In spite of the difficult feelings that events of the past year have fostered, Seeds of Peace held their camp in Otisfield, Maine. This summer was a bit different than the other summers. Rita from Afula explained that "during other times, the sessions were being held in normal times with Palestinians. This summer, the sessions were being held on the background of war without the Palestinians". Arab teens that participated in the camp came from Jordan, Egypt and Israel.

There were returning Israeli Arab Seeds of Peace participants and there were also first time Israel Arab participants. Also among the Jewish participants, were teens on a return visit and others there for the first time. Ten "Seeds" were from Afula-Gilboa. This summer the camp gave the returning participants two co-existence sessions each day instead of one. One session was for verbal discussion and the other for expressing co-existence issues through art.

Rita and Maya told us that having the Seeds of Peace Camp this past summer was absolutely the most appropriate thing to do given the situation. The camp experience gave the participants hope and strength in facing the future together in Israel. There was a strong positive echo in different places from the significant work the Seeds of Peace Teens are doing.

One journalist commented that our Rita upstaged former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell at a fundraising meeting in Maine. Just this past Friday, August 24, 2001 there was an article on the Seeds of Peace in The Jerusalem Post with a picture of some of the Seeds with Secretary of Defense Colin Powell and Maya from Gan Ner in the Gilboa region is standing next to Secretary Powell.

  Tishrei 5762 - September 2001