NICOLE MILLER/Daily Bruin Maraam Haddad
(left) and Rosie Velasquez discuss their plans
under a tent set up on Bruin Walk to promote a peaceful coexistence
between Israelis and Arabs.
By Robert Salonga
Daily Bruin Reporter
Arab and Jewish students met on Bruin Walk Monday in the spirit
of peace, as they launched the UCLA Coalition for Coexistence in
the Middle East.
The forum, which will run until Wednesday, is sponsored by UCLA
Hillel, the Jewish Student Union and the United Arab Society. It
marks the first such effort on a college campus, according to Rabbi
Chaim Seidler-Feller, director of Hillel Jewish Student Center.
“I don’t think there exists anywhere in the world a
joint lobby of Palestinians and Jews,” said Seidler-Feller,
adding that the coexistence project grew out of a course offered
last quarter in the sociology department.
Titled “Voices of Peace: Perspectives of Confrontation and
Reconciliation in the Arab-Israeli Conflict,” the course was
taught by invited lecturers, including United States Peace Mediator
Dennis Ross.
JSU President Al Tsarovsky said one main reason for creating the
forum was to involve those on campus with ties to the Arab-Israeli
conflict.
“We wanted to create a different kind of mood on Bruin
Walk,” Tsarovsky said. “There are huge communities on
campus who have families in the Middle East who are emotionally
invested culturally, politically and religiously.”
The forum was scheduled for this week because of its proximity
to the anniversary of Israel’s independence from Britain. On
May 14, 1948, Israel became an independent nation, after becoming a
haven for many Jews following World War II.
Prior to Israel’s independence, Palestine included
present-day Israel and Jordan, under British rule. In 1947, the
United Nations partitioned this land into several states, one of
them being Israel. But the partitioning was not approved by Arab
leadership.
Since then, there have been four large-scale Arab conflicts in
Israel’s 53-year history: the 1948 War of Independence, 1956
Sinai War, 1967 Six Day War and the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
According to Adam Rosenthal, president of UCLA Hillel, early May
is a tenuous time for Arabs and Jews across the world.
 NICOLE MILLER/Daily Bruin Students check out signs on
Bruin Walk Monday. A group of students is currently trying to
promote peace in the Middle East. “(May 14) is a sensitive
day; for Palestinians and Arabs. It is Al-Naqba, or the
Disaster,” Rosenthal said. “For Palestinians, it marks
when the refugee problem began.”
The modern Arab-Israeli conflict is a little more than 100 years
old. Prior to this, there were numerous periods of Jewish-Muslim
co-existence.
“Collectively we don’t believe that the pursuit of
violence achieves anything real,” Tsarovsky said.
UAS President Fadi Amer said the forum is not necessarily
intended to solve the Arab-Israeli conflict outright.
“We don’t have all the answers,” he said.
“But if you want a peaceful end, we believe in pursuing
peaceful means.”
But the forum is a huge step in clarifying that Arabs and Jews
are not as conflicted as they appear, Rosenthal said.
“It means we can be in a civil relationship with each
other,” he said, “We’re trying to show the campus
that Muslims, Jews and Arabs have a relationship and in may
respects have more similarities than differences.”
For third-year international studies student Yael Israel, the
forum is a step in the right direction in healing the Arab-Israeli
conflict.
“I believe in the idea of civil discourse,” Israel
said. “The event itself is to inform the campus that Arabs
and Jews do not hate each other and it’s not an ancient
conflict; it’s here to make peace seem attainable.”