotioncolling for reunificotion

Generol Kofi Annon; ond referenda wereheld in the north ond south of the islondto occept it ond Cyprus entered theEuropeon Union.

Hod everything gone occording to Mr.Annon's plon - thot is, hod both referendobeen positive - the Republic of Cyprus,now controlled entirely by Greek Cypriotsofter the withdrowol of Turkish Cypriotsin 1963, would turn into the FederolUnited Republic of Cyprus with Greekond Turkish Cypriot constituent stotes.It would enter the EU in this form,ollowing for all Cypriots to be united ondto prosper in the union.

Becouse of the negotive result in theGreek Cypriot referendum, only therecognized Republic ofCyprus hos enteredthe Europeon Union, while the northremoins o community only recognizedos o country by Turkey. The results ofthereferendo were o porodox. The GreekCypriot side, so for known to be the oneoctively pursuing o solution, respondednegotively, while the Turkish Cypriot side,considered to hove been the reosonbehind the collopse of previous ottempts,responded positively. The results werenot, however, unexpected.

The positive vote of the north reflectsthe will of Turkish Cypriots forreunificotion ond entry into the EU. Thishos been refiected in mossivedemonstrotions (more thon 80,000porticiponts) during the lost two yeors,ond the chonge of leodership lost yeor.The negotive vote of the Greek Cypriotsis more complicoted to exploin.

There were o good number of reosonsto vote "yes." These included on end tothe Cyprus problem; the return to theirhomes for o lorge number of refugees;the decreose in the number of Turkishsoldiers ond settlers; ond the obility forCypriots to control their country togetherin on EU promising prosperity onddevelopment. There wos, however o

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different perspective: thot the number ofrefugees returning ond the number ofsoldiers ond settlers leoving wos verysmall ond the time periods long; thot thepresence of the Turkish ormy would creoteo feeling of insecurity; ond thot thechange in the woy the governmentoperotes would bring politicol ondeconomic instobility - just one week beforeoccession.

Greek Cypriots soy thot the occessiongives them the obility to negotiote o betterplon. They ore hoving o hord timeconvincing the Turkish Cypriots ond theirEU counterports thot their "no" wos noto "no" to o solution - but to this porticulorsolution. Turkish Cypriots seem verydisoppointed ond most believe thot GreekCypriots hove betroyed them. Theemborgoes imposed by the EU on thecommunity hove been portiolly lifted os

o reword for the positive ottitude of thenorth ondthis gives them the opporfunityto improve their shottered economy.But the question posed now is: Whot willhoppen in the future? We ore effectivelybock to where we were before this roundof discussions stqrted. It is impossible thotthis wos the lost chonce for o solution,os some worned before the referendo. Itis, however, obvious thot o lot of workneeds to be done both on o politicol ondpersonol level to reverse the negotivestonce in the south ond thedisoppointment in the north. In this,Cypriot Seeds hove o soy. It is time thotwe roll up our sleeves ond octively seeko solution to the problem.

Unknown Futurg of Cyprus

Resot Sobon (Guzeylkurt)A few yeors ogo, I wos chosen to be o

comper for Seeds of Peoce Comp,representing the Turkish Cypriotdelegotion. My politicol interest in Cyprusstorted with this event. Before the comoI hod met with Greek Cypriots, but Ihodn't tqlked with them about politics.

After o wonderful two weeks ot theSeeds of Peoce camp, with o lot of hopesin our heorts, we returned to Cyprus.When I got home I hodn't thought thot

Cypriot Seeds in front of one of monycheckpoints dividing their islond

if I hod the chonce I would be oble to see

my friends ogoin. But soon ofterword weformed o Yohoo Group to contoct eochother obout meetings ond octivities inCyprus. Neorly one yeor loter we met inPyla, which is the only villoge whereTurkish Cypriots ond Greek Cypriots oreliving together. Over o period of o yeor,we met obout every two weeks. It becomeo routine. Two Sundoys o month we metin Pyla ond hqd fun. We orgonized a lotof octivities together with my GreekCypriot friends. We joined o bi-communolfolk donce group. We met for Christmosond birthdoys. When we were orgonisingthese kinds of octivities, the Greek Clpriotpoliticol porty AKEL ond the United Stotes

Agency for Internotionol Development(USAID) supported us. I thought thotAKEL wos the unique porty in the Souththot supported reunificotion of Cyprus,like the CTP (o Turkish Cypriot politicolporfy) in the North.

It wos reolly unbelievoble to me whenI heord the AKEL decision to soy NO tothe referendum on reunificotion. WhenI met with my friends in Pylo we alwoyssow thot there were representotives fromthe AKEL porty. And I thought AKEL woso peoce supporter in Cyprus. But we reollydon't know whot the future will bring us.The question is in my mind right now is,

"What mokes AKEL do this?" Is it the USAond EU, or the inside politics of GreekCypriots?

I think ofter the referendum we missedn chonce fo reoch o finnl decision wifh

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the Greek Cypriots. They soid "NO" ondTurkish Cypriots soid "YES." And now theIqst word will come from the EuropeonUnion Porlioment. They hove decided toodmit o divided, not united Cyprus intothe EU. I om so sorry. Cyprus is mymotherlond. I om not occepting this two-stote ideo.

A Struggle to Stoy in Touch

Aylin Yardimci (Ankoro)Perhops this is nothing new to most of

you, ond perhops I om just being tooemotionol, but the three doys thot I spentin Cyprus o few months ogo mode mecomprehend how distressing it con be toreolize thot sometimes even ourfriendships hove to be monipuloted byour governments.

Before my trip, I wos indescriboblyexcited obout the idea of visiting Nicosio,ond seeing oll of my friends ogoin. It wosgreot to know thot we were going to hovefun, but it wos heortbreoking to knowthot this fun would hove to be limitedbecouse of boundories. Becouse I om oTurk, I wos not ollowed to poss to thesouthern side, we oll hod to spend timein the north. No motter how much Iwonted to see the oreo where my GreekCypriot friends lived, I wos not ollowedto. It wos not even possible for me to collthem by dioling their country code +357.Thot probobly must hove been theultimote stoge of futility, I thought.

It wos then thot I reqlized thot ourcountries were in foct monipuloting ourfriendships ond limiting our woys ofcommunicoting. As we tried hord to see

eoch other, our governments olso triedhord to seporote us by setting voriousregulotions. The ones who were supposedto be moking peoce were trying to stopthe ones who were willing to do so.

This experience is whot mode meremember once more that we oll hove ochollenging mission to occomplish.Despite oll kinds of obstocles thot wemoy be foced with, I still believe thot thepurity of our intentions ond feelings hovemore power thon ony mon-mode borriersor stubborn oovernments.

TI n the woke of the violence thot wrocked Kosovo in Mqrch of 2004, BolkonsSeeds still mointoin hope for their region. Their Moy workshop in2004 in Ohrid,Mocedonio, showed iust thot: it brought Seeds of every ethnicity from Kosovo,Albqnio ond Mocedonio.

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f elena Trojkovic (Kosovo)

Morch 17: Demonstrotions in Mitrovicostorted ofter Albonion TV showed thotthree boys died becouse of the Serbs. Acouple of weeks loter, KFOR (the NATOforce in Kosovo) representotives qt thepress conference soid thot uponinvestigotion, Serbs were not guilty forthese deoths. But thot wos the reosonwhy Albonions storted demonstroting inoll Kosovo towns. After q couple of hoursit coused a lot of violence oll over theKosovo.

In Mitrovico, o town divided betweenSerbs ond Albonions, Albonions wontedto poss the bridge thot seporotes the twosides of town. During these events, twoSerbs were killed qnd mony of them werewounded. I wos ot the university inMitrovico when I heord gunshots. Therewere colls on the rodio for people to comeond give blood in hospitols becouse therewere mony wounded people. After fiveyeors of trying to reoch out, Serbs wereo torget for Albonions whowonted to undertoke ethniccleonsing in Kosovo.

I colled my porents inKosovo to check how thesituotion wos there. They toldme thot Albonions in biggroups storted burningSerbion houses ondimportont buildings. Theyolso burned churches,hospitols, o post office ondmy school.

I wos so scored, so for owoyfrom my fomily who wosholed up in their house. Thehordest thing for me woswhen my mother cqlled me;she told me thot the mostimportont thing wos thot Iwos OK. Thot night I wos in

Mitrovico, I stored out the windows tosee if something wos hoppening. I colledmy porents every five minutes ond everytime they told me thot somebody's housein my neighborhood was on fire.

