AMSTERDAM/NEW YORK: Stenciled silhouettes of a boy s face, freshly spray-painted in red and black, peered down on us from almost every other corner as we walked through the streets of Dheisheh refugee camp in the West Bank. We saw the image on children s necklaces, sewn into flags and on the walls of dilapidated living rooms. In a camp of over 16,000, he was everywhere, and yet remained a mystery to us.
Eventually, we discovered that the 14-year-old had been shot and killed in the middle of the refugee camp because he was out past a military-imposed curfew. The death reverberated through the camp and still echoes in the present. The tragedy is, unfortunately, one of countless senseless losses that afflicted both Palestinians and Israelis during the second intifada.
Although the most recent bombing has stopped in Gaza, the effects of the conflict will continue, especially among the most vulnerable part of the population – youth.
According to an August 2006 study by Queen s University, 98 percent of the children in Gaza have witnessed the death of a close family member, been tear gassed or had their homes searched. The number of children experiencing post-traumatic stress and other related disorders often goes uncounted in a society that is also struggling to heal from the physical and psychological effects of violence. It is difficult to imagine how this generation will find a peaceful way forward.
Of course, there have been several non-profit organizations and individuals striving to make the future more positive than the past. Individuals and groups have been working to empower change in the region for decades. Successful projects must be replicated and their impact multiplied.
Last summer, along with several American friends, we organized the I Have a Dream summer camp in the West Bank in an effort to assist Palestinian children realize their potential to improve their situation and become agents of change in Palestinian society. The camp was sponsored by the 100 Projects for Peace Foundation.
As we worked with Palestinian teenagers in the West Bank, we noticed that violent games were much more prevalent than amongst American youth, especially ones with toy guns and hitting, a by-product of living in a region where, unfortunately, violence is a way of life for many.
In order to provide these young people (ages 10 to 14) with alternatives to war games, we used art, media and sports as mediums through which campers could proactively take steps to make peace and stability a day-to-day reality in their lives. For example, workshops on acting and art, hosted by Palestinian-American actress Maysoon Zayid, allowed the students to step into different roles, such as being asked to act like the opposite gender when discussing their dreams.
Another session, hosted by Soliya, a program that connects youth in the Muslim world to those in the West through technology, engaged the children through web camera conversations with facilitators in Morocco and New York to discuss the internet as a vehicle of communication.
At the height of the second intifada in 2002, our campers were seven or eight years old and spent more than half of the next five years at home instead of school. The children of Gaza have also found their schooling disrupted during times of intense fighting.
By providing these youth with a combination of leadership skills and avenues for constructive expression, we hope these camps help young people to gain agency over their lives, to feel like the future can be more positive than the past and that anything is possible.
The campers embraced our challenge of thinking of positive avenues for the future, such as expressing their hopes in poetry and hip hop and getting closer to their communities through sports like basketball.
Our project aims to get past the politics that prevent parties from making any true headway in securing a sustainable and just peace. It is paramount to empower the voices that beckon change, voices that not only seek an end to conflict, but a beginning to the process of reconciliation. We see our project as a representation of these goals. We see it as a foil to the current divisions and politics that are alienating Palestinians and the younger generation within their society.
Although the conflict in Gaza has stopped, it will have long-term repercussions. Now, more than ever, children must be given the tools to make the dream of a peaceful future a reality.
Hammad Hammad and Rod Solaimani are recent graduates of the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service. Solaimani is an analyst at Merrill Lynch and Hammad is a Fulbright scholar in the Netherlands. This article was written for the Common Ground News Service (CGNews).
