By Marie Blanchard
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
After four days of intense gunfire which has left 72 dead and
thousands injured, Israel and the Palestinians now face the
toughest challenge to the peace process since Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was elected earlier this year.
"The peace process is going nowhere. Eventually, probably, the
situation will get smoothed over but people will have the same
feelings," said Masood Khan, editor of Al-Talib, UCLA’s Muslim
newsmagazine. "For an incident like this to occur, it indicates
that people are unhappy."
UCLA is not unaffected by the current situation in Israel. With
its large number of Jewish and Middle Eastern students, last week’s
violence was felt by many members of each community.
"Every Jewish person feels a link to Israel, be it through a
brother or sister living there or just the acceptance that Israel
is the Jewish homeland," said Josh Geffon, president of the Jewish
Student Union.
The fighting erupted last Tuesday after Israel decided to
excavate an ancient tunnel near Muslim holy sites in Old Jerusalem.
Palestinians argued that the tunnel was too close to the Al Asqa
Mosque, one of Islam’s holiest sites and may violate the provisions
of their peace agreement.
Israel countered that the restoration of the tunnel does not
violate the Interim Agreement between Israel and Palestinians, and
that the tunnel does not endanger surrounding buildings, according
to a statement from the Israeli Consulate.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat initially encouraged
Palestinians to protest the opening of the tunnel, but by Thursday
was demanding an end to the fighting.
To some students on campus, it seemed clear that the outbreak of
violence was a sign of the very problems the peace process will
need to address and solve.
"When masses of people and children are ready to fight
mechanized armies who shoot to kill, there must be something
wrong," said Ben Wang, president of UCLA’s Muslim Student
Association.
Other Muslims argue that the opening of the tunnel isn’t the
real issue at hand, but is symbolic of further deterioration of a
failing accord and the escalating frustration of Palestinians over
a peace process they feel isn’t working.
"The status quo in occupied Palestine, or so-called Israel,
represents a continuing injustice to the indigenous Arabs, both
Muslim and Christian," Wang said, "therefore, we fully support our
brothers and sisters in occupied Palestine in their struggle
against oppression and apartheid in their homeland even if they
must do so with rocks and their own bodies"
But Geffon disagreed, stating that he was "optimistic" about the
future of Israel’s peace talks and instead blamed the rioting on
miscommunication and confusion.
"This isn’t the end of the peace process," he said. "One
incident cannot end a level of consciousness." However, Geffon does
see problems with the way the peace talks have been held.
"There needs to be more dialogue between both groups. We need to
eliminate the mistrust and concentrate on our similarities," he
said.
For the time being, the fighting has subsided although Israeli
officials reopened the tunnel late Sunday. But the mood in the
country remains grim while policymakers try to negotiate through
the hostilities and resume the peace talks.
"The bottom line is that we need to understand that there are
complications in everything from marriage to a peace accord,"
Geffen said. "This violence cannot end a movement that we have been
working on for so long."