• printer friendly
• mail this article
• iPod format
• digg

Bruin Walk served as a stage for discussion, debate and dispute among members of the pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian communities last week.

On the way to class, students were given a peek into the tumultuous world of the Middle East – and the underlying emotions, passion and pride that fill students from the two communities.

The week consisted of several events – put on by a coalition of student groups including Students for Justice in Palestine, Muslim Student Association and MEChA – aimed at informing the campus of the Middle East situation and the conditions Palestinians face. Several pro-Israeli supporters also attended the events to present their thoughts on the issues.

Though pro-Palestinians congregated on one side of Bruin Walk while supporters of Israel gathered on the other, it was not uncommon to see small groups of students – with some holding Israeli flags and the others wearing “Free Palestine” shirts – engrossed in discussion with each other.

At times, emotions took over and tempers flared, but for the most part, students on both sides said they came a step closer to understanding each other and were able to establish a key component to a positive relationship between the two sides: dialogue.

“We were able to meet in the middle of Bruin Walk and discuss issues,” said Norah Sarsour, an event organizer for the week and vice president of Students for Justice in Palestine.

“Now we have established that we recognize them and they recognize us. ... Now that (recognition) has been established, I think we both understand each other’s viewpoints, and from this point we can hopefully start molding some sort of solution,” she said.

Tom Carpel, a member of the pro-Israeli community, said he was pleased to find common ground with pro-Palestinian students during various discussions last week.

“When I spoke to a lot of people, they said, ‘Wow, I really like what you’re saying and I agree with you.’ ... I was happy to find a few people on the pro-Palestine side who I could agree with,” he said.

He cited a peaceful resolution and a two-state solution, where both Israelis and Palestinians would be given land, as ideas which many students from both sides agreed upon.

But when discussions turned to the root of the conflict and which side is responsible for the current situation in the Middle East, students found themselves unable to reach an agreement.

“When you start with the accusations and the core of the conflict, that’s how it gets to be negative,” said Gilad Shoham, an Israeli working with Hillel at UCLA to educate students on Judaism and Israel. “There are some things you can never agree on, such as who’s to blame (for the situation).”

Thursday saw a tense atmosphere build on Bruin Walk – with high tempers, stereotypes thrown around as personal weapons, and in one case, a physical altercation that police broke up.

The featured event was a demonstration of a checkpoint found on roads leading to Israeli territory and manned by Israeli forces.

What seemed to spark the change in atmosphere was the point where each side took on the role of the other: Some pro-Palestinians acted as Israeli soldiers in the demonstration, showing the soldiers mistreating students playing Palestinian civilians, while some pro-Israeli students acted as Palestinian suicide bombers, wearing signs that said, “If I was a suicide bomber, you would be dead” and interrupting the demonstration with cries of “boom.”

Shoham said the interpretation of the checkpoint caused tensions to rise, as the Israel supporters see the checkpoint as necessary to save lives, while Palestinian students see it as humiliating and detrimental to their lives.

“This skit created more conflict. (When) people started shouting slogans like ‘Stop the occupation’ and ‘Stop blowing people up,’ that’s where dialogue stopped and slogans and signs and posters were the game,” he said.

Organizers of Thursday’s event said they were disappointed with the response from student protesters.

“People were interrupting the checkpoint, pretending to be suicide bombers. ... They just wanted it to seem as if we related ourselves to terrorists, as if we support suicide bombings and don’t care about Israeli civilians,” Sarsour said.

Students on the pro-Israeli side cited the interpretation of the checkpoint as offensive and felt the need to protest what they called an inaccurate portrayal of the situation in the Middle East.

Igal Saidian, a third-year political science student who was present to show his support for Israel, said he felt the demonstration unfairly portrayed Israelis in a negative light, which was the reason for a strong reaction from his side.

He said he took offense to Palestinian supporters, dressed as Israeli soldiers, pretending to beat a pregnant Palestinian woman at the mock checkpoint.

“The whole thing was very untrue, very one-sided,” he said.

Students agreed that when people fall back on stereotypes to express their views regarding issues like these, respect is lost and any steps toward understanding that had been made are forgotten.

Sarsour said she was disheartened by Thursday’s display of hostility on Bruin Walk – after days of fruitful dialogue – as the negative label often given to Palestinians is exactly what she and other organizers are trying to overcome with events they put on throughout the week.

“Once they started being stereotypical and throwing out racist terms and trying to degrade us ... we went backwards from that point on,” she said.