When it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I feel we have a fairly respectful student population. Students from along the political spectrum can attend any event with relative ease, without fearing for their safety and with minimal possibility of interruptions at the event. I applaud UCLA students’ respect for other students’ rights to freedom of speech, even when they staunchly disagree with the message stated.

It disturbs me when outside organizations publish hateful remarks in paid adverts on a given issue, like in last Monday’s (Sept. 19) issue of the Daily Bruin. The David Horowitz Freedom Center published what it called a “public service” announcement titled “The Palestinians’ Case Against Israel is a Fiction Whose Intent is Genocidal.” It is statements like this that are aimed only to rile up the campus community into a crazed frenzy. This is not only directly counterproductive to creating a comfortable learning environment at UCLA, but is also an insult to the character of UCLA’s student population.

What a way to begin the year. While students driven with passions for peace and cooperation on campus plan to work diligently to forge inter-club bonds and understanding, others try to head them off before they can even step foot on campus. This isn’t the first time the David Horowitz “Freedom” Center has invaded our campus with blatant messages of hate. Statements like these not only destroy Israel’s image, something I think was the opposite intention of the ad, but also pits communities against each other before activists’ work can even begin. I think that the true intent of the ad was to enflame and divide our community, and it is our duty as respectful students to challenge David Horowitz’s message.

The question is: How do we challenge this message? Do we play into the “Freedom” Center’s hands and counter with equally hateful messages against the argument? This is exactly what those behind the message want and expect. The correct course of action for the entire campus community is to see through the façade, realize the divisive nature of their mission and to counter it with the creation of a cooperative campus environment.

Whether some arguments are fictitious or not, such an extreme, one-sided argument ignores Israelis’ and Palestinians’ legitimate and overlapping claims. A shouting match, whether verbal or on paper, gains nothing while forcing other sides to further dig their heels into fixed ideals and become deaf to other voices.

My challenge to members of the campus community: Speak to each other. Cooperate on events and find common ground where you can. With so many clubs surrounding the Middle East, be they J Street U, Bruins For Israel, Olive Tree Initiative, Middle East Peace Coalition, Students For Justice In Palestine, United Arab Society, the Lebanese Club, the Iranian Student Union, the Afghan Club, Muslim Students Association, etc. We are students with ideas and ideals that we want to share with the world. But it takes special bravery to reach out to clubs with differing opinions and attempt to understand how and why others have reached their perspectives. It takes courage to ask, “How can I learn from you?” or to say, “I know that we differ greatly, but do we have common ground, too?”

These are hard questions to ask, requiring a balance of passion and humility, but I know members of the UCLA community have what it takes to open up to each other and learn who the personalities are behind the masks of their organizations and mantras. We should realize that we can speak our piece, respectfully differ and bond over the fact that we are all campus leaders within the UCLA community exploring and following what we believe to be morally right. The worst possible thing we can do is to recreate the conflict here at UCLA, more than 12,000 miles from where the actual conflict tears apart millions of people.

Jared Schwalb
Fourth-year
Middle Eastern and North African Studies