Two sets of teenagers, one a multiethnic Israeli group and the other a group
of Iraqis studying in the United States, are holding a “peace summit” today
using a high-definition videoconferencing system supplied by LifeSize and
Codian, and set up by integrator RJ Macklin.
The summit is sponsored by the University
of Denver’s Institute for the Study of
Israel in the Middle East (ISIME), which is devoted to pursuing peace in the Middle East.
Executive Director Professor Shaul Gabbay and human rights activist Barb Vogel
helped 25 Iraqi high school students visiting the University of Denver begin a
dialogue of mutual respect and understanding with teens in Israel. Gabbay noted,
“Our ‘Building Bridges for Peace HD Videoconference’ allows us to bring teenagers
together from Iraq and Israel for
the first time in history.”
The Israeli students are teenagers from the Galilee and the Negev regions of
Israel,
from Arab, Jewish and Christian backgrounds. They traveled to facilities in Tel
Aviv where Shaul Amir, the ISIME Israel Director, is facilitating the dialogue.
The Iraqi students, who are guests of ISIME on the University
of Denver campus, are in Denver on the Iraqi Youth
Leaders Exchange Program sponsored by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural
Affairs of the US State Department.
The relationship between Israel
and Iraq
has been a challenging one since 1948. From the early stages of Iraqi and
Israeli statehood, relations between the two countries have remained at best
hostile. After enduring two wars (1948 and 1967) and strategic missiles volleys
from both sides (1981 and 1991), the states of Israel
and Iraq
matured as enemies, and, to this day, the two countries have yet to reconcile
their differences.
