* * * FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE * * * MIDDLE EAST PEACE * * *

First-ever meeting of North American camps
for the Middle East public peace process

          For the first time in history, leaders of increasing numbers of North American camps that bring together alienated Middle East youth will gather to learn what can end war and increase cooperation. An Assimilation Weekend: North American Camps for the Middle East Public Peace Process convenes January 28-31, 2005 in Kalamazoo, Michigan at the Seasons Retreat Center.

          These camps, intended to help transform Palestinian and Israeli teens from enemies into partners, began in 1993 with Seeds of Peace in Maine, followed a year later by Building Bridges for Peace in Colorado. There are now over a dozen annual camps, including Peace Camp Canada, Peace It Together, Kids4Peace, and Oseh Shalom~Sanea al-Salam Family Peacemakers Camp.

          "Each camp has a different personality, " says Maha Gebara, co-founder of the Seattle Middle East Children's Peace Camp. "Yet our common experience of shared humanity is in our face-to-face, life changing relationship building with a new quality of compassionate listening to one another." In safe, natural environments, campers come to realize "an enemy is one whose story we have not heard."

          This is the "public peace process" defined by Dr. Harold Saunders, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State, and facilitator of the Camp David Accords. Saunders asks citizens to participate fully in partnership with governments, noting, “There are some things that only governments can do, such as negotiating binding agreements. But there are some things that only citizens outside government can do, such as changing human relationships."

          "These camp experiences could reveal the single greatest source of new social intelligence for the Middle East public peace process," said Libby and Len Traubman, meeting facilitators and co-founders of the 12-year-old Jewish-Palestinian Living Room Dialogue in California, the oldest Sustained Dialogue of its kind.

          A press gathering will follow this historic meeting with these camp leaders from Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Canada, and the U.S. on Monday, January 31, 1:00 p.m. at the Seasons Retreat Center, in Kalamazoo, MI. Information is on the Web at:

http://traubman.igc.org/campconf.htm
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CONTACT:

Libby and Len Traubman
1448 Cedarwood Drive, San Mateo, CA 94403
LTraubman@igc.org --Tel: 650-574-8303

Friday-Monday, January 28-30
At Seasons Retreat Center, Fetzer Institute
9292 West KL Avenue, Kalamazoo, MI 49004-9398
Tel: 269-375-2000 x501 -- Fax: 269-372-2163