Hedy Epstein, a German Holocaust survivor, encouraged questions
at her lecture Tuesday night but had one small request of her
audience ““ if they were going to ask questions, they would
have to speak up.
After a sound bomb exploded close to her right leg during a
nonviolent demonstration in the Palestinian territories recently,
she said she was left partially deaf in her right ear.
Epstein was invited to speak at UCLA by Students for Justice in
Palestine to share both her experiences from trips to Israel and
the Palestinian territories and her objections to Israeli practices
and policies with respect to Palestinian territories.
And while some students present said they were excited to hear
Epstein’s personal accounts of her visits to the Middle East,
as they said they rarely had the opportunity to hear such
testimonies, others said they found her lecture to be highly biased
and one-sided.
Epstein immigrated to the United States in May 1948, around the
time that Israel gained its independence as a state. She said that
at the time she had mixed feelings regarding the emerging
nation.
“On the one hand, I thought it was good for Jews who had
no place to go, but on the other hand, I knew no good would come
from this, but I didn’t know what,” she said.
It was not until June 1982 that she really became interested in
Israel, she said. In June 1982, in response to raids on Northern
Israel and an attempted assassination of an Israeli ambassador,
Israeli jets bombed Palestinian refugee camps in Southern Lebanon,
killing 45 people in what Epstein called a massacre.
From then on, Epstein said she has been publicly speaking out
about her concerns about Israeli policies.
In 2003, Epstein and several friends decided they would travel
to the Palestinian territories.
During her first trip to the Palestinian territories a few
months later, Epstein and three other friends participated in
peaceable protests as members of the International Solidarity
Movement.
During their nonviolent protest, several Israeli soldiers opened
fire, injuring protesters, including her friend who was hit by
shrapnel, Epstein said.
Since then, Epstein has traveled to the Middle East several
times and participated in other protests, including protests
against the security fence built between Israel and the West Bank
as well as checkpoints along the fence.
It was during one such protest that Epstein partially lost her
hearing.
In her talk Tuesday, Epstein also included accounts of security
checks and skirmishes with Israeli soldiers. She emphasized the
Palestinian hospitality she experienced ““ strangers welcoming
her into their homes. She described one instance in which an Arab
store owner provided aid for several protesters who had been
sprayed with tear gas.
Beeta Baghoolizadeh, a first-year undeclared student, said she
found this account especially intriguing.
“When (Epstein said) the store owner told her that he
didn’t care that she was Jewish, I was really touched,”
Baghoolizadeh said.
Khalid Hussein, co-president of Students for Justice in
Palestine, said he believes Epstein’s focus on personal
experiences, rather than politics, allowed students to have an
impartial account of the conflict in the Middle East.
“It was a good narrative ““ a human story. She really
expressed the reality on the ground, the reality of everyday
life,” he said.
But other students said they believed the lecture was biased and
one-sided.
Shirley Eshaghian, a second-year psychology student, said she
approached the lecture with the hope that Epstein would present
both sides of the conflict but was ultimately disappointed.
Eshaghian said she looked forward to hearing about
Epstein’s experiences during the Holocaust but was surprised
when Epstein hardly mentioned it. Eshaghian said she was frustrated
that Epstein’s account of visiting Israel was restricted to
her experiences at the Tel-Aviv airport.
“It was interesting to hear about her experiences in the
Palestinian territories, but she didn’t mention anything
about Israel, just security and the wall. There’s more to
Israel than that,” she said.