Rapaport is a third-year student; Haverim is a fourth-year
student recently returned from EAP study in Israel. Â
By Jaime Rapaport and Panteha Haverim
Despite the current pain felt on all sides of the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, recent events at UCLA have been
tremendously encouraging toward peace.
A couple of weeks ago, the United Arab Society held a weeklong
awareness-raising event that showed a sincere intention for peace
called “Let Peace Take Flight.” In light of the
“anti-“ based activism that has flooded campuses and
media images, we find it especially refreshing that brave UCLA
students have come together in the path of civil discourse to
represent the Palestinian people and their cause.
Such efforts are valuable because they offer hope and
inspiration to Middle East activists who are caught in a pattern of
stagnation. Rather than resorting to the traditional rally and
counter-rally of our campus, “Let Peace Take Flight”
promoted the civil discourse imperative for peaceful
coexistence.
Although many consider rallies necessary to show solidarity with
Israeli and Palestinian families, we find that they force us to
choose sides along tribal lines rather than political ones. This
leaves no space for moderate, self-critical members of each
“side” to unite and move forward. UAS began to fill in
this gap.
As Julie Bernstein mentioned in her submission
(“Accusations, aggression don’t further Mideast peace
process,” Daily Bruin, Viewpoint, May 21), certain aspects of
the UAS campaign undoubtedly upset two-state solution supporters
perplexed by UAS’s choice to present the state of Israel in
the politically-charged color of green.
Despite this questionable decision, the UAS created a space for
dialogue to happen on campus, and only in such a context can we
discuss issues like the color of Israel and Palestine in future
presentations.
UAS’s staging of a peaceful awareness-raising event and
Julie Bernstein’s subsequent responses have made the point
clear. UCLA students will resist falling back into the downward
spiral of pointing fingers and shirking responsibility. We have
seen its failure both at UCLA and among Israeli and Palestinian
leaders, and we refuse to play a role in perpetuating this
counterproductive cycle.
In addition to “Let Peace Take Flight,” a subsequent
campus event promoted a self-critical, and yet Zionist, approach to
the Middle East. Members of Yesh Gvul, a group of Israeli
reservists who refuse to serve in the Palestinian territories,
conveyed a message that is often unheard. Both Zionist and
against Israel’s occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, these
reservists support coexistence and express a middle ground that is
seldom advocated by campus student groups (“Speakers refuse
to serve Israeli Defense Forces,” News, May 21).
As graduates of American Jewish day schools, we admire members
of Yesh Gvul for their ability to admit our
“side’s” shortcomings while maintaining their
love for Israel. Though many may find their refusal to serve in the
territories to be too radical and even disloyal, they cannot be
mistaken as anti-Israel in ideology. In fact, they realize that
withdrawing from the territories is crucial to the survival of the
State of Israel.
Certainly, to promote peace and coexistence does not require an
unrealistic pacifistic attitude, indifference to human suffering or
a denial of the connection to one’s heritage. Rather, we
believe that it takes questioning what has been presented as truth,
as well as attempting to create positive alternatives to the
failing tactics we have repeatedly adopted on both sides.
To support violence in the names of either peace or justice only
causes further destruction, fear, and hatred, and thereby defeats
its own purpose.
Attempts at cooperation may seem to be a new phenomenon, but
events promoting coexistence have occurred in the past. Last year,
the Coalition for Coexistence in the Middle East united members of
the Jewish Student Union and UAS, as well as students from the
experimental Voices of Peace course, part of the sociology
department in winter 2001, to create a space for civil
discourse.
The coalition’s “peace tent” on Bruin Walk as
well as its Middle East dialogue group marked a huge step in
Arab-Jewish relations on campus.
In May of 2000, two Israeli students from Brandeis University,
one Palestinian (Forsan Hussein), one Jewish (Michael Bavly), came
to UCLA to share the challenges and successes of their Arab-Jewish
dialogue group. Since then, they have created a Web site,
www.shalam.org, which continues to promote dialogue and peaceful
coexistence.
As our Mid-East dialogue lost momentum this year, we offer to
continue this productive path and host Michael and Forsan next
year.
As students invested in this struggle, we are determined to
foster civil dialogue amongst all individuals willing to recognize
the humanity of the “other.” We student visionaries
cannot allow our campus to fall into its old patterns and stray
from the path of peaceful coexistence.