As they walked into an ice cream shop in Tel Aviv, Israel, this summer, three American undergraduates were approached by an Israeli woman and questioned about their friendship.
Two of the students were Jewish and the other was Palestinian. The four started talking, and the conversation went on for 20 minutes.
“She couldn’t believe there were two Jewish guys hanging out with a Palestinian guy,” said Jacob Goldberg, a second-year international development studies and linguistics student. “She started thinking about all the potential for people to get along.”
For three weeks in late summer, Goldberg and four other members of the Olive Tree Initiative branch at UCLA journeyed throughout Israel, experiencing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict firsthand.
Along with a diverse body of about 30 other “student diplomats” from four University of California campuses, they visited Bethlehem, Nazareth, Haifa, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem to engage with the politics surrounding the conflict. They also traveled to Jordan and Washington.
The Olive Tree Initiative originally began at UC Irvine to combat the negative impact that political tensions had on campus climate in 2007. The program has since expanded to UC Santa Barbara, UC Santa Cruz and UCLA.
The organization aims to take an educational approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by allowing students to actively engage with top politicians and experts from both sides within the region itself, according to the organization’s mission statement.
On the most recent trip, students met with Israeli spokesman Mark Regev, Palestinian chief negotiator Nabil Shaath and Prince Hassan of Jordan, in addition to almost 80 other prominent figures.
The organization sends a diverse body of students on the trip each year, said Corey Feinstein, the assistant director of OTI and the president of UCLA’s chapter.
Two of the UCLA students on the most recent trip were Jewish, two were Muslim from Palestinian backgrounds and one was Catholic.
“The group has completely different opinions from one person to another,” said Feinstein, a fourth-year international development studies and anthropology student. “What brings people together is they have a passion for the region ““ that is what facilitates the fact that this group exists.”
For many of the students, the hands-on education the program provided was different from their prior education about the conflict.
For some, learning about the issues while being in the region was most fulfilling.
“I definitely feel a lot more educated about the inner workings of politics (in the Middle East),” said Lana El-Farra, a second-year political science student. “It wasn’t until we went to the region that I actually started to learn.”
El-Farra, a member of the Muslim Student Association at UCLA, said meeting with some of the more controversial figures of the conflict was difficult for some students.
Hearing them speak about the sensitive political issues may have offended some and tested the friendships of others, she said.
OTI has come under harsh criticism from people on both sides of the conflict, who accuse the organization of spreading one-sided views and exposing students to controversial figures.
But for the UCLA students who went on the trip this summer, it wasn’t about one-sided politics or division.
“The conflict is not about ideas, it’s about people’s lives,” Feinstein said.
For El-Farra, speaking with ordinary people on the street made her realize the day-to-day realities of the conflict.
“This isn’t just a conflict; it’s life,” she said.
The philosophy of OTI is similar to intergroup dialogue courses on campus, according to Rena Orenstein, assistant director of student health education at the Bruin Resource Center.
Orenstein, who went on the trip last summer, said OTI equips students with the knowledge and skills to find a common language for discussion.
“A lot of the purpose of this group is to get people’s minds off campus politics,” said Feinstein. “Our focus should be to help the region’s peace process, not our own politics here.”
Prior to leaving for the trip, both El-Farra’s and Goldberg’s parents expressed hesitation about how the trip would influence their children politically.
Upon returning, both El-Farra and Goldberg say their parents have been pleased with their newfound knowledge of the conflict and developed interest in the region.
“I no longer see arguments as pro-Israel or pro-Palestine,” said Goldberg, who serves as editor in chief of Ha’am magazine. “I see them as constructive or deconstructive to the peace process.”
This quarter, El-Farra is taking a course in Hebrew, and Goldberg is taking Arabic. Each already speaks the language the other is learning, and they regularly help one another with homework.
Both expressed great interest in returning to the region in the near future to aid the peace process.