Event offers students insight on conflict

  DANIEL WONG Salam Al-Maryati, director
of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, and Rabbi Chaim
Seidler-Feller, director of UCLA Hillel, host a
discussion.

By Todd Belie
Daily Bruin Contributor

As months of escalating conflict in the Middle East claimed more
than 270 lives, speakers addressed the Palestinian-Israeli conflict
in the Ackerman Lounge on Tuesday.

Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller, director of UCLA Hillel, and Salam
Al-Maryati, director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council and a
UCLA alumni, discussed causes of the fighting, possible U.S.
intervention, and the possibility of the establishment of a
Palestinian state.

Having worked with each other over the last year and a half as
directors of the two organizations, the two men have known each
other for 20 years.

“We’ve grown up arguing with each other,” said
Seidler-Feller, “But we are working together to view the
world through different lenses.”

Sponsored by the Academy of Judaic, Christian and Islamic
Studies, the Center for Near Eastern Studies, the Center for the
Study of Religion, and the University Religious Conference, the
event was the first time the two directors held a public dialogue
together.

The state of Israel emerged in the aftermath of the Holocaust
when the United Nations granted land for it in 1947. After
declaring its statehood in 1948, Israel and Arab nations began a
series of four wars that have encompassed the past five
decades.

Recent clashes in Israel began late September with the disputed
visit of former Israeli general Ariel Sharon to holy sites in
Jerusalem.

Fighting continued Sunday with Israeli air strikes on the
Israeli-Lebanon border, which killed four people.

As moderator of the dialogue, Berky Nelson, director of the
Center for Student Programming, said discussion at UCLA was
necessary to understanding conflicts in the Middle East.

“The solution to the problems there might be found here
because there is a physical detachment that allows a level of
objectivity,” Nelson said.

But Al-Maryati criticized the U.S. role and said Americans
should not be pro-Israeli while claiming to be an objective
mediator.

He also disagreed with actions taken by the Palestinian
authority.

“Islam has no room for terrorism whatsoever.”
Al-Maryati said. “The Palestinian Authority has become
nothing more than an Arab dictatorship.

“They have no interest in serving people. Their only
interest is maintaining power,” he continued.

Both Seidler-Feller and Al-Maryati gave an opening speech before
fielding questions from the more than 200 people in attendance.

In his opening address, Seidler-Feller offered reasons for
having a dialogue between the two parties.

“It’s hard to negotiate when you can’