Andrew Friedman, 17, is a Los Angeles high school student. At age 14 he had a dream and began "Cyberpeace: Youth Online for Peace in the Middle East," a non-profit organization to make Jewish-Arab peace a virtual reality. Andrew gave this talk a few weeks ago to help another endeavor, "Schools Online: Connecting The World One School At A Time," now focused on placing computers in schools in Gaza, West Bank, and Israel, to help young people bridge to one another. They are on the Web at http://www.schoolsonline.org and their e-mail address is info@schoolsonline.org Andrew's talk is a little long but worth your reading time. -- L&L

How Kids can use Computers for Peace

By Andrew Friedman Last week, as the news beamed familiar images of violence, stone-throwing, soldiers, anger, despair, and HATE into our living rooms, it became painfully clear to me how difficult it is for young Israelis and Palestinians in the Middle East to even talk to one another. Political, cultural, psychological, and geographical barriers conspire to keep them apart. Checkpoints, closures, and violence on both sides do the rest. But even amid all of the obstacles standing between them, technology, specifically the Internet and online communication, has emerged with the power to rekindle hope where it is lost and keep it alive where it is fading. NOTHING can stop young people on opposite sides of this conflict from meeting in cyberspace.

I started CyberPeace when I was 14 in 1995 because I wanted to open up the lines of communication between Arab and Israeli young people my age in the Middle East. I wanted to find a way for them to get to know each other in a safe and non-threatening environmentto be able to spend time with their counterparts on the other side without ever having to leave their classrooms.

The Internet seemed like the perfect, if not the only, means of connecting them personally to one another and getting beyond all the obstacles in the way. Now, with videoconferencing technology, it’s possible for my generation to literally meet and interact face-to-face no matter where they may be in the Middle East or the world.

CyberPeace initiated a small pilot program in three high schools in 1997 one Jewish-Israeli, one Palestinian, and one Arab-Israeli. The students corresponded regularly for several months, and what they said to each other gave me great hope that beyond all the stereotypes and prejudices, bad feelings and mistrust, even so-called enemies might be able to begin seeing each other for what they really areteenagers. Here’s an excerpt from one letter:

A group of Israeli students wrote to their Arab counterparts: “Hello, we are a group of 5 people and we are all from a Kibbutz. This week we have Purim, and we’re going to wear costumes. (Shira is going to be a rabbit!) Write us and we’ll answer you! Bye-bye.”

The Arabs responded: “Hello, we are a group of seven students from different places. We like very much to listen to music such as zohar, shava, elvis, spice girls, no doubt. We also like to watch a little bit T.V. At last we are interested to know other people from different places.

The Israelis then wrote: “Hi guys! It was so nice to hear from you. How are you?! We are writing to you instead of learning Physics, and that’s great! It’s Purim now and there will be a huge party, and everybody will wear their costumes. Shira will not go as a rabbit but as a cat (a purple one). Bye for now.”

The Arabs sent a reply: “Hi everybody. What a beautiful day we have here that makes us feel wonderful. What about your day? We wish you all happiness and a happy Seder night Pesach. It’s amazing thing that we have you our friend. Hi Shira, good for you, you won’t be regret for chosen that costumes. Bye for now, and we will keep in touch.”

It doesn’t matter if you’re Israeli, Palestinian, Jordanian or American, soccer is soccer, Titanic is Titanic. These are the kinds of things I think young people should be talking aboutfriends, hobbies, sports, food, movies, families, whatever, anything that might show them how much they really do have in common.

And I know they have much in commonall us young people dobecause I have many friends, Israeli, Palestinian, Jordanian, Egyptian, that I’ve made at the Seeds of Peace camp. Seeds of Peace is a program that’s been running a summer camp in Maine for the past six summers for Israeli and Arab teens from throughout the Middle East. It’s a combination of a regular summer camp experiencewith sports, canoeing, and all that fun stuffand an intensive coexistence and facilitation program. These can get pretty painful, a lot of hard feelings come out, but that’s what ultimately enables people to see past the hate they’ve been programmed withand to discover that “enemies” make much better teammates and friends.

CyberPeace donated a computer lab to Seeds of Peace this summer where campers learned how to use the Internet as a tool for keeping in touch, because the Internet is fast becoming their most vital channel of communication. It’s a lifeline in times of trouble, often their only direct connection to each other and the only means of preserving friendships forged at camp. Everyday I go online to check my e-mail, I’m bombarded by a flood of those “instant message” ringsthey’re all out there looking for each other, and in the Internet they’ve found a way to be together again, if not in the flesh, then at least virtually. Sometimes an e-mail is the difference between hope and despair:

My friend Adham is a Palestinian who lives in the West Bank. He met Shira, an Israeli, while at SOP in 1997 and they’ve been close friends ever since. This excerpt is from a letter to Shira he wrote during a closure of his town…

“I remember the sad day in the camp when we heard about the explosion that took place in Jerusalem. I remembered how we all shared sadness, sorry, and sympathy for all the victims and how we felt the outrage at everyone who commits such acts. In these days when people are killed in our region, we in the Palestinian autonomous areas are locked in like prisoners with complete closure of the area. It is to the point that medical supplies are not allowed in. A feeling of frustration and despair is growing all over. Shira, my friend from Israel, our communication is perhaps the only thing that still gives me hope and turns me away from anger, frustration, and despair.”

What would be if they didn’t have e-mail as their link to one another?

Shira wrote a poem recently about the role her e-mail plays in her life:

I haven’t checked for far too long my inbox where you all belong. I had no time and one more thing: I was afraid. I thought I’d find there things that I wouldn’t like, that would make me cry; I just believed I should postpone my destiny like on and onand then today, shaken to death, I took that deep, suspenseful breath. I opened up my e-account and here it is what I then found: A friendly message from a seed, proving he’s a friend indeed. So thank you Hazem and Sami too, for making it so bright and true. I think I learned too more than ever, a Seed of Peace is a Seed wherever.

A big part of that wherever is the fact that they can rely on the Internet.

Another Jordanian friend (Saad) of mine wrote in to the rest of the Seeds of Peace family:

“Hello everyone, it has been a painful two weeks not being able to communicate with anyone, but as you can see, I am back online. I have just spent the past half-hour reading some of the 238 messages people put up while I was away. You guys are doing a great job of keeping in touch and I hope that this continues throughout the year. It is very important for people to be constantly reminded of their friendships at SOP so that if they encounter any trouble at home, they will always have these friendships to fall back on.”

I want to expand the possibilities of these friendships, to make the hopeful reality of camp a virtual reality, accessible at any time from anywhereand to a whole new group of kids who will never have the chance to come to camp in Maine.

I see a large network installed in as many schools as possible. I want to integrate dialogue into curricula throughout the Middle East, to foster meaningful interaction through cooperative and collaborative projects. I see Arabs and Israelis working together on joint school assignments, researching information together, and combining their ideas to produce projects that represent both an Israeli and Arab perspective. I see all this happening in a flourishing virtual community, where coexistence is the way of life. And the best part is, that’s all possible today.

I’m glad we’re all here to start realizing these possibilities.

CyberPeace
E-mail: info@cyberpeace.org
Web: http://www.cyberpeace.org