Many universities around the country have groups of students
from different backgrounds who meet regularly to talk about issues
surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and ways to resolve
it. UCLA does not. Students at UCLA have attempted to start groups
committed to creating a dialogue between Jewish and Muslim students
on the subject of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for the past
several years. However, all those efforts have been met with little
or no success. Many agree that dialogue between students from both
sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is essential for a
college campus to increase student awareness. “Most students
only know their own story. The notion that other people have other
truths is extremely important,” said Shalom Bochner, the head
of Hillel at UC Santa Cruz. Having such communication is vital to
any university campus, said Josh Reibner, co-founder of Jews for
Peace in Palestine and Israel, a national organization that seeks
ways to end the conflict in the Middle East. “It is important
for groups from different backgrounds to work on changing public
opinion, especially in universities,” Reibner said.
Some say there is discussion However, some say
UCLA is not completely lacking in communication between Jewish and
Muslim student groups. In fact, the leaders of UCLA Hillel, the
Muslim Student Association, the United Arab Society, Bruins for
Israel and the Progressive Jewish Student Association all say there
is cooperation and agreement among the different groups and their
members. This year, UCLA Hillel is planning a break fast together
with MSA to commemorate the end of Ramadan. And last year MSA
scheduled a “fast-a-thon” together with other student
groups, in which fasting students raise money for local charities.
Yousef Tajsar, a fourth-year political science student and the
external vice president of MSA, said the question about whether
there is dialogue on campus isn’t an issue and that Muslim
and Jewish students do talk to one another at UCLA. “A
dialogue group cannot be used as a litmus test to measure whether
the two communities are getting along or whether there are any ill
feelings among them,” said Tajsar, who also sits on the board
of directors for the Associated Students of UCLA. He added that
UCLA student groups do work together on different projects and
having open dialogue is not the only way the different communities
can come together to “humanize” one another.
The importance of dialogue But many say shared
activities cannot arguably replace something UCLA does not have: a
regular meeting dialogue group between students from different
backgrounds. “They do not have to get along, but they
definitely have to engage one another,” said Khalid Turaani,
the executive director of the non-profit American Muslims for
Jerusalem. David Pine, the West Coast regional director of
Americans for Peace Now, an organization that also seeks to end
violence in the Middle East, said a dialogue group would be very
beneficial to a college campus. “Groups like Hillel and the
MSA not coming together for shared discussions, that’s a
loss,” he said. He added that a dialogue group would humanize
all participants in a way shared events could not. “It should
be an inducement for students who have a lot in common, to sit down
and grow from interaction,” Pine said. Even though there have
been attempts at UCLA to start a Jewish-Muslim dialogue, no group
dedicated to creating dialogue has formed. Many people have their
own explanations for why UCLA lacks something that UC Berkeley, the
University of Wisconsin and New York University, among others, all
have.
Why it’s failed before One reason a
dialogue group at UCLA does not exist may be because of the
inability of many students to accept views completely different
from their own. “The situation between Jewish and Arab
students reflects the situation in the Middle East itself,”
said Ken Bandler, a spokesman for the American Jewish Committee.
“There is a great deal of tension and difficult
periods,” he said. Pine said he holds the same opinion: that
many groups on campus close ranks in times of conflict, many times
to the detriment of their own interests. “People feel
connected and attached to their cause “¦ wanting to be only
within their own group,” Pine said. This divides the
different student groups along ideological lines, which makes it
difficult to find a common ground for establishing a discussion
group. The touchy nature of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict also
could make communication on the topic difficult for students. The
increased violence in the Middle East has heightened the
sensitivity of many people to the issue. Some of those who hold
strong opinions on the matter have become more polarized, making
them more extreme in their position and less likely to look for a
way to initiate dialogue. “It’s very difficult to
compromise, much easier to take a set position in every issue, and
just accept all that you’ve been told in the past,”
said Andy Green, a second-year mathematics and economics student
and a member of Hillel.
“A failure of leadership” Rabbi
Chaim Seidler-Feller, the director of UCLA Hillel, has a much more
UCLA-centric explanation for the absence of a dialogue group.
“It is more the nature of the inertia of UCLA that is
responsible for the lack of a discussion group,” he said.
Unlike Berkeley and other more politically volatile universities,
UCLA has never had any serious political altercations on its
campus, Seidler-Feller said. However, this also means that without
a serious push or a strong leader, a dialogue group would have a
hard time taking root. “To achieve a dialogue group on this
campus requires the right leadership, and sometimes that just
isn’t present,” Seidler-Feller said. Professor David
Myers, who teaches Jewish history and is vice chairman of the
history department at UCLA, also said leadership, or the lack
thereof, might play a role in why there is no dialogue group at
UCLA. “There is a failure of leadership from all involved. We
need courageous students on both sides to stand up and say they
want to talk to each other, but we are in an environment that
requires a lot of courage to stand up,” Myers said. This
explanation is supported by the fact that virtually all student
dialogue groups on campus fizzle out once their creators leave
UCLA. In fact, groups other than MSA and Hillel, such as PJSA and
the United Arab Society, are the ones striving most to create a
dialogue group, while the two largest organizations are more
ambivalent on the matter.
Possible side-effects Mariam Jukaku, a
third-year computer science student and president of MSA, said she
doesn’t believe a dialogue group is essential. “We see
(the Israeli-Palestinian conflict) on a global level, as an effect
of globalism and colonialism. If we were to have a dialogue group
on the matter, it would become much more about race and religion,
something we do not believe it is,” Jukaku said. The MSA is
currently working with different student groups on common projects
during which dialogue is established, she said. “I definitely
encourage dialogue on a one-on-one level, but bringing Jewish and
Arab students (together) in a dialogue group will make it into a
racial conflict,” Jukaku said. If a dialogue group is
established, Jukaku said MSA members would definitely check it out
to see “what it is about and what it would do for our
community on campus,” but they would not actively try to
create one. Meanwhile, Hillel members say they want to create a
dialogue group. All memorable attempts in the past to create
dialogue did not directly involve Hillel, and they all failed.
Experts such as Pine say a dialogue group would be much easier to
establish with the backing of a nationally recognized group, like
Hillel, instead of its smaller affiliates like PJSA.
Trying to take action But not all students are
sitting on the sidelines. Some are actively trying to establish a
dialogue group named “Shalom-Asalaam,” which means
“peace” in Hebrew and Arabic, respectively. It could
become active in the near future. This is what Justin Levi, former
president of the Jewish Student Union, was unable to do. He tried
to establish a dialogue group named Bruins for Middle East Dialogue
two years ago, but was unsuccessful because of a lack of
cooperation from other student groups. He is realistic in what he
thinks such a group might accomplish, saying it will certainly not
change the world. “Finding a solution is not the issue. The
solution will be made by people who live in the region. We do not
need to agree and compromise,” Levi said. “The point of
this dialogue is simply to create a better situation on this
campus.”