July 30, 2006
Albuquerque Journal Santa Fe
by Erica Cordova
GLORIETA - Maya Hochstadter tightly squeezed the hand of her new friend, Raz Ben-Ari, tears streaming down her face, as the girls spoke Wednesday of their fears about returning home to Israel. They both had just completed three weeks in the peaceful confines of Glorieta’s Creativity for Peace camp, which each year brings together a mix of Palestinian and Israeli youths.
For Hochstadter, the latest round of violence in the Middle East struck close to home.
Back in Israel, her friend Hadas, also 16 years old, learned a couple of weeks ago that her brother - Cpl. Gilad Shalit, 19 - had been kidnapped when Palestinian militants crossed into southern Israel from Gaza.
In response, Israeli soldiers pushed their way into Gaza seek- ing Shalit’s release - part of a sequence that has included war along the Israel-Lebanon border. Shalit is believed to remain in militants’ hands.
“At first we didn’t know if he was killed or kidnapped,” Hochstadter said. “It was hard. It takes time to sink in.”
The peace camp is sponsored by the nonprofit Creativity for Peace, co-founded by Rachel Kaufman of Glorieta. It is in its fourth year on a 55-acre site in the foothills of Glorieta Mesa.
Its goal: to promote understanding among Israeli and Palestinian youths.
For several girls, it was the first time they’d been face to face with someone from “the other side.”
And no time was wasted.
During art classes, intense sessions known as “dialogues” and other camp events, the 12 Palestinian and Israeli girls expressed their fears, spoke of the dangers they face at home and worked to gain each other’s trust.
This year’s camp faced unusual difficulties.
Participants were in New Mexico when the differences the camp tries to overcome provoked another round of violence in their part of the world.
Enjoying surroundings
Working her hands in clay on July 9, the second day of camp, Diana Fraija, a Palestinian from Tulkarem, created a pot that featured impressions of her fingerprints to take home to her village.
Later, she and the other girls would spread out in a circle and work on a project called “One Bowl Serves Many.”
Each girl made a coil to add to a large pot that was fired with shades of purple, green and yellow.
“The place here is so beautiful,” said Fraija after the girls finished the pot, intended as a symbol of peace and reconciliation. “No soldiers. No checkpoints. It’s exciting. I feel like I’m dreaming. I don’t want to go back. I want to stay here.”
Not everything at camp is about war and peace. The girls exchanged banter about who would win the World Cup final between France and Italy. “I just don’t understand, it’s just a couple of guys running around with a ball. They don’t even look good. They are just sweaty,” said Sivan Keden - Israeli, Jewish and a camp leader. After the pot was finished, the girls walked to their quarters to relax before a hike. Fraija and Jwana Ghaleb
Mohammad, also Palestinian, paired up to talk about the violence back home.
“It’s the first time we meet an Israeli girl,” Fraija said. “We can’t just imagine how they are. It’s so nice to be around them.”
Fraija said she felt much older than her age.
“I’m only 16, but I feel like a much older woman,” she said. She said soldiers back home are constantly setting up checkpoints, raiding homes with their weapons and randomly arresting people.
“All of my relatives are refugees,” Fraija said.
She said she almost felt guilty for spending time in America.
“There are millions of them (Palestinians) that haven’t experienced peace. They will never know what peace means. They will never feel that.”
Ghaleb Mohammad, who wore a black and white shemagh, a shawl-like symbol of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, said she consoled herself by talking about the suffering in her country.
“I want to send a message as a Palestinian person that we want our peace,” she said. “I like my land. I don’t leave my land.”
Her eyes teared up as she talked about her cousin, who was almost killed after going to an Internet cafe. She said soldiers raided the cafe and “they killed two, and my cousin got to the hospital injured.”
“We want our freedom. We want our freedom,” she said.
Close to home
Midway through camp, Sylvia Margia, a staff coordinator, learned that her own two children were in danger in northern Israel.
