By Andy Shah
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Jewish community members celebrated Israeli Independence Day
Wednesday in Meyerhoff Park with singing and dancing, while members
of the Muslim Student Association stood stoically on the periphery
with their backs turned to the event.
While the program celebrated the independence of the Jewish
state, MSA members said there should be no celebration at all.
As part of its Anti-Zionism Week, MSA members contend that the
formation of Israel through the Zionist movement has oppressed
several Palestinians, resulting in deaths and a refugee
problem.
Several Jews, however, said Zionism is a cultural and political
movement to give and strengthen the Jewish people’s
connection to Israel.
Despite fundamental differences over Zionism’s
implications, MSA members said that, at the least, some productive
dialogue and learning has come out of their campaign.
“In no way are we trying to be divisive. We’re here
to educate,” said MSA President Fadi El Tahrawi. “The
fact that (Jews) are celebrating today is insensitive.”
Jewish leaders too, said that the Israel-Palestine problem has
been a part of the community’s discourse for years.
Still, group members said a compromise about this issue will be
difficult considering the severity of the situation.
“If you have two conflicting ends about what Zionism even
is, you can’t come to a common ground,” El Tahrawi
said.
Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller, director of the Hillel Jewish
Student Center, called MSA’s programs counterproductive and
said that individuals at UCLA and elsewhere have been trying to
come to some type of compromise.
“I’ve been watching this for 25 years, and what
strikes me is that we have been bringing Arabs and Jews to speak on
campus continuously,” he said.
He also said the notion that the Israeli government has ignored
the plight of the Palestinian refugees is false.
“The Israeli government gave a directive to all its
teachers to acknowledge the massacre of Kafar Kassem in its
curriculums,” Seidler-Feller said. “You can be an
Israeli and a Zionist and realize that there were
wrongs.”
MSA members said one of their main goals with Anti-Zionism Week
is not to argue, but to educate people about Zionism.
MSA has been organizing this annual event for about four years,
said MSA member Salar Rizvi.
“(Anti-Zionism) week should have been sparked 52 years
ago,” he said, referring to the year when Israel gained
independence.
MSA’s table in the center of Bruin Walk has been the site
of many peaceful debates, although one man came up to the table and
started cursing at them, said MSA member Abdul Ghafoor Mahboob.
Members of the Jewish Student Union said they have tried to go
on as planned with their activities this time of the year, but have
had to be reactive at times.
Last year, for example, JSU members were the main force trying
to discourage members of the undergraduate student government from
passing a resolution condemning what council members termed as
Israel’s oppression of Palestinians. After much debate, the
resolution failed.
This year, JSU members were surprised when MSA copied the format
of an ad it had placed in the Daily Bruin and put in their own
message, said Tobi Dock, JSU’s Los Angeles Hillel Council
representative.
Seidler-Feller said that those on both sides of the issue have
been hurt.
“I think the Muslim students must feel some pain,”
he said, adding that the MSA program, however, has also hurt Jewish
students.
“They claim that the mere celebration (of independence) is
an affront,” he added. “That’s a high standard to
hold because you have to then restrict who you are.”
Israeli Independence activities continued Wednesday night with a
block party on Landfair Avenue.
Both sides have been generally peaceful about the issue, said
Berky Nelson, director of the Center for Student Programming.
“I commend students on both sides for mutual
respect,” he said.
He added that such debates are naturally going to arise on a
campus like UCLA.
“There has been a large Muslim population in the past 20
years, so there will be a larger response to issues they have in
mind,” he said.