(Summary of an email received)
An Assimilation Weekend:North American camps for the Middle East public peace process
Dr. Harold Saunders, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State, founder of International Institute for Sustained Dialogue says that “peace negotiations fail because leaders (and citizens) are unwilling to go down a path where they can’t see the end.” More than a dozen camp-like summer programs in North America, helping Palestinian and Jewish youth travel the road to friendship and cooperation, demonstrate what life will be like not far down the road. Four days in January, 2005, 26 camp leaders — Palestinians, Israelis, Americans, Canadians — met in Kalamazoo, Michigan for the first time as guests of the Fetzer Institute. Their proceedings and collective social intelligence were diligently recorded by journalist Alexandra Wall. The resulting first-of-its-kind 71-page illustrated document (PDF, 692 kb) of human experience, concrete methods and inspiration is now freely available for everyone’s use. We hope this landmark document will improve camps and energize relationship-building activities everywhere to become the best they can be, for the good of all.
