At UN, groups meet over joint Israeli-Palestinian projects

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UNITED NATIONS - Through years of conflict, Israeli and Palestinian young
people, environmentalists and emergency doctors have kept up contacts to try to save lives, share precious water resources and demonstrate that they can overcome hate.

At a panel discussion Monday sponsored by the U.S. government, voluntary organizations working on these issues on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict came together for the first time to talk about their quiet efforts to help promote peace in the Middle East in very different ways.

Seeds of Peace has brought together more than 2,000 Israeli and Arab teens in a U.S. summer camp and followed-up with activities at home to try to build a new generation of leaders who can work together. Good Water Neighbors has encouraged Israelis, Palestinians, and Jordanians in 11 towns that share water to work together to ensure that all people benefit and water isn't wasted.

Peace Through Health has trained close to 300 Israeli, Palestinian and American physicians and nurses in emergency care.

"We have people in all our activities who are tremendously committed to peace, whether it's in the medical profession, the environmental community, whether it's young people," Gidon Bromberg, Israeli director of Good Water Neighbors, said at the end of the nearly two-hour panel. "The opportunity is to network better for the betterment of peace."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/629551.html