The Other
Palestine
♦Jane and Max Carter lead
Palestine
BY OLIVIA L. RIORDAN
World/Back Page Editor
Palestinian youths throw
rocks and Israeli soldiers shoot
rubber-coated bullets every night
on TV sets around the world. But
that's not the whole story of the
West Bank. There are everyday
people, Israeli and Palestinian, who
try to live everyday lives.
These everyday people were
the ones seen by the Carter family
and five Guilford students on the
Middle East workcamp from June
23, 1997 to July 14, 1997. The
first week was spent working at the
Ramallah Friends Schools. The par
ticipants did landscaping around
the new science building, removed
rubble and debris, cleaned the
Friends meetinghouse yard and
even worked on the Friends Play
Center for 5-year-olds in the Amari
Refugee camp.
The second week of the trip
was focused on learning about the
Middle East through the eyes of
Palestinians and Israelis in addi
tion to providing physical labor to
the Friends in the area. The Ameri
cans were joined by two Palestin
ian high school students. The
North Korea
This fall's harvests are ex
pected to be merely one eighth
of the normal yield. In this third
year of poor harvests, 37% of
North Korean children suffer
malnutrition. Aid is coming in
from South Korea, China, Ja
pan, and the United States.
Afghanistan
Taliban, a rural Islamic
fundamentalist militia, seized
The Guilfordian World August 20, 1997
student summer trip to
group visited Neve Shalom, an in
tentional community of Israeli
Jews and Palestinians. They spoke
with people like Adli Dana, an ad
ministrator at Bir Zeit University—
a school that was closed down for
4 years during the intifada in
which many of their students were
killed.
During the last week of the
trip the students travelled to Gali
lee, Bethlehem, Jacob's Well,
Masada, the
Dead Sea, Jeri
cho, and Jerusa
lem.
In Hebron,
on a visit to the
Palestinian In
ternational
Youth League
and the Chris
tian Peace
maker Teams,
the work-camp
ers came out of
the marketplace
and one block
away they saw the Molotov cock
tails, rocks, and rubber-coated bul
lets flying.
Max Carter describes the scene:
"On one side were the Palestinians
and on the other were the Israeli sol-
control of two thirds of Afghani
stan last fall and banned educa
tion for women and girls. For the
roughly 1.8 million Afghan refu
gees in Pakistan the education of
females is still difficult. Due to lack
of funds, only 4,000 girls (and
35,000 boys) are receiving elemen
tary instruction.
Kenya
Thirty people were killed last
week in Kenyan towns near the
Indian Ocean. These murders are
possibly intended to force out
"On one side were the Pal
estinians and on the other were
the Israeli soldiers and in the
middle with their boom mikes and
cameras, was the international
press corps...it's a spectator
sport."—Max Carter
Fast F
The Middle East workcampers overlooking Jerusalem.
diers and in the middle with their
boom mikes and cameras, was the
international press corps ... it's a
spectator sport."
They were
then stopped by
an Israeli patrol
who said to the
Christian Peace
maker Teams "I
admire your ef
forts, but this is
not the time for
peacemaking."
Max Carter de
scribed this inci
dent and much
of their time in
the Middle East
as "surreal."
Sophomore Lisa Lundeen
learned from the many speakers
and people she met on the trip that
"peace is a process, not just an end
result. It's relevant to Guilford —
do what's right for you with the
people from tribes that usually do
not support President Daniel arap
Moi's ruling Kenyan African Na
tional Union Party before upcom
ing general elections.
Russia
The Mir space station encoun
tered more difficulties on Monday
when a computer malfunction in
terrupted data input from mission
control near Moscow. Thus the
docking exercise of the unmanned
Progress cargo capsule is post
poned. This most recent difficulty
faith that you are working to make
a difference."
When asked if she was hope
ful about the future of peace in the
Middle East, Lisa Lundeen was
rather pessimistic. Although she
met some of the most hopeful and
moderate Israelis and Palestinians,
she worried about the power of
terrorism because it is deemed
"newsworthy."
Max Carter felt hopeful about
the long-term future of Peace in
the Middle East: "When I was there
in the early '7os Golda Meir was
the prime minister and she was
saying 'There are no Palestinians.'
Now I've seen worst enemies shake
hands."
In the short term, like most of
the people he met, Max Carter be
lieves that things will get worse. In
the autonomous regions condi
tions have worsened since the Oslo
peace accords.
occured after the June 25 dock
ing accident where the Spektr
research module was damaged.
Bosnia
On Monday, NATO sol
diers intervened in a conflict
between rival Bosnian Serb po
lice. Bosnian Serb President
Biljana Plavsic's supporters
seized a building supposedly
used to tap her phone lines.
The rival hard-line nationalists
then surrounded the building.
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