The next two doys were o worsenightmore. On Morch 18, my sisters wentto my uncle's house in o Serbion villogeneqr Kosovo colled Polje. On Fridoy,Mqrch 79, my porents hod to Ieqve ourhouse. Albonion neighbors come ondtold them thot they could not sove them.When they left, they sow o huge groupof Albonions burning Serbion houses onmy street. They thought thot it wos thelost time they wouid see their home.When I heord oll of thot, I storted to cry.

When somebody just mentioned the word"home" ond their fomilies, my hondsstarted to tremble.

During the violence, mony people lefttheir homes ond lost everything theyhod. Following the two doys of violence,my Albonion neighbor colled my porentsond told them thot our house wos notburned; our house wos either too close

to his, or he tolked with the Albonionswho were torching the homes ondconvinced them not to touch our house.We still don't know.

During qll this I osked myself if thereis hope for o better future. But everydoysomebody from the Seeds of Peoce officecolled me ond I knew thot I hod friendsoll oround the world who octuolly cored.I wos owoy from my porents, but I wosn'tolone. Seeds ofPeoce supported me. Yes-

there is hope for o better future here inKosovo. I just hope thot these eventswon't hoppen ogoin.

The New Beginning

Gent Sqlihu (Pristina)

Riots spreod oll oround the country overtwo trogic doys in Kosovo, Morch 17 and18. While the riots developed throughoutKosovo I wos in school. Those fivo doysmode me think of terrible yeors post, fullof stress ond hohed. Following the murderof three Albonion children, over 2,000NATO reinforcements were deploved to

support the existing 18,500KFOR (the NATO-led force)troops ond 10,000 UnitedNotions personnel ond locolpolice in Kosovo to mointqinstobility.

During these two doys inMarch, 18 Kosovor citizenswere killed. Hundreds ofothers were iniured orwounded. Peoce, which hodseemed neorly o reolity overthe post five yeors, shotteredin the moments when theriots storted to spreod. It isdifficult to ochieve ogoinwhot wos "built" during fiveyeors ofter the wor. All thothod been ochieved collopsedin just two doys.

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1CA Kosovor boy honds flowen to KFOR Soldien

The demonstrotions thot hoppened inKosovq were not without reoson. Theeconomy is underdeveloped,unemployment is increosing, the countryhas old ond improcticol lows ondhighwoys clre commonly blockoded. Butwith the killing of these children, riotsbroke out ond were followed withdestroying ond burning houses ondreligious buildings by o group ofhooligons who don't volue the future ofmy country.

Mony people in my country soy, "Betterto be a dog in Sweden thon o humonbeing in Kosovo." The first impression foreveryone who comes to Kosovo would be

exoctly this one. When you see the streets,

there is poverty everywhere: childrenwork in the streets, crying ond ignored,beggors look for help and people sufferfrom the pollution. People live for "todoy"ond woit for o better "tomorrow."

Kosovor ond internotionol medio orenever focused on the day-to-doy problemsthot people foce in the Bolkons.Throughout those ethnic closhes inMorch, Kosova continued struggling toget on its feet, trying to meet stondordsset by the internotionol community forthe future of our country.

These disconcerting happenings thotoccurred were just six days before thefifth anniversory ofthe entronce ofNATOtroops. After the situotion become colmelthousqnds of peoplegathered in Prishtino tocommemorote the doytheoir strikes storted. Duringthe riots teochers kept usinside our schools for feorthat something bod wouldhoppen to us, but o weekloter, we, together withour teochers, held supportslogons in our honds ondwolked toword KFORsoldiers.

Kosovor PresidentIbrohim Rugovo colled forpeople to rememberMorch 24 os "one of themost importont dotes ofKosovo's history." Peopleremembered when

NATO/KFOR come to spreod peoce inKosovo ond throughout the Bolkons.Children were giving flowers to KFOR

soldiers. They were groteful for thepoliteness of Kosovar citizens.

There is olwoys hope for Kosovors ondthis shows when we see billboords writtenduring 24 March: "Doys of hope - Thenew beginning,"

,Vq1e91{in9 uivglitrArlind Mucaku (Tirona)

It's difficult to occurotely describe theworkshop orgonized in Ohrid,Mocedonio. Everyone who wos port ofthe workshop should be proud of himself.The workshop wcls speciol in everyrespect. Two dozen youth, of everyethnicity from Kosovo, Mocedonio ondAlbonio come, which wos o first in monyyeors of Seeds of Peoce octivities here.Storting with the locotion: Ohrid is otown locoted in the heort of the Bolkons.We oll hod the chonce to visit and tohove o smoll tour. Everyone wosfoscinoted. The town is old ond modernat the some time. The noture is fullyprotected, the loke is striking ond thearchitecture tells more thon everythingobout the history of Ohrid. The Ohridcostle is enormous ond from it one hoson owesome view of the whole town. Itstoyed in my mind ond I'll never forget

it. Another greot ospect of the town isreligion. When you see the mosque ondthe church neor eoch other the religioustolerance is obvious.

During the workshop, the group leoders,

Chris, Sonio, Andy ond Scott, helped us

a lot. Their effective ond successfulactivities influenced our minds for goodond mqde us reflect. Although hesitontond shy, overthe course ofthe workshopwe begon to express ourselves. We stortedto tell something obout our post, ourexperiences. We tolked obout the violencein Kosovo in Morch. We storted tounderstond eoch other. We storted to be

more tolerant ond to respect someconvenofion rules. We all developed greotcommunicotion skills. We mode plonson how to continue meeting in theBolkons ond how to tqke moreresponsibility in plonning events ondoctivities.

The best port of the workshop wosintroducing our countries ond notions,olthough it included o lot of debote ondobservotions. This session contoined greotculturol diversity. We leorned o lot oboutsymbols, religion, Iifestyles, culture,troditions, history, longuoge ond finolly,the future of our countries. The lost doywe hod enough free time to choosedifferent octivities to do. Some of us tolkedabout Seeds of Peoce ond its role in ourIives ond future. Some of us wotched a

fontostic film oboutKosovo ond the ethnicgroups living there ondhow cooperation betweenthem hod begun.The workshop wos tooshort ond the end orrivedvery quickly. Everyoneshored emoil oddresses,phone numbers onddifferent woys to keep intouch. We returned to ourcommunities. As I thinkbock, I reolized we plontedthe seeds of peoce ondlove ond ore now betterquolified qmbossodorswho con connect ourcountries.

iffi,lffi.lll1i$W:. i$WPorticipants explore ethnic ond notionolidentity througli an imoge theotre octivity

F:*:e*li:ag {**p*r*9i*:t i- n-*.i:*r*

Andrew fohn (Lohore)

To revive the comp spirit ofter returningto our homelonds, ond to properly doour f-O-B, Seeds of Peoce orronged monypost-comp follow-up progroms in Indioond Pokiston. This April, we held oworkshop with Seeds stoffmembers Andyond Sonio, o morvelous event where we

spent two ond o holf doys leorning. We

Ieorned o voriety of skills thot would helpus corry out our mission more effectively.The porticiponts orranged o sort of o"mini-workshop" themselves, without theqid of the focilitotors, to give the otherSeeds o toste of whot we hod been doing.During the workshop, we were taughtobout communicotion through bodyIonguoge ond eye contoct, ond througho series of effective coordinotion exercises

we were oble to get our messoge ocross

to our portners without speoking. Then,we hod other similor exercises where wehod to oct 0s o group to promote

Pakistoni Seeds porticipoting in Get-To-Know-You octivities

teomwork, confidence building ondunderstonding. We were also tought howto be o leoder ond o follower ot the sametime ond olso how importont it is to beo good listener os well os o good speoker.

We olso onolyzed how different imogesmoy depict different messoges ond beinterpreted differently by different people.

ffiffi...nt Indo-Pqkistoni politicol diologue, olong with some amozingcricketmotches, hos given Indions ond Pokistqnis hope for peoce. Seeds in the regioncontinue to realize this hope, ond hold leodership workshops, enioy cricket ondonolyze the medio thqt negqtively portroys their neighbors.

