By Peijean Tsai
Daily Bruin Contributor
Amid heated rallies last week, UCLA students and community
members sat down and heard viewpoints from members of the Jewish
community Wednesday and pro-Palestinian supporters Thursday.
A town hall meeting at the UCLA Hillel Center for Jewish Life
centered on a “progressive Jewish response” to the
current crisis in the Middle East.
UCLA students have become highly polarized, said Jaime Rapaport,
a third-year international developmental studies student, who spoke
on a panel.
“There seems to be very little overlap. People are either
just pro-Israeli or pro-Palestinian,” she said.
Rapaport said there is “an atmosphere of tension that
students feel every day” because of the polar views.
Other people on the panel included Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller,
director of the Hillel Council; history professor David Myers and
David Pine, West Coast director for Americans for Peace Now, a U.S.
organization advocating peace in the Middle East.
Both sides should come together through government-sponsored
youth programs, Seidler-Feller said.
Israeli and Palestinian children should have joint programs that
allow them to have “cooperative experiences and common
education” within the Middle East, directly where the crisis
is occurring, Seidler-Feller said.
Myers said it is a moral imperative for peace to be reached in
the Middle East.
“Peace is the only credible policy option,” he
said.
Israeli withdrawal from West Bank territories would not
guarantee peace in the Middle East, said Michael Bergman, a
third-year political science student who served in the Israeli
reserves and transferred to UCLA from Hebrew University seven
months ago.
“Don’t believe in the illusion that withdrawal will
bring peace. (Israelis) should get out of there for ourselves to be
united morally and to help our defense strategy,” Bergman
said.
On Thursday, the “Palestine and Non-Violent
Resistance” forum ““ sponsored by the United Arab
Society and two off-campus Muslim organizations ““ provided
pro-Palestinian perspectives of the conflict.
Elham Bayour, a Palestinian-American raised in a Lebanese
refugee camp, showed slides of the orange exportation market,
textile factories and buildings before Israeli occupation in 1948,
followed by images of Palestinian territory afterwards.
“What our women endured under the oppression, American
feminists could have endured 1 percent of,” said Bayour, who
works with female Palestinian political prisoners.
Occupation has destroyed Palestine not only as a nation but as a
people, said Elias Roshmawi, vice president of the American Arab
Anti-Discrimination Committee and representative of the Free
Palestine Alliance U.S.A.
“There is no such thing as a Palestinian person without a
Palestine. Palestine no longer “˜is.’ It is something
that “˜was,'” he said.
Ruth El-Raz, founder of the Jerusalem Women in Black, which
focuses on ending Israeli occupation of Palestinian areas, called
herself “guilty as an Israeli” and said not all
Israelis agree with their government’s policy.
Some refuse to serve in the army, a task expected of all
Israelis, male and female, she said.
“That for me is the only hope in this terrible
conflict,” she said.
The forum ended with the screening of “Resist,” a
20-minute documentary on Palestinian non-violent resistance. It was
directed by Weesam Nassar, a third-year film student at the
University of Southern California, and UCLA alumna Nagwa
Ibrahim.
The majority of proceeds from the sale of the film will go to
Palestinian refugees and the remainder will go toward sending
American envoys internationally, said Dalia Ibrahim, Nagwa’s
twin sister and a UCLA alumna who helped found the forum.
“(The media) doesn’t bring any humanity to the
Palestinians or show the injustice done to them,” Dalia said,
criticizing the media for depicting Palestinians as
“aggressors.”