Arab Student Group Must Meet Jews Half Way

To the editors:

In “Arab Society Cancels Event With Pro-Israeli Group,” (News, Oct. 9), current Harvard Students for Israel (HSI) President David B. Adelman ’04 suggests that the Society of Arab Students’ (SAS) bitter feelings towards HSI dates back to rallies two years ago. In fact, SAS has consistently refused to formally co-sponsor an event (neither social nor dialogue) with HSI at least as far back as my first year in 1998, as was evidenced by the article “Harvard Students for Israel Clarifies Stance” in The Crimson, Oct. 20, 2000 which chronicled HSI’s open invitation to SAS to change its policy. This time SAS’s excuse is that the proposed idea would be “completely social, fake and uncomfortable.” If a “completely social” event with HSI is necessarily “fake” (whatever that means), isn’t that all the more reason to get past the first and move on to the second, which might be more genuine? When the SAS president claims that she “support[s] dialogue,” does she only mean dialogue with those with whom she agrees? Perhaps it is time for the members of SAS to recognize that the most initially “uncomfortable” encounters are often the most valuable; certainly, this is such an instance.

Jonathan Gribetz ’02

Oxford, England

Oct. 9, 2002

The writer is a former president of HSI.