Up Front
Left: Watching the presenta-
tion: More than 100 attend-
ed Sunday's event.
Below: Congressman Joe
Knollenberg, seated, listens to
the speakers.
governments based on their English
skills and their potential to become
future leaders.
Seeds of Peace, which was recog-
nized at the 1993 signing of the Oslo
Accords, has been endorsed by such
leaders as Bill Clinton, Binyamin
Netanyahu, Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon
Peres and Yassir Arafat.
things to people," he
said.
Khayyat and Shani
Raz-Silbiger, 14, of
Jerusalem, were in
Detroit this week pro-
moting Seeds of Peace, a
camp in Maine that
brings together Jews and
Arabs from around the
Middle East to learn
conflict-resolution tech-
niques. Because of their
leadership potential and
English skills, both
teens were among a delegation select-
ed by their governments to participate
in the camp.
Although a supporter of the peace
process before she went to camp, Raz-
Silbiger, who is Jewish, said Seeds of
Peace enabled her to see different per-
spectives.
"I realized that not all Palestinians
3/6
1998
10
The organization operates on a $1
million annual budget and is funded
primarily by individual and corporate
donors. Sunday's event was sponsored
by Tribute restaurant, British
Petroleum and the Detroit Medical
Center. ❑
---m, e -- aft, er'WZ
.,-------,---,----:--ca
5
e
For Raz,
urning point
er
Jerusalem's
"It was a
!
gfr
sa ve r t hat
too,"
ab
Ar
e a e m
t s o r tocf Y 4 ErTYi
0° ernerhtil
e n e t e s du
n A w ° rab
reha e..I f c. s t tnber r e aeli
s,
co mforted a the
)e w owev*e
. . tn m ehsfts w
b g a i Y
e i a , hee ic eetn eb t n °u*
° t ' bdns 01
" A
a. s4Ith:
da e4 l
after; kazt_rsiieisb•igei.. e d n
h °ni
cietal
i" enccoe
-- ur calls
a f r o m
Israeli Shani .Raz-Silbiger and
Palestinian Abdasalam Khaiyat
shared their Seeds of Peace experiences
with Detroiters.
are bad and that some want peace.
That's not what you see at home on
TV," she said.
to
°
his
fr ien d s and
l s ,
after
nks M a Naan
ine. )Iau 1 oh ' al gd a
the “i i n e stesnan
se hard to israeus,
Seeds 0
of Peace with some of my nen
s aid
were
ra eyy p a u tt. i “ n m jail by
Khayyat. "My uncle was lulled by
hard time : e g oing
P ennt b h a pa a
Israeli soMiers, and my grandmother
fled Haifa in 1948, so it's hard to
share the function of Seeds of Peace
- ,Arith them. But some of my friends
now agree with me and want to go to
Seeds of Peace. Other friends still ask
how I can talk to Jews."
Raz-Silbiger had it easier.
When I came back, my family
was also for peace so they saw my per-
spective. But some people said 'How
could you be with Arabs? They bomb
us,'" she recalled.
Both Raz-Silber and Khayyat hope
to go into politics and are cautiously
optimistic that their generation -- at
least the ones who share the Seeds of
Peace experience — will bring peace
to the region.
"My grandparents still live in war,
but we have to build a future," said
Kha.yyat. "Making war is easier than
making peace. Peace is hard and takes
a lot of time." t
r -