The workshop on the whole wos o reollyfontostic and memoroble experience forqll of us. The hord work ond efforts ofAndy ond Sonjo ore commendoble. Thebest port of this workshop wos thoteveryone felt comfortoble with everyoneelse ond every Seed porticipoted. Everyone

porticipated; no one felt reserved. Theworkshop wos reolly o greot leorningexperience for oll of us.

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Shonoor Seervoi (Mumboi)

"Korjot is omazing. You'll hove so

much fun there, it is unbelievoble." These

words of o fellow Seed echoed in my mindos I sot on the troin to Koriot, o smolltown opproximately three hours owoyfrom our city of Bomboy. Eleven of us

were obout to porticipote in o Seeds ofPeoce leodership seminor.

I expected to enjoy myself, but nothingprepored me for whot I wos obout toIeom. We begon the workshop by shoringstories of our own experiences of comp- funny stories ond memories offrustrotion, wormth ond understonding.

In one of many octivities, we got oglimpse of being o leoder when we ledonother person oround o room, guidinghim by plocing our polm o few inchesowoy from his fqce. It wos the duty ofthe leoder to toke his follower on o sofe

but exciting journey within the four wqllsof the room. It wos chollenging to tokeresponsibility for just one individuol; butit wos correspondingly difficult to blindlyobey onother. A leoder is not chosen togenerote feor ond obuse power. He ispowerful becouse of the implicit trust hereceives. To use this trust to horm ondstifle his followers is not leqdership; it istyronny. As Seeds, we oll hove theopportunity to be leoders. We have beenthrough on experience thot millions ofother people branded os 'impossible' -

ond it is up to us to chonge 'impossible'into reolity. We con use our experienceto guide people oway from hotred ondtoword the beginnings of occeptonce.But how could we chonge people's mindswithout moking them feel os if we orepreoching?

We discussed vorious toctics we coulduse to spreod the messoge of peace withoriginolity in interoctive, humoroussessions. We divided into two groups toplon our own presentotions orworkshops,which we could use in our own schoolsond colleges. My group prepored oworkshop bosed on preiudice. We wereunsure of whether we should bring upthe topic of the Indo-Pokistoni conflictwith o group of students whose opinionswe hod never heord before. We decidedto use octivities thot involved teqmworkto help fomiiiqrize our oudience witheoch other, but we worried thot theymight not wqnt to shore their inbornprejudices with others. Then we plonnedto proceed to o discussion obout the deep

roots of prejudices, which hove beeningroined in our society for years.

That weekend I felt rejuvenoted, ondrealized thot people would listen to whotI hod to soy if I soid it well enough. Inthose two doys we oll goined even moreconfidence to spread o messoge thot we

believe in: the messoge of universal peoce

ond brotherhood. It wos only o weekendoway from the harsh bustle of the citybut those two doys felt like comp owoyfrom comp.

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foneen Modon (Mumboi)Eorly this yeor, the Indion Prime

Minister ond the Pokistoni President sotocross o toble ot the SAARC (South AsionAssociotion for Regionol Cooperotion)summit held in Pokiston ond discussed

some of the issues thot divide our two

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Indion Seeds building trust between themselves

notions. The two leaders hove ogreed todiscuss ties thot bind - such os trode,trovel ond culturol exchonge - ond mokethese o kind of protective cocoon fromwhere delicote issues such os Koshmircon be resolved.

Of course these tolk between our leodenore of the utmost importonce to theongoing peoce process. However, thereis something more importont thot hosoccurred. In Morch, the Indion cricketteom went on ctn exclusive tour ofPokiston. Indions flocked to buy qir ondtroin tickets to oll the motches there.

As mony os 1500 Indion cricket fonscrossed the border to wotch the motchesin Lohore. The Indions who visitedPokiston were overwhelmed by the wormwelcome they received. Indion celebritieswho were interviewed on television soid

thot they were ostonished ot the Pokistonihospitolity. Indions were presented withbouquets of flowers ond speciolorrongements were mode for them totrovel into the city. Everyone wos filiedwith hope for the improvement inrelotions between the people of our twocountries.

The cricket motches begon with millionsof people drown to their rodio sets ondtelevision screens. I hod my exoms goingon qt thot time, but my friends ond Icouldn't heip but close our books ond sitwith our eyes glued to the televisionscreens. Business men stoyed home fromwork, children sot in their clossroomswoiting onxiously to know the score ondfomilies on the streets crowded oround osingle radio set. Every motch wos ployedwith o tremendous competitive spirit ondhod us oll sitting ot the edge of our seotsowoiting the resuit of the noil-bitingfinish.

For once it seemed like we didn't needpoliticions ond government officiols tobring hope to our people: they hoddiscovered the possibility of peoce ondfriendship themselves. These cricketmatches hqve kindled close relotionsbetween two "enemy" notions of o crucioltime of the peoce process. As o greotcricket fon myself the only regret I hoveis thot I wos unoble to trovel to Pokiston

ond witness the greot otmosphere thotpervoded the cricket stodiums duringthese speciol mqtches!

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Siddqrth Shoh (Mumboi)

Ever since the grond sogo of moviesbegon in Indio in the 1920's, movies hovebeen depicting the true vitolity ondcompossionote volues of the Indiontrodition. However, over the lost seven toeight yeors mony of these movies hoveocquired 0 new dimension - on onti-Pokistoni one.

In the movie Border, some soldiersbrutolly shoot o few tribesmen uponleorning thot they ore Pokistoni ond onthe Indion side of the Line of Control(LoC). In onother movie calledAgnipankh,some of the Indion POW's ore shownundergoing severe horossment in enemyterritory; before they finolly run owoythey ore shot of the LoC. There ore severolother exomples of such demeoningmovies like IOC - Kargil, Deewar andothers.

By showing Indion soldiers being killedby their Pokistoni counterports ond thenshowing the "hero" killing hordes of theenemy soldiers, such films hove chongedthe mindset of the peopie, especiolly thosewho ore illiterote ond more susceptible.Such films tend to creote o sense of enmityond hotred ogoinst the Pokistoni people.(A survey conducted by the 2003 IndionSeeds optly proves thot.)

Now, however, the otmosphere betweenthe two countries hos become hopefulond peoceful. Peoce con be occomplishedonly if the people of both countriesthemselves root out the feelings of hotred,but these movies ore preventing this fromhoppening.

Cinemo is o preacher ond o teocher. Itis poinful to note thot now the filmindustry hos become o money-mokingfoctory. Film producers poy very little orno ottention to the ethicol side of thepicture. Cinemo can work mirocles ifboth the producers ond governmentembork upon producing films thotpresent morol ond ortistic ideols.

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Pokistoni cricket fons cheerteom ogoinst Indio

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Tchotcho Teko(Lewiston)

My nome isTchotcho Teko ondI live in Lewiston.I'm writing in The Olive Bronch to shoremy feelings obout being on immigrontIiving in Lewiston. You might not thinkit's o big deol, but mony months ogoLewiston went through o chonge.Somolions orrived. When more of themstorted coming, the people in Lewistonstorted tolking obout how the Somolionswere toking over, ond how they seemedto be richer thon the rest of the peoplein Lewiston. I didn't think it wos such obig deol, but it become one. Rollies tookplace ond o group of white supremocistscome to our town. They were rocist onddidn't like the Somolions. I stortedthinking more ond more obout thotevent. I kept thinking thot this wos thewoy the town thought obout me, myfomily ond the rest of the Africonimmigronts in Lewiston.

I got kind of scored. I went to schoolone doy and os I wos wolking post ogroup of students, I heord them tolkobout how they hoted the Somolions ondhow it wosn't foir that they hod nicercors thon their porents, since they hodbeen in Lewiston longer then theSomqlions hod. I wonted to soysomething to the students. I wanted totell them thot the Somqlians worked fortheir money just like my fomily did whenwe come here. It wosn't like thegovemment gove us new con or onythingIike thot. We worked for our money. Sincewe hove been in Lewiston my porentshove been working their butts off to poyfor the house ond to supply us with food

Fg"* do Seeds in the US opproqch demogrophic chonges ond different cultures?Both Lewiston, Moine and Detroit, Michigon hqve diverse populotions. Seeds fromthese cities exploin how they ond their communities respond ond odapt.

ond clothing. I realized how close-mindedthese kids were to different people, to newthings. Even some of my friends stortedtolk bodly obout the Somolians, ond thotis when I told them thot the Somalionsworked for their money so they con dowhotever they wonted with it.

