Hillel, SAS Discuss Middle East Conflict

In Boylston Hall last night, the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs Student Council (WCIASC), Harvard Hillel and the Society of Arab Students (SAS) came together to organize a panel discussion on the topic of "The End of War?: A Search for Lasting Middle-Eastern Peace."

Although the groups were discussing the long and often bloody conflict between Jews and Palestinians in the Middle East, the Ticknor Lounge discussion was calm and respectful, according to attendees.

Melissa W. Inouye '01, president of WCIASC, began the event with two videos that focused on the Arab-Israeli history.

The first outlined the ways in which Israel established independence and then fought to keep autonomy, while the second showed the Israeli settlement and the consequent expulsion of Palestinians.

Professor of the History of Science Evertt I. Mendelsohn, the panel moderator, discussed his own involvement in Middle Eastern politics.

"For about 30 years I've been involved in bringing groups of Palestinians and Israelis together to discuss key issues," he said.

He stressed that the important question facing the Middle East today is, "Can the principles annunciated at Oslo [in the Oslo Accords] come to fruition?"

David P. Honing '99, who was one of the panelists, said he was in Jerusalem when two Hamas terrorists went on a killing spree, shooting one of his friends. He said he became convinced at that time that peace was not possible.

Two years later, though, Honig was again in the area to watch the national elections. He regained faith in the idea of peace after a Palestinian guard protected him from terrorists.

According to Mohamad M. Al-Ississ '99-'00, president of SAS, "Our [the Palestinian] cause has been just and is just, and the facts will show it," he said.

Al-Ississ discussed the history of Israel as seen from the Palestinian perspective. He said Israelis have driven 750,000 Palestinians out of their homes.

"We wanted to live in peace with our neighbors," he said.

But this was impossible, he said, because of a 1947 United Nations accord giving 77 percent of land owned by Palestinians to Israel.

"The establishment of a Jewish state was a declaration of war," he said. "They gave rights to Jews that were denied to me."

Miriam B. Goldstein '99, another panelist, said she spent two years in an Arab village in 1997.

"I would like to talk about some of the positive things happening in the area," she said.

Goldstein said her family moved to an area in northern Jerusalem, where she met a number of Israeli and Arab families.

She stressed that neither side in the conflict was entirely faultless.

"No conflict would go on for 50 years if there was a simple right and a simple wrong," she said.

Sultan S. Yassin '01, who grew up in the West Bank, discussed the problems with the Oslo Accords, which he said he saw as "doomed to fail."

"We didn't see the [Israeli] withdrawals that we were promised," he said. "Even more settlement activity began under [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu."

He added that Oslo was still significant because each side, for the first time ever, officially recognized the other's existence.

Following the panel, some audience members stayed to exchange ideas with Mendelsohn and the panelists.

Joey Shabot '01, the co-organizer of the event, said he was pleased with the discussion.

"It will form the foundation for a positive relationship between Hillel and SAS," Shabot said.

The panel was the first segment of the panel series on "The End of War." The next event, on May 11, will focus on the success of integrated Arab-Israeli communities, Inouye said.