Reality show brings hope for Mideast peace

PARIS – Twelve 18-year-olds, six of them Israeli and six Palestinians, are preparing to shut themselves up with a lot of filming equipment in a French villa. If it sounds like another peace plan, it is.

The reality show-type peace process is the brainchild of French director Mohammad Waled, who hopes to have enlisted the 12 participants in the project by this coming summer.

"The conflict has arrived in France," he says. "Once there is a struggle, a war, or an attack, it's felt here because of the identification of both communities, Jewish and Arab, who live here."

Waled, born to a Moroccan family in France, says the idea was a product of his work with Sophie Nordman, a citizen of both France and Israel.

Unlike its predecessor, the popular reality show 'Big Brother', the youths will not be filmed at all times. The cameras will focus mainly on the debates held over the pressing issues, and the audience will not be able to expel residents from the villa with text messages.

Participants in the show will take part in daily activities, and will receive advice from older participants.

"We don't want the agreements to be naïve and divorced from reality," Waled says. "But we do want to see if the youths can surprise us and come up with a compromise where adults have failed."

He adds, "It's symbolic and won't change anything significant, but it's a kind of thermometer that allows us to see how the younger generation feels and what can be done. I hope the last scene will be the handing of agreements to leaders on both sides."

The show, to be filmed at a villa in southern France, is expected to generate 10 episodes, 26 minutes each.