Margia said her ex-husband was taking care of her children - Jhony, 12, and Aia, 7 - when Hezbollah-fired rockets started falling near his home close the Israel-Lebanon border. She advised him to take the children to Nazareth with her mother, only to find out later that the town was another target of the rockets.
“I talked to my parents and my family to be sure that they are reporting to me,” Margia said with tears in her eyes, debating whether she should go home.
Margia has volunteered with Creativity for Peace for the last two years. Part of her job is to recruit girls ages 15 to 17 for the camp.
Margia said this session was more difficult than last year’s because of the war.
She and Anael Harpez, the other camp coordinator from northern Israel, said they were afraid for their children and feared that their homes might be destroyed and that campers would be in danger upon their return.
“I never imagined this,” Harpez said. “I’m scared about losing the people that I love.”
Harpez will stay in America for three more weeks to help with a second Creativity for Peace session with 12 more Israeli and Palestinian girls.
She said her son telephoned her and advised her to stay in New Mexico until the war is over.
“I can’t go back home,” Harpez said. “Where I live, rockets have fallen every day. I’m staying for the second camp and I’ll decide what I’ll do after that.” On one outing, the girls went bowling in Santa Fe. Margia and another camp “mother” who sat at a table together watching the girls were worried about the war but happy that the girls seemed to be enjoying themselves. Liat Esther, 15, from Kibbutz Kfar Hanassi in northern Israel, gave a high five to Fraija, her new Palestinian friend. They danced to music playing in the background as other campers bowled. “We have a lot of fun together,” Esther said. “I love these girls. They are amazing girls. I just enjoy being around everyone. I always have fun with them. It doesn’t matter what we do.” But home remains heavy on her mind. “I have friends that are in Israel right now,” Esther said. “There is bombing. I’m really worried.” Esther said that in northern Israel, each house must have a bomb shelter. “It feels wrong sometimes,” Esther said. “I feel safe right now, but I feel like I should be with my mom and friends. It’s a bit scary right now, but I know we’ll be OK. At least we have shelters.” Rawan Khatib, an Israeli Arab, said she feels “stuck in the middle.” “We are Arab Israeli people. We were raised in Israel, but our roots are Palestinian,” Khatib said. “We are mixed from both sides.” “There is discrimination, I can’t deny that,” Khatib said. She uses the example that peo
Budding friendships
‘Stuck in the middle’
‘Stuck in the middle’
ple who are of Arab descent can’t hold certain military jobs. “The Jewish people just don’t trust the Arabs there,” Khatib said. “Even if the Arab person is much better and knows how to do (something), they won’t choose the Arabs.” Baraa Darawshe, another Israeli Arab camper, said it’s hard for Arab girls who live in Israel to get into universities. “The government doesn’t want a high percentage of us in colleges. The government made it harder for us,” Darawshe said. “They (increased) the grades that are needed for certain fields like medicine. It’s almost impossible to go to college.” Darawshe said Arabs who live in Israel are proud of their
roots, but it’s difficult to show it.
“The flag doesn’t represent us,” Darawshe said. “The flag represents Jewish people, but we are not (all) Jewish. We are Muslim, we are Christians, we are Jews.” But both girls said they are happy to live in Israel because “we are not suffering compared to the Palestinians living on the other side.”
“To Jewish people we are suffering, to Palestinians we are living a good life,” Darawshe said. “In Palestine, every day people get killed. They are not living. They are spending their life scared of the tanks or that they are going to be killed at any hour or any minute.”
A life lesson
At Wednesday’s closing ceremony, Ben-Ari volunteered to sing a peace song.
She said she’d heard that at least three rockets had hit her town: “The government has some kind of (military facility) there so they are always bombing.”
The girls paired up and exchanged written wishes for their new friends, dug a hole and placed them near a peace pole.
Most of the girls sobbed, tightly hugging each other as they prepared to go their sepa
rate ways. They formed a circle around “Big Mama,” an adobe figure of a woman they’d made out of Mother Earth.
Asked what they’d learned, Majd Melham, a Palestinian, said, “I learned that I shouldn’t judge people.”