Bruin Walk served as a stage for discussion, debate and dispute
among members of the pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian communities
last week.
On the way to class, students were given a peek into the
tumultuous world of the Middle East ““ and the underlying
emotions, passion and pride that fill students from the two
communities.
The week consisted of several events ““ put on by a
coalition of student groups including Students for Justice in
Palestine, Muslim Student Association and MEChA ““ aimed at
informing the campus of the Middle East situation and the
conditions Palestinians face. Several pro-Israeli supporters also
attended the events to present their thoughts on the issues.
Though pro-Palestinians congregated on one side of Bruin Walk
while supporters of Israel gathered on the other, it was not
uncommon to see small groups of students ““ with some holding
Israeli flags and the others wearing “Free Palestine”
shirts ““ engrossed in discussion with each other.
At times, emotions took over and tempers flared, but for the
most part, students on both sides said they came a step closer to
understanding each other and were able to establish a key component
to a positive relationship between the two sides: dialogue.
“We were able to meet in the middle of Bruin Walk and
discuss issues,” said Norah Sarsour, an event organizer for
the week and vice president of Students for Justice in
Palestine.
“Now we have established that we recognize them and they
recognize us. … Now that (recognition) has been established, I
think we both understand each other’s viewpoints, and from
this point we can hopefully start molding some sort of
solution,” she said.
Tom Carpel, a member of the pro-Israeli community, said he was
pleased to find common ground with pro-Palestinian students during
various discussions last week.
“When I spoke to a lot of people, they said, “˜Wow, I
really like what you’re saying and I agree with you.’
… I was happy to find a few people on the pro-Palestine side who
I could agree with,” he said.
He cited a peaceful resolution and a two-state solution, where
both Israelis and Palestinians would be given land, as ideas which
many students from both sides agreed upon.
But when discussions turned to the root of the conflict and
which side is responsible for the current situation in the Middle
East, students found themselves unable to reach an agreement.
“When you start with the accusations and the core of the
conflict, that’s how it gets to be negative,” said
Gilad Shoham, an Israeli working with Hillel at UCLA to educate
students on Judaism and Israel. “There are some things you
can never agree on, such as who’s to blame (for the
situation).”
Thursday saw a tense atmosphere build on Bruin Walk ““ with
high tempers, stereotypes thrown around as personal weapons, and in
one case, a physical altercation that police broke up.
The featured event was a demonstration of a checkpoint found on
roads leading to Israeli territory and manned by Israeli
forces.
What seemed to spark the change in atmosphere was the point
where each side took on the role of the other: Some
pro-Palestinians acted as Israeli soldiers in the demonstration,
showing the soldiers mistreating students playing Palestinian
civilians, while some pro-Israeli students acted as Palestinian
suicide bombers, wearing signs that said, “If I was a suicide
bomber, you would be dead” and interrupting the demonstration
with cries of “boom.”
Shoham said the interpretation of the checkpoint caused tensions
to rise, as the Israel supporters see the checkpoint as necessary
to save lives, while Palestinian students see it as humiliating and
detrimental to their lives.
“This skit created more conflict. (When) people started
shouting slogans like “˜Stop the occupation’ and
“˜Stop blowing people up,’ that’s where dialogue
stopped and slogans and signs and posters were the game,” he
said.
Organizers of Thursday’s event said they were disappointed
with the response from student protesters.
“People were interrupting the checkpoint, pretending to be
suicide bombers. … They just wanted it to seem as if we related
ourselves to terrorists, as if we support suicide bombings and
don’t care about Israeli civilians,” Sarsour said.
Students on the pro-Israeli side cited the interpretation of the
checkpoint as offensive and felt the need to protest what they
called an inaccurate portrayal of the situation in the Middle
East.
Igal Saidian, a third-year political science student who was
present to show his support for Israel, said he felt the
demonstration unfairly portrayed Israelis in a negative light,
which was the reason for a strong reaction from his side.
He said he took offense to Palestinian supporters, dressed as
Israeli soldiers, pretending to beat a pregnant Palestinian woman
at the mock checkpoint.
“The whole thing was very untrue, very one-sided,”
he said.
Students agreed that when people fall back on stereotypes to
express their views regarding issues like these, respect is lost
and any steps toward understanding that had been made are
forgotten.
Sarsour said she was disheartened by Thursday’s display of
hostility on Bruin Walk ““ after days of fruitful dialogue
““ as the negative label often given to Palestinians is
exactly what she and other organizers are trying to overcome with
events they put on throughout the week.
“Once they started being stereotypical and throwing out
racist terms and trying to degrade us … we went backwards from
that point on,” she said.