Youths celebrate Oslo accords

JERUSALEM, Aug. 25 (JTA) — The political process might be stalemated — but don’t tell the children. On Tuesday, hundreds of Israelis, Palestinians, Jordanians and Lebanese youths celebrated the fifth anniversary of the Oslo accords in the Jordanian town of Naharayim. The Lebanese who participated in the ceremony were children of workers in Israel and other Lebanese who have contact with Israelis. Defying an explicit ban by Israel’s Education Ministry, children from some of Israel’s youth movements also took part in the ceremony. The ministry had banned the participation of Israeli youth on the grounds that it could not vouch for their safety. The ceremony was also attended by two families of the seven girls from the Israeli town of Beit Shemesh who were killed by a Jordanian soldier in 1996 while visiting Naharayim, which is called the “Island of Peace.” But Danny Va’aknin, the mayor of Beit Shemesh, refused to attend the ceremony. Israel was represented by Public Security Minister Avigdor Kahalani.