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Summer Camp Unites Young Palestinians from West Bank and Israel, August 22, 2007

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AdvocacyNet
News Bulletin 119, August 22, 2007
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Beit Sahour, West Bank: About 150 young Palestinians from the West Bank and Israel spent 10 days relaxing in each other's company, learning new and constructive ways to cope with the pressures of life under occupation and discovering their common Palestinian identity at an unusual summer camp that ended last Friday in Beit Sahour, near Bethlehem.
 
The camp was a joint initiative of Palestinian-Israeli civil society, and was organized by the Alternative Information Center (AIC), a Palestinian-Israeli group, and the Palestinian Union of Health Work Committees (UHWC). Advocacy Project Peace Fellow Amali Tower, who is volunteering with AIC this summer, helped with promotion.
 
The camp is now in its third year and its approach differs markedly from conventional summer camps, which try to sew the seeds of peace by bringing Palestinian and Israeli children together on neutral ground outside the region.
 
In sharp contrast, the AIC-UHWC camp acknowledges that young Palestinians have also been divided by the conflict and offers them a chance to meet inside the West Bank. Merely organizing the camp challenges the status quo, since residents of Israel face up to three years in jail for entering the West Bank or Gaza Strip.
 
The goal of last week's camp was to give participants exposure to life on both sides of the divided border, encourage them to identify common problems, and work out solutions together. In addition, said Ms Tower, the camp aimed to reduce the "stress and pressure that comes from occupation and the lack of mobility."
 
The participants were aged between 14 and 20, and were given a chance to develop their leadership capacities and acquire new skills and knowledge through workshops, tours, theater, music, films, hiking, swimming, poetry, art, writing, political discussions and cultural evenings. The camp also explored religion and history at Bethlehem's Nativity Church and offered a tour of Hebron.
 
Workshops underscored the importance of education, even though young Palestinians are increasingly disillusioned about the value of school at a time of soaring unemployment.
 
"We wanted to break through the walls created by the Israeli occupation," said Ahmad Abu Haniya, Coordinator of the AIC youth group in Beit Sahour. "No less importantly, we wanted to breach the subsequent walls in thinking and expose youth, both girls and boys, to a plurality of ideas and provide them with structured opportunities to explore crucial issues such as personal identity, gender, leadership and social responsibility."
 
Work on the camp began four months ago, and the 20 counselors were carefully selected and trained, to ensure that the camp reflected the values of democracy, equality and leadership responsibility. "Camp counselors held elections and the camp [was] run democratically with an emphasis on participation and consensual decision making. The assimilation of these concepts is critical for our youth and the future of Palestinian society," said Nassar Ibrahim, Policy Director of AIC.
 
Meanwhile, a committee of Palestinian, Israeli and international activists has formed a steering committee to begin updating the 2003 Bilbao Declaration, an alternative agenda for peace that was drafted in 2003 by 20 Israeli and Palestinian organizations.
 
More than 100 Israeli and Palestinian activists met in Bethlehem last month under the auspices of four civil society groups, including AIC, to review the Bilbao Declaration in the light of the past three years. Such efforts to involve civil society on both sides have been extremely rare since the outbreak of the intifada in 2001.

• For a video of last week's summer camp, visit AIC's website.
• For more information about AIC, visit their partner page
• Read Amali Tower's blogs

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