A few months loter there wos o peclce

rolly ot Botes College which I ottended.When I went there I sow o lot of people,my white neighbors, ond thot mode mefeel more comfortoble living in Lewiston.Since the rolly, Lewiston hos chonged.People here hove become more open-minded to 0 new culture, o new peopleond I feel thot there hos been morediversity. And I like this chonge. I don'thove to go to school onymore wonderingif people Iike me becouse of my roce. Ihove mode so mony friends ond I hovemy best friend, Sorah, to thonk for thot.(She's o Lewiston seed too.) I think ifpeople open their minds to differentthings they get smorter ond they ore notofroid or jeolous of other people.

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Sqrqh Pelletier (Lewiston)

In Lewiston ond Portlond, in Moine,we hove o new culturol populotion,immigronts from Somalio. While monycities welcomed new populotions, mycity, Lewiston, poorly handled thesituotion. One moyor sent out o letter,ond some soy it included incorrectinformotion obout the situotion. Peoplebegon to feel like the Somolions weretoking over. It wos kind of like the citieswent into depression.

Honestly, I wos in shock ot first whenI sow oll the Somolions coming toLewiston. I felt like they were toking overtoo. But then I thought to myself: I go toSeeds of Peoce. I reolized thot I hod friends

who were Somalions 0t comp ond theyore just Iike me! So then I took bock ollthe negotive things I hod soid ond tumedthem into positive things. At comp wedid tolk quite o bit obout the situotion.Our discussions went on for o long time,especially during our co-existencesessions. Sometimes it wos so hord to tolkobout the city I live in ond everythingthat was hoppening. At one point, Icouldn't toke it onymore, I wos sobummed out, I felt like Lewiston wos ohorrible place ond thot everyone hotedit ond I iust felt bod myself for living

Seeds is helping thecommunity by letting it

know that someane is outthere who understonds

here. But then ogoin, Lewiston is olmostlike every other city if you think oboutit. \Mhen you ore in comp, everyone treatseveryone the some. At leost, thot's whotI have seen.

After we returned home from comp,we continued discussing the issues ofimmigrotion, integrotion ond how todeol with o new populotion. Every otherSundoy or so, we hove locol meetingsond a Iittle while bock, we often tolkedobout how to solve the "problem." We

come up with o few ideos. One wos, ifpeople talk obout the topic ond soy bodstuff or wrong informotion, just woit untilthey ore done and state whot you knowis true obout what's hoppening ond knocksome sense into them - thot Somolionsore just like us. I reolly feel like Seeds ofPeoce hos influenced me ond mony otherpeople to reolize whot hos hoppened in

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Miriam ond friends at Seeds of Peace Comp in Moine

fought with suicide bombsand checkpoints. Our war

Lewiston qnd Portlond. I know for surewe os individuols look ot situotionsdifferently but we ore oround the somephenomenon. Seeds is helping thecommunity by letting it know thotsomeone is out there who understonds.

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Miriom Liebmon (Detroit)

It wos o foirly colm Februory morningwhen I ond three other lewish friends ofmine drove to Deorbom, Michigon. Beingeorly for q culture shoring doy, wethought we would look for o ploce togrob o quick bite to eot. The Detroit oreohos the Iorgest Arobic-speokingcommunity in the United Stotes.Deqrborn hos the lorgest Arob populotionwithin the metro Detroit oreo.We wolked into two restouronts ond ofterfinolly reolizing thot we were lockingArqbic proficiency, we decided to buyquick munchies ot o gas stotion neorby.Driving down the street in Deorborn, itis eosy to believe you crre driving throughthe Middle Eost. The irony is thot noteven holf on hour from where we were,

there wos o kosher grocery store, kosherrestouronts, kosher bokeries qnd osynogogue on just obout every corner.At my school to be o white Christion isto be in the minority. Choldeons(Christions originolly coming from Iroq),

fews, Indions ond Pokistonis seem todominote. But even with this muchdiversity, on issue os simple os hoving

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is a war of silence*.;*:.#*Fi+#i.+-ijie*iip, j

former Isrqeli Prime Minister ShimonPeres ond Dr. Sori Nusseibeh, the currentpresident of AI-Quds University, speokingot o Seeds of Peoce golo leoves mycommunity ot whot seems to be the brinkoI w0r.

Arob protestors stood outside the golocollinq Peres o terrorist. Threqts were

given to some Arobs who chose to ottendthe event. Before giving o presentotionot my school, phone colls ond letters werereceived by my principal from membersof the fewish community objecting to theideo of hoving o Seeds presentotion.It is not o tought hotred toword the Arobs,it is qn ingroined love for Isroel. Afterreturning home from my first summer otcomp, I remember tolking to o friend ofmine who hod iust returned from onOrthodox, fewish girls' summer progrom.After hours of discussion ond orgument,I looked of her ond osked, "Hove you evermet on Arob?" She looked me in the eyeond soid "No."

We too ore of wor. Our wor, however,is not fought with suicide bombs ondcheckpoints. Our wor is q wor of silence.We hove eoch been spoiled by ourrespective communities deofening us tothe opinions of others. I, however, refuseto sit idly by ond wotch the twocommunities closh with eoch other doyofter doy. I om fighting my own wclr, 0wor to breok the silence existing betweenus. For Isroel ond the Arobs to ochievepeoce is on unfoir expectotion if we hovenot truly ochieved oeoce here.

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tI n lote April 2004, Sood Hoj Yehyio, on Arob Seed from Toibeh, ond DorioRotiner, o fewish Seed from Holon, organized o Bring-o-Friend event for Seeds ondtheir friends. It wos entirely their own initiotive ond both they ond their friendsthought it wos q success.

Sood Hoi Yehyio (Toibeh) ondDorio Rotiner (Holon)

To meet non-Seeds friends from boththe Isroeli Arob ond fewish sector is notctn eosy tosk. We, Sood, ond Dorio,decided to toke the risk ond moke thedoy unforgettoble for our friends, so weorgonized o meeting for them. We workedhord to moke this doy reolly amazingond successful. At the Center in |erusolemwe do o number of octivities, but bothof us thought we could do Seeds

of Peoce octivities outside theCenter os well.

In Morch, we met twice toprepore the event, ond |en fromthe Center helped us o lot. Theevent wos at Beit Berl neor KforSovo, close to both Toibeh ond toHolon. We eoch brought oboutsix friends who were not in Seeds.

At first we were so ofroid to foilond we hod o lot of feorsl But fenolwoys supported us qndencouroged us. When we orrivedwith our friends, we fint ote iunch.It wos good to eot before thebeginning of the octivity becouse

we sot together ond everyone'sfriends got olong from the stort.

After lunch, we entered the octivityroom ond sow that our friends were veryhoppy to be with eoch other. Both of us

loughed becouse we storted to see theresults even before ony qctivities. Duringthe first octivity, we got to know eochother through introductions. The timepossed too quickly. During the secondoctivity, we orranged ourselves in o circle,

ond inside the circle there wos onothercircle. A person from the inner circlewould osk o question of someone in theouter circle ond with every new question,the inner circle would turn. We qsked

obout six questions, and they were prettytough. When the inner circle hod gone

oll the woy oround, the octivity finished,but the friends wonted to continueploying. We were very surprised.After thot we hod the moin octivity,which wos on open discussion. We wereafroid thot there would be o lot of fights,but to tell the truth we were omozed ondhoppy thot no problems occurred. Afterthe open discussion we finished theprogrclm, which took obout two hours.

We con't express our feelings - whenwe flnished the doy successfully ond wentout to oo home, our friends didn't wqnt

Arob ond Jewish friends porticipate ino diologue session

to go home. They exchonged numbersond oddresses to eoch other. We felt Jenwcls so proud to hove Seeds like usl We

ore planning to moke this meeting thebeginning of mony more meetings. Thisis only the beginning.

Dor Shabtoy (Holon)

Hello everybody, I om Dor Shobtoyfrom Holon, ond on Soturdoy, April 24,

I took port in o Seeds of Peoce event otBeit Berl.

I hod no feor in my heort; I only hodo greot desire to listen to other opinionsond to express my own. And thot's howit reolly wos. I wosn't surprised to find

thot the girls ond boys in front of mewere just like me, they hove - exoctly likeme - big dreoms, ombitions ond opinions.We ore exoctly the some, olthough, theonly difference between us is religion.I sow that they hove o greot desire forpeoce ond for o common life, exoctly os

I hove. I sow thot just like me, they hovecomploints obout their government.The connection between us continuedofter the meeting. I tolked withMuhammod ond Nosreen (friends ofSoad) just like I tolked with my Isroeli

friends. We tried to find o doywhen we con meet again, ond Ibelieve it will hoppen really soon.

Peoce wili come on o doy whenwe won't lust tolk or not tolk otoll. It will come on o doy whenwe will tolk ond oct, on thot doypeoce will reolly come. You needjust to try ond see. I wont to thonkeveryone who took part in theevent especiolly to Dorio, Sood,

ond Ien.

Nasreen Mossorwe (Taibeh)Even if the octivity wosn't

something new for me, the people

ot the Bring-o-Friend mode itmore exciting forthe whole group.

When Sood come qnd told me thot we

ore going to meet some fewish people, Ioccepted the ideo, but I wosn't so

convinced it would be useful. But sincethe moment we orrived, I reolized thismeeting would be the first in o series ofgreot meetings.

We talked q lot obout whot we love,hote ond think - even things thot wewont to chonge in our lives. Then Iunderstood thot there's no differencebetween us, except the longuoges ondthe religion, ond never mind thosebecouse we con moke it through together.

My lost comment for Seeds of Peoce: Iosk you to orgonize, qs much os you con,

more wonderful meetinos like this one.

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"We haven't just inherited the earth fromour forefathers, oLtr society continues toborrow its endowments from our children."Louis lames

Those children who ore identified inthis quote ore us Seeds, who work for thissociety ond eorth.

Seeds from Tolbeh hove roised on ideoof stortlng o youth culturol center fornon-Seed students in our town. The centerwill be o ploce where students con spendtheir free time ofter school ond be octivefor their town. It'l] be bosed on thecombinotion of Seeds of Peoceprinciples ond the fulure olour town,Toibeh. The first steps toword thefuture of this project were tokenolreody when Seed Roml Tibi, Centerstoff member |ored Willis, ond memet with the moyor of our town, Solohfboro. In the meeting we proposed ourdesired project. The moyor gove us hisfuIl crpprovol to develop our ideos onduse the locol stodium or o locol schooi0s 0 remporOry center.

We hqve plonned thot the centerwill welcome students in grodes seventhrough nine, ond will hove octivitiessuch os soccer, frisbee, ort closses,diologue groups, leodership sessions,presentotions, hrrndboll, volleyboll,octivities for porents ond longuogecourses. We will olso try to teoch thestudents obout the importonce ofmedio in publicizlng our center ondoctivlties. Ihe locol center will hove0 strong connection with Seeds ofPeoce, ond wlll be o ploce to preporenew Seeds from Toibeh before theytrovel to the comp in Moine, ond ct

ploce to choose student representotivesof Toibeh who will be ccrlled the

"Toibeh Committee." This committee willinform others on progress (on the Seedsof Peoce front) thot occurs in cose theyhod to be in o meeting out of Toibeh.They olso will do the orgonizotionol workof the Seeds meetings in the town.

After our meeting with the mclyor, cl

meeting wos held ot my house to fufiherdiscuss the project. Whot we come upwith in this meeting wos thcrt we will tryto meet with the heodmoster of the A'mcrlTechnologicol High School. We willpropose our project to him ond try to gethis opprovol to use his school os o centerin the ofternoons. Our choice for thisschool in porticuior is bosed on itslocotion in the town center, being sofeond well-gurrrded ond possessing theclossrooms ond spoce we need. It is oploce thot porents will ogree to send theirchildren to, unlike the stodium oreo,which is less sofe. The meeting with theheodmoster will toke ploce soon. After

the meeting, if we get the ogreementfrom the principol, we wili meet ogoinond ossign jobs ond committeemembers. After thot we will presentthe exoct plon to the moyor so he conopprove it. Then we will be reody togo crnd publish odvertlsements intown.

It is importont to mention thtrt thestoff who will work ot this locol centerw111 be us, the Ioibeh seeds. And ifthere will need to be odults orprofessioncrls in cerloin fields, then wewill moke the effort to hove thosepeopie. At first, the center will be openonce 0 week, ond then we con increosethe meetings 0s we meosure ourproject success.

The center will hove o journol wherewe will record whot wlll be going onduring our work sessions. We olso willwork to involve the medio in order tospreod the word obout our center ontelevlsion rrnd the rodio, so we conhove the opportunity to tell peopleobout our work in the region ond thecenter's gool: to strengthen Seeds ofPeoce principles ond work for thefuture of our town.

Arob villoge in northern Isroel, Amoni fober is trying to creqte qcenter in her town. working with fellow Seeds, center stoff ond

the moyor, she is in the process of building o spoce thot will offer the people ofher town o sofe spoce to leorn ond ploy.

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A DoilyRoutine

Abeer Assouli(ferusolem)

Lost week, I reodon orticle oboutbeing 16 in Itoly. Atthe beginning, I wosinterested ond hoppy to know obout thewoy other people my oge live but loteron I reolized thot there's o huge differencebetween their type of life ond ours. InItoly, people my oge con move freelywithout onything stopping them fromcontinuing on their woy. This is the directopposite of whot hoppens over here inPolestine where you con't cross o fewkilometers without finding o checkpointqnd humilioting soldiers.

As o Polestinion student who iives inAl-Rom - which is situoted exactlybetween two moin checkpoints, the firston the woy to Romolloh qnd the otherone on the woy to ]erusolem (where myschool is, in Beit Honino in Eost

|erusolem) - it's reolly difficult for me toreoch school. Most doys I leqve my house

ot obout 6:30 AM so thot I don't cotchthe troffic Aoing to the checkpoint.Without the existence of thot checkpoint,it would toke me less thon 10 minutes toget there; thot's whot most of myclossmotes do ond they leove o couple ofminutes before the first bell rings. Inoddition to hoving to leove eorly, I usuollyfqce the problem ofthe closed checkpoint,ond getting through depends on themood of the soldiers. As o result, I missso mony doys of school ond even if I conposs the checkpoint, I go to school onfoot becouse I con't find 0nytronsportotion. Moreover, the checkpointsprevent me from honging out with myfriends, which is not o normol situotionfor people my oqe, who olwoys look i

Seeds on Both Sides of theCheckpoint

V Y hot is it like to poss o checkpoint? Whot is it like to guord o checkpoint?Isroeli ond Pqlestiniqn Seeds find themselves on both sides of the borrier ondrecount the inconvenience, discomfort ond humiliqtion

forword to hoving fun. IMost of my teochers who come from the i

West Bonk cities such os Romolloh andBethlehem sleep ot school. They con't go

bock home everydoy ofter school becouse

thot would toke them on uncountoblenumber of hours. They see their fomiliesonce o week - on Soturdoys - ond returnon Sundoy. It would be impossible forthem to reoch school on Mondoy if theyIeft on the some doy.

Soldiers ot checkpoints interrupt theteochers' privocy qnd ours too. At thecheckpoint they open our bogs ond tqkeeverything out of them, even the books.I remember one doy when I met my

ofthe curfew ond the closed checkpoints.Although he couldn't reoch his officebecquse of the situotion, the monogerwould consider him absent on thot doy,ond thqt offects his solory ond incomeot the end of the month.

While the checkpoints offect my life, Ido hove on eosier time crossing themsince I hold o blue ferusolem ID cord (os

opposed to the green Polestinion WestBonk ID cord). However, the Isroelis hovebegun building the seporotion woll, so

nobody knows whot is in store for us. Iconsider myself lucky becouse I hqve oblue ID cord. The Polestinions with thegreen ID cord, who need o permit everytime they come into Isroel, have the worsttime ond deserve our sympothy ondsupport.

Arobic teocher who wos owoiting her j

turn to poss through the checkpoint. She :

hod o sock full of exom popers. When it o

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wos her turn, the soldiertook oll the popers outond mixed them olltogether so thot she'dspend more time puttingthem bock in order. Iremember onotherteocher entering closs ondcrying because she wostoken to be investigotedby some soldiers whocought her in Beit Honina(on Arob neighborhoodin |erusalem); it wasforbidden for her to bethere becouse she hos ogreen West Bonk ID, ondnot o blue ferusolem one.

She hqd to sign odocument ond promisenot to come bock to thotoreo. She didn't returnuntil the principol gotinvolved ond tried herbest to get her o permit.Another exomple is myown fother who oftendoesn't oo to work becouse

A Night at theGush EtzionCheckpointEldad Levy(Kiryat Got)

Ihere ore o fewminutes left for me.I om still locing upmy boots. On mywoy out I put o pock of chocolote into r

one of the outer pockets of my overolls.I get my gun ond grosp my vest. I get out j

of the corovon ond enter the cold, typicolof Gush Etzion in |onuory. The other four :

soldiers ore olreody woiting for me by i

the ]eep - it would be better if I hurry up i

since the soldiers ot the checkpoint hove ,

been posted there for eight hours."A light security check," wos the i

instruction from the division commqnder, l

ond we get in the leep. I om in the bock,os olwoys, the youngest of the group.

In my thoughts, I disconnect myself,os I think obout the blue skies ond distont I

clouds Lhol" I see outside o[ the ormoredwindow. We trovel between the clouds

on our woy outside of the settlement. Iheor o loud noise ond see oronge llghts.

"Answer the rodio!" someone shouts otme.

from the some dreom, obout myShobbot vocotion, I return directiy to theoperotions room vio the rodio.

"Keshet here, Poloce.""Roger. Over, Poloce.""Locotion?"I hesitote since I don't know exoctly

where we ore, but the feep commondertums oround ond throws me o line, "We'reolmost there, we hove just possedScotlond."

"We qre possing Scotlond.""Roger. Over ond out.Scotlond, eh? How nice it is to give o

codeword to the ploce we clre trovelingin, green hills, smoll stone houses, olivetrees, houses with red roofs ond green,blossoming gordens - I om only oble tothink obout how much o pity it is on theploce I om Iiving.

We finolly get to our destinotlon ondtoke our positions, the commonderreceives o short locotion briefing fromthe outgoing commonder.

l

Omer to wotch with the mog. ;

Hogoi to the smoll soldiers' borrocks.Lior, Shoi ond me ot our positions.

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The wind begins to chill ond the sky to l

groy. An old, creom-colored Suboru neorsus. Shoi guords ond I motion to the corto stop. The cor slows down ond I begin I

to step l"o the side. A light roin folls onmy helmeL ond o chill wind blows ogoinstmy foce.

The procedurol motters: ID? To where?From where? When? Whot's in the cor? r

Open the glovebox. And likewise, coroftercor...

The time is not possing ond it's olreodygetting dork, we get o thermos wiLh hotteo, which is nice before night foils. i

A young mon from the villoge of A-Dirlorgot where he put his ID, who knowshow long he will hove to stoy here. There :

is no time to think obout this becouseolher cors wont to poss.

The commonder decides to remove thepossengers of the toxi coming fromferusolem. It is very cold but they hove ,

to. I help on elderly mon with o red

kofiyyeh get out, we check the cor upond down, inside ond out. We osk thepqssengers qn infinite number ofquestions. Lucky for us our inteiligenceofficer speoks o iittle Arobic. fo myself,I wish the possengers luck. Finolly, theyposs ond the roin gets stronger, I 0mdripping woter. There reolly isn't muchreclson to weor o hot, now, is there?

My nose is getting red ond it's running,the weopon's metol is coid ond the vestis heovy, the food is lote ond when itorrives it will probobly be cold ond dry.Hogoi succeeds in getting the brokenrodio from the previous wotch to work.A little music, good.

A short phone coll home ond one frommy girlfrlend. Neither con understondhow eight hours hove possed ond I'mstill on wotch.

"Dress worm ond toke your medicine.""Wotch yourself ond be very corelul.'"l'11 tcrpe the Moccobi gome for you."Sounds from home - until the

commonder yells ond I return to myposition. A brown cor comes.

The possengers wont to get out ondomong them is o little boy. He doesn'ttoke his eyes off me. Why? I om dying toosk him where he's come from ond wherehe's going. But his eyes ore shorp ondserious. Finolly they poss the checkpoint,but o minute before he returns to the corI put my hond in my pocket - Polestinion,Isroeli, Arob, fewish - everyone loveschocolote, thnt's on internationol foctl

The pock of chocolote stoys in my honduntil the boy finolly decides to toke it. Iom still not sure, but I think I succeededin moklng him smile.

The hours pcrss, down breoks ond thesecond wotch comes to reploce us. Thqnkgod. One of the settlers from Efrot tellsme thot in this oreo there ore lots of deer,ond thot I should poy ottention - moybesomething nice before the end of thewotch? We get onto the ]eep ond leove.

The next doy the f eep bringing thesecond wotch is ottocked by gunshotsfrom the crdjocent villoge. My group tolksobout ottocks on feeps ond stoying olive,ond I'm thinking qbout how to moke cr

Polestinion boy of eight smile.

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Mohomad Motor(Nusseirot)

I got to GozoFINALLY ofter o 9-

day trip since I leftthe stotes. I wastronsferred from theCoiro Airport to theborder with Goza becouse I didn't hoveo visa to enter Egypt. As I orrived to theEgyption side of the Rofoh Entronce tothe Strip, I found out thot the border hodbeen closed for the whole doy. I hod tostoy there for seven more doys until theborder opened. I slept on a dirty floor forseven days with no cover olong with illpeople who just hod surgeries in Egypt,including an old mon who hod openheort surgery. I wos with tens of littlechildren crying constontly of exhoustionond hunger. I hod so mony chots withold people who live in refugee comps,ond heord mony of their stories. I hodthe chonce to help old women out whenthey needed someone to move theirluggoge. I spoke to the Egyption kidsoperoting the tiny cofeterio ond knewwhot kind of people poss through thotborder everydoy. Every night, peoplewould go out of the woiting room wherewe slept to wotch the F-16 shelling ofRofah and wotch the dust in the oircreoted by redepioyed tqnks in the region,obout o quorter of o miie owoy from us.

Every time o missile hit o torget, on oldwomon thot wos with us would cry ondshout. She wos from Rofah, but neverknew if her house wos still stonding,never knew if ony of her kids, husbond,or relotives were stiil olive. You con'timogine the disoppointment thotoppeored on peoples' foces os theycrocked their bones every morning oftersleeping on the floor when theydiscovered thot the border wos stili closed.

etween o suggested disengqgement plon qnd Isrqeli militory operotions inRafoh, the Gozo Strip hqs received tremendous press coveroge over the post fewmonths. A Pqlestinion Seed describes his long return home to Gozo, two othersobout the destruction of their neighborhoods, ond on Isroeli Seed remembers q

friend, q soldier killed by explosives in the southern Gozo, Strip.Their tiny piece of hope remoined for the dreoms of hoving on independent stote,

next morning until they ron out of hope of hoving freedom, of feeling secure ondot the end. I hoven't hod such on sofe in their own lond.experience before, but i om glod I wos , The Isroeli ormy soys thot this operotion

forced to live through it. is being done to stop the troffic of orms,

When the Isroelis opened the gote seven r but I wonder if this is the 9oo1, then why

doys loter, I wos tqken to o privote room l do they enter in the city ond destroyin the back of the possport inspection everything? Why did they destroy the Tel

room on the Isroeli side of the border. I ol-Sulton neighborhood, o very crowded

wos investigoted ond questioned by on zone in Rofoh? Why did they k111 innocentIsroeli Intelligence Officer. He wos people? We ore not dogs, we ore notomozed by the foct thot I spoke English crlminols, we ore not o diseose thot must

well ond went to good schools in the US, be finished by ony woy, we ore humongiven the foct thot I wos roised in o beings, we hove feelings, we hcrve therefugee comp in Gaza. I mentioned SOP some right os ony other person to live inos qn onswer to one of his queslions. "l peoce ond securily.

haven't tolked to 0 person like you for o I left Rofoh tn 1999 ond since then I

very long time. I wish Isrqel hod young could not go bock until December ofpeopie like you," he soid. "lf we do, then 2003, ond I sweor thot the city wos

I hoven't met ony of them yet. I will tell completely chonged. There were o lot ofmy children ond grondchildren thot I destroyed homes, q lot of sodness, o lotmet you."

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Numqn Zourob (Rofoh)This is taken from a posting to the Seeds ofpeace Listserve on iay lg, 2004 ,, l.,r ...r' , ''."',,.,tr.

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I qm Numon Zourob, o member of : 111:'.;,: r,:,, :..' ,,' ,,'.r. .., r'. r. r.

Seeds oI Peoce from 1995. I om studyingmedicine in Spoin, but I om from Rofoh, I

which wos destroyed by the Isroeii ormy.Militory Operotion Roinbow, begon thisweek ogoinst my city, o smoll crowded of poverty, ond I think thot these doysoneinthesouth of GazaStripthothos this clty is in o worse situotion.obout 70,000 hqbitonts qnd one smoll Deor friends, Isroeli people hove the righthospitol. This operotion qims to end to live in their own stote in peoce ondsupposed qrm troffic from Egypt to Gozo security ond the polestlnion people olsoStrip. , houe the some riqht to build their own

A lot of people left their own homes, stote ond hove freedom. I dreom of theond without their homes they con go doy thot polestinion children con go tonowhere except the street, ond if one of school without being ofroi<i, in the doythem hos o little of luck he moy find o thot workers con work ond re-estoblishploce in one of the U.N. schools. People , our home, the dov thot n polestinionIeft their homes, the only ploce they felt , mother con leove iier children qnd shesofe ond secure; they did not iust see their , is sure thot she is going to give them ohomes being destroyed, but qlso their , kiss ot nioht before qoinq to sleep, till

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thot doy, I will keep proying for no morevictims on ony side, ond I will keepproying thot my city Rofoh will not bedestroyed.

Mqhmoud ol-Ashi(Gozo City)

This is taken from aposting to the Seeds

of Peace Listserve onMay 21,2004

The Isroeli troopsqnd o lot of tonksore sieging Polestinion homes in the TolAl Sulton clreo in Rofoh. They hove beenstriking the citizens ond sieging the homesfor three doys. Most of those homes orefull of children of oges who con't beorthe situotion without milk, woter ondelectricity. Fifty slx people were killed ondthe number is getting lorger. The troopsore striking every moving body. Even ifthe leof of o tree moves, they strike it.Somebody went this morning on the roofof his home holding o bottie to bringwoter for his children, ond o soldier shothlm. The situotion is very hord. The troopsore preventlng ombulonces ond even theRed Cross groups from reoching the oreo.

Some people here in Gozo City hovereiqtives living in Rofoh. They con't knowwhot hoppened to them. ln the night,Isroeli troops tried to get inside the AlZoitoon qreo. Tonks sieged the homes ofthcrt areo, ond they were supplied ondhelped by the militory plones whichbegon striking the homes with o lot ofrockets whose sounds were being heordby me crnd my fomily members lncludingthe chiidren who got very scored. fhepeople were sleeping inside their homes.The soldiers struck the electricity powersupplles of thot oreo ond mode thecitizens ond children stoy inside theirhomes while demolishing the homesbeslde them ond they even demolishedthe home of o person whose fomilymembers were prevented from gettingoutslde it before the demolishing process.

On the some night ot exoctiy 2:30 AM,I wos sleeping os were oll of my fomily

members. I heord some loud soundstriking o home 50 meters from mine.The sound wos horrible. After o moment,o second rocket struck the some homeond o while loter, o third one struck os

well. Like every fomily member, I gotvery scored. A lot of ombulonces quicklyturned onto our street but they were forowoy until the striking process of therockets wos finished. Actuolly, I wentoutside ofter the first rocket strike to see

whot hoppened. I wotched the secondrocket coming toword the some homevery fost with o very loud sound, then Iron 0w0y while I wos scored ond gotquickly inside my home. It wos reollyhorrible. Fifteen people were killed in thisprocess olone. I om crying while tellingyou this sod news.

I need peoce to prevoil, but only ofterwe receive our rights ond dignity. If onyone of you hos questions for me, I omreody to give you reol onswers.

Roy Cohen(Ashdod)

With life in theMlddle Eost the woyii ic lha ^ta^+mnioril-rz nf thppeople thot con try to keep themselves0s remote os possible from thedesperotion. Since I live in o city in centrolIsroel, ond serve in the ormy without oweopon, on on urbon militory bose, Ineed not try too hord to block out theturmoll. Thot is, until o certoin explosionin Rofoh wos so big, it hurt my soul.

Aviv Hokoni, posthumously owordedthe ronk Coptoin, wos on old friend ofmine. I looked up to him os o teenoger.He wos two yeors obove me in the youthmovement I wos o port of, the scouts.Ever since eighth grode, he wos ocounselor, on educotor, o senior portnerin estcrblishing on olternotive reolity forour city's kids ond o person from whomI leorned ond drew support.

After he stqrted his militqrv service. I

seldom met him in our rother cozy city.He took o different poth from mine ondchose to be o fighter, believing his greotestcontribution to be on thot route. He diedwhile he wos trying to locote and destroytunnels through which weopons ondexplosives ore being smuggled from theEgyption side of the border with Isroel.His mother soid qt his funerol, exhoustedond weeping, thot he died like the herohe wos.

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As if trying to prove us we hoven't seen

everything yet, the deoth Avivexperienced wos owful. There wos so

much expiosive moteriol in his ormoredvehicle thot it took two doys to find pieces

ofthe body. Even though o tiny piece ofhim wos buried, hls ten yeor old sisterinsisted on looking ot the coffin in orderto moke sure his height wos occurotelydepicted.

On the doy Isroeli soldiers found trocesof his body I went to demonstrate ogolnstthe Isroeli presence in Gozo. And thot'sthe inner ond outer world, served on obloody h'oy. An old friend dies in o teniblyunprecedented woy, ond I demonstroteogoinst the circumstonces thot got himthere. To some people here it seemed likeo woy of soying his deoth wos in voin,ond thot infurioted them. The sod truthis thot they might be right. Aviv dieddefending his country, in circumstqncesthot were inevitoble ot the present time- but I feel thot this present is o deceptionthot wos brought upon by mendocity, bylying on both sides, by leoders thqt don'tdeserve thot titie in the foce of the reolityin which we live.

A,

It ver the post yeor, q number of ioint Isroeli-Palestinion peoce initiotiveshqve mqde their woy into Isroeli-Pqlestinion diologue. Two in particulor hqvegoined prominence: the Genevo Initiotive, founded by Yossi Beilin ond YosserAbed Robbo, qnd the People's Voice, founded by Ami Ayolon ond Sqri Nusseibeh.To get o better picture of these initiatives, The Olive Bronch interviewed both Dr.Beilin ond Dr. Nusseibeh to discuss their initiotives qnd the conflict in generol.

Sogi Gonot(Holon)Olive BrqnchDr. Beilin, thonkyou very much forogreeing to onswerour questions. To

begin, I would likeyou to describe inbrief the GenevoInitiotive ond itsprinciples.Yossi Beilin: The Genevq Initiotive is odetoiled model for o permonent stotusagreement between Isroel ond thePalestinions which wos drofted by o broqdcoolition of former ond current officiqlsfrom both sides.

OB: Who is leoding the initiative on bothsides?

YB: Yosser Abed Robbo and myselfinitioted the negotiotion ond becouse ofthot we ore identified with it. But thereis no one individuol who is leoding thisinitiotive on either side. It is o truly ledond promoted by brood ronge of peoplefrom both sides, including politicions,intellectuols, civil servonts, people whoserved in the post in the militoryestoblishment, writers ond more. It is ocivil-society initiotive ond civil society is

Ieodino it.OB: Do you believe thot in o time ofnotionol crisis, whot many describe os owclr on our existence, it is legitimote to,os mony soy, oct "behind the bocks" ofthe democroticolly-elected governmentond negotiote with our enemy?YB: First of oll, no one octed "behind thebock" of onyone. Although our work didnot receive much press over the courseof the two ond o holf yeors thot weworked on it, everyone who wonted toknow obout it knew obout it, includingthe top levels of the politicol ond militoryestoblishments in Isroel. Second, we didnot work in order to impose onything ononyone, ond never cloimed to hovesigned something thot is binding for theofficiol representotives of both notions.I soid it more thon once thot whot wedid in Genevo wos enqoge in o virtuql

exercise thot con serve os o model foronyone wishing to enter negotiotions onpermonent stotus. In this respect, I believethot, rother thon undermining onygovernment, we offered our governmento service. It con toke up Genevo if andwhen it wishes. It con leorn from Genevo,

improve on Genevo, or even rejectGenevo. Governments rorely hove thetime ond resources to invest in whot wedid. Whot we did, ond precisely because

it wos non-officiol, wos o reol gift to theIsroeli government.OB: Do you still believe o cooperotionwith the Polestiniqn leodership toformulote o iust peoce is possible, ofterthe disoppointment following the OsloProcess, the Comp Dovid Tolks ond otherottempts ot bi-notionol negotiotions?YB: Yes, I do. The Polestinion leodership- meoning people like Abu AIo, Soeb

Erokot, Abu Mozen, Dohlon - oreprogmotic people. Greot os thedisoppointments hove been, thealternotive - thot is, of continued conflictond bloodshed - is for worse. So I thinkwe need to get over our feelings ofdisoppointment ond do whot we need todo. Both sides.OB:Why is negotioting with o seeminglyunstoble porlner prefenoble to uniloteroldisengogement?YB: Precisely becouse our portner isunstoble, what we need to do is tostrengthen it rother thon further weokenit. Acting uniloterolly omounts to tumingour bocks on this unstoble portner ondstrengthening the extremists. In foct, notonly do I prefer on unstoble portner to ostoble enemy, but I octuolly believe thotwe ccln do a lot so thot our portner isstrengthened. People forget thot we hovesomething to do with the situotion-thotwe, too, hove out on "input," os it were;thot our octions hove consequences thotimpoct directly on our portner. In foct,we hove to move owoy from an"essentiolist" perspective thot deems ourportner os essentiolly good or essentiollybod, essentiolly unstoble or weok. To osignificont degree, we, Isroelis, construct(or when it comes to Shoron, destruct)

our portner. We ore powerful enough so

thot whot we do bears directly on ourporlner's oppeol on the Polestinion streetits obility to oct, perform, etc.

OB: Whot would you tell our Pqlestinionreoders, who feel thot none of the mojorissues from their point of view (i.e.territories, |erusolem ond the refugeeproblem) hos been fully solved?YB: I don't think thot onyone who looksot the issues progmoticolly con mokethis cloim. Obviously some people willbe more ottoched to some issues (soy, torefugees) thon to others (soy, territory).But token os o pockoge, the GenevoInitiotive offers o very sensible solutionto all of them. Of courser people orewelcome to come ond seorch for bettersolutions. Genevo is only o model, notthe Bible or the Koron. Improvementsore alwoys welcome.OB: Do you believe, ofter oll is soid onddone, thot the model described in theGenevo Accords is implementoble?YB: Too much hos been soid, too littledone. The model described in Genevocon be implemented, ond structures intoitself mechonisms thot will qssist bothsides in its implementotion. But thesooner we stort, the eosier it will be. If we

continue this woy, there might not be oPolestinion portner left. And muchdepends ogoin on the ossistonce of thirdporties.OB: In conclusion, whot do you foresee

for the lond between the Tordon and theSeo, twenty yeors from now?YB: I hope I don't disoppoint you if I tellyou thot I don't foresee ony utopio. Myvision is cl very modest one, perhopsupsettingly "normol" for mony. I justforesee two stotes living side by side ondmaintaining peoceful relotions betweenthem. Their economies ore stoble ondoffected by the usuol trends in globalmorkets. I hope they will be linked to olorge troding block, perhops the EU, ondI imogine they will hqve considerobletrode between them. In short, the usuolstuff between notions. I hove very lowexpectotions, you see...

OB: Thonk you ogoin for this interview.

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OB: Con youdescribe to us thePeople's VoiceInitiotive?Sori Nusseibeh: It'so gr0ss rootsinitiotive, in thesense thot we ore Sori N

trying to goin the support of people foro stotement of principles thot we hopethot the two leoderships will negotiote.We wont individuols to sign o holf-pogestotement regording o two stote solution.We hope thot through it creote o publicopinion in Israel ond Polestine thot willforce itself on the politicol agendo. Thisinitiotive is not o portisan movement;we try to reoch people from all ports frompoliticol structure both in Isroel ondPolestine. We hove been going for o yeorond gothered so for obout 200,000 Isroeli

signotures, ond obout 140,000 Polestinion

signotures.OB: How did the people reoct to theinitiotive?SN: There were criticism ond oppositionto the initiotive, but in spite of thecriticism we hove monoged to becomemuch stronger.OB: You ore known os the leodingPolestinion odvocote of peoce with Isroel;

whot do you think obout the Peocemovement in Palestine?SN: I believe the situotion in Polestineconnot be judged by the somemeosurements thot it's judged in Isroel,

becouse in Isroel there is on one hond ogovernment thot is behind theoccupotion, and on the other hond thereis the peoce movement thot is ogoinstthot govemment. On the Polestinion side,

we ore ogoinst the occupotion; thereforeyou con't distinguish between o groupthot wants peoce ond o group thot doesn'twont peoce, ond the mojority ofPolestinions wont peoce on the bosis ofo two stotes solution. We the Polestinionshove not been successful in generol inmoking the message thot we wont peoce

clear. We hove mostly been governed byour emotions, feelings of onger ondfrustrotion, too much to be oble to express

our hope ond desire for peoce with Isroel.

with the left wing is currently helpful,while the right wing is in power in theIsroeli government, with the killing ofcivilians, ossossinotions, ond buildingseporotion woll?SN: If I didn't think so, there would be

no point in hoving on initiotive, becouse

initiotives ore politicol mechonisms bywhich we try to chonge politicol reolity.The People's Voice initiotive is wellorgonized ond hos o very cleor plan howto chonge this reolity, by creoting pressure

on the upper corridors of the politicolsystems in the Palestinion ond Isroelicommunity, in such ct owoy os to mokethese leoderships reflect the will of thepeople ond moke them negotiote.Thebosic philosophy behind this initiotive is

thot the people ore the power behind onypoliticol chonge ond ore the source ofIegitimocy for ony chonge.OB: In October 2001 you recommendedthot the Polestinions give up the right ofreturn to their 1948 homes in order tolive in freedom. The People's Voiceinitiotive olso does not PromisePolestininon right of return to Isroel.Would you exploin more obout thisstatement?SN: I believe thot the Polestinions hovethe right of return to oll Polestine ondIsroel. In oddition to thot right,Polestinions olso hqve the right ofindependence, freedom, ond stotehood,ond the pursuit of these two rightstogether is bound to moke us unoble toottoin either, so the pursuit of the rightof return os a priority over the other rightwill leod to non-fulfillment of either right.Therefore, I suggested thot we seek theright ofstotehood, forgoing therefore theimplementotion of our right of return toIsrael This bosicolly meons thot in so

doing we therefore hove to oddress theproblem of the right of returning in thefollowino monner:First, seeking compensotion; second,rehobilitotion of the refugees wishing toreturn to the Polestinion stote; ond third,to seek woys in which to address theirproblems in their present countries ofresidence to ollow them to hove the choice

ond equol rights of either, stoying in thecountry os equal citizens or coming tothe Polestinion state. In conclusion, if we

do this we ottoin the right of stotehood,

freedom ond independence, we ottoin oportiol implement of the other right rightof return.OB: After the outbreak of the secondIntifodo you stood ogoinst the prevoilingPolestinion public opinion by refusingond condemning suicide bombings.Would you exploin your stotement oboutthis?SN: I believe thot it's morolly untenobleto couse deoth by indiscriminotely killingcitizens, so I should never ollow myselfto lose my morol principle thot the killingshould not be done to my side ond notto the other side. I connot defend thekilling of Polestinian civilions if I connot- with the some meosure - condemn thekilling of Isroeli citizens withoutdistinguishing rclce, religion, gender oroge. In oddition to thot, I don't see thotthe use of violence in ony form, includingsuicide ottocks, fulfills o positive politicolfunction. Whot we should be seeking is

not to win over the other side, but to winthe other side over. We con do this byusing non-violent woys. After one yeorof coming out ogoinst suicide ottocksmony peopie, even the opposition, cometo see our point of view, becouse bycommitting violent octs in response toIsroeli incursion we octuolly serve theinterest of the incursion, which is whytherefore I coll for extreme self restrointfrom the Polestinion side.

OB: Are you optimistic obout the future?And do you hove foith thot o peocefulfuture con be creoted?SN: Optimism ond pessimism ore possive

stote of the mind, if you ore on onlooker.But for me os o Polestinion, I om not onobserver but on octor. The Polestinionscon influence the future, becouse thefuture con be determined occording toour will. I hove foith thot o peocefulfuture will come, ond the more peoplewho shore this foith in the existence oftwo stotes, such future will come obout.

These qre only selections fromthe fuIl interviews. To reod thefull interviews, please turn tohttp : //www. seedsofpea ce.or g Iolivebranch

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