Everyone wants peace. The Palestinian child growing up in a refugee camp, the Jewish mother raising her family in a settlement in the West Bank, the Hamas freedom fighter, the Israeli soldier, the Palestinian Israeli citizen, the secular Jew in Tel Aviv, and the Arab and Jewish students at Tufts University all want peace. All of them, however, have a different vision for how that peace can be achieved. In addition, with an increase in violence over the last few months, many who once spoke of peace have been pushed further towards the radical ends of their respective groups. It is exactly at this time that it is important to continue grassroots peace efforts.
Peace, for the purposes of this Viewpoint, does not mean a comprehensive plan for land appropriations and refugee repatriation. Instead, peace means an on-the-ground, humanitarian peace that must provide the foundation for any final, political agreement.
What does such a peace plan involve? A peace effort of this sort is only possible when people who are perceived as being on either of the two sides of the Arab-Israeli conflict have the opportunity to meet one another as human beings and to hear the ideas of the other group. This sounds like a ridiculous and over-idealistic proposal, and there is no doubt that peace is hard to achieve.
Real peace requires strangers to trust each other enough to share ideas. It means having heartfelt, angry, and difficult arguments that challenge your fundamental beliefs. It also means accepting that you and your people may have done wrong. It means finding a way to integrate new knowledge into your current, established system of understanding. Nobody claims that this type of peace process will make everyone friends. But one of the very core problems in the Arab-Israeli conflict is misunderstanding of and isolation from the humanity of the people on the "other side." The primary solution for this problem is to break down the barriers that separate people.
Founded in 1993, "Seeds of Peace" is an organization that enacts this very concept of peace. Every summer it brings together over 300 Israeli and Arab children in a summer camp in Maine to meet one another and learn conflict negotiation skills that will allow them to make peace in their communities. By teaching teenagers to trust and empathize with one another, they provide a foundation of educated leaders that will hopefully be the future of the governing bodies in Israel and the Arab countries.
Next Tuesday, Feb. 13, Tufts will have the opportunity to honor the founder of Seeds of Peace, John Wallach through EPIIC's presentation of the Dr. Jean Mayer Global Citizenship Award. At this event, students will have the opportunity to watch the newly released film, Peace of Mind. Five alumni of the Seeds of Peace program, three Israeli and two Palestinian teens, created this movie the year after they met at camp. They each took home video cameras and recorded their experiences keeping in touch with one another, meeting each others families, visiting each others villages, and supporting each other through tumultuous events during the year.
Former Seeds of Peace campers who are now studying in Boston and former and current counselors will also be at this event. It will be amazing to hear their success stories, but also to recognize the difficulties of their ongoing efforts. The movie Peace of Mind is an excellent look into the experience of real peace making and a tribute to the teenagers who have made the ongoing process of peacemaking part of their everyday lives.
Being the busy Tufts students that you are, of course it is natural for you to wonder why this is an important event to attend. Here is why - conflict and peace are not distant phenomena. The tension around the Arab-Israeli conflict is alive here at Tufts. It is clear that interest in and passion about the Arab-Israeli peace process exists on campus. During the fall semester, in the midst of new violence surrounding Israel, numerous campus organizations held vigils, rallies, and educational sessions to share their views of the situation in the Middle East. All these events were well attended. The Tufts Daily was flowing with Viewpoints in all directions.
All of these were positive steps, but in general, those who attended the events went only to hear about their own side. None of the efforts were co-sponsored by both the Arab and Jewish communities on campus. As a result, people left each event with more information to defend their own held point of view, but little understanding of what the other side might be thinking. This event will be the first to be co-sponsored by all of the Arab and Jewish organizations on campus.
Don't be fooled, the video presentation and award ceremony will not be the answer to all of the problems on the Tufts campus. Yet in the process of planning this event, leaders of the Arab Students Association, the Muslim Students Association, Hillel, and Friends of Israel have had the chance to meet and work together. They have begun to engage in efforts to bridge the gap between these groups within our own Tufts community. And they have agreed that Seeds of Peace is an organization that they are all enthusiastic to support. The event on Feb. 13 will provide an opportunity for Tufts students to understand the work required to engage in peaceful dialogue and provide us with the opportunity to learn from experts how to bring coexistence into our own community.
There is reason to believe that, although we will not draw up the final plan for the borders in Jerusalem, we will be able do something here at Tufts. As the Seeds of Peace motto states, "Treaties are negotiated by governments. Peace is made by people."
Mimi Feldman is a senior majoring in international relations and Judaic studies. She is part of the 2001 EPIIC program on Race and Ethnicity.
