Visiting Teens Share Stories of Middle East

[complete article reproduced from The Boston Globe]

Author(s): ERICA NOONAN Date: January 17, 2002 Page: 1 Section:
West

Young ambassadors from the Israeli village Neve Shalom, translated from
Hebrew as "Oasis of Peace," visited with students and their parents from the
Rashi School in Newton last week.

The visitors, Rami Manaa and Ori Sonnen schein, both 17, were raised in the
village, which is home to 50 Israeli and Palestinian families. Located
between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, the community was founded by a Dominican
priest in 1972 as a way for Muslims and Jews to raise their families together
in peace. This was the first year the village chose to send teenagers on its
annual 10-day Oasis of Peace tour to five American cities, said organizer
Deanna Armbruster. Newton’s Rashi School was the final stop, where Manaa and
Sonnenschein discussed their upbringing and day-to-day lives with students
from all grades.

"They wanted to know everything: what we eat, what we do at school,
everything," said Sonnenschein, who plans to enter the Israeli Army next year.
In an evening forum, the boys met with Rashi parents to discuss politics,
including the recent escalating violence in the Middle East.
Manaa, a Palestinian who hopes to enter a university next year, said it was
exciting to meet with Newton parents, most of whom have few opportunities to
talk with Arabs living in Israel.

"It was a really amazing visit," Manaa said. "The kids had some interesting
questions, but it was their parents who wanted to talk about what the
Palestinians are going through. Some of them don’t know what’s happening, and
they don’t always understand the reasons the Palestinians are struggling. It
was very interesting to me."

Neve Shalom, called "Wahat Al-Salem" in Arabic, has the only recognized
bilingual and bicultural primary school in Israel, accommodating more than
300 Jewish and Palestinian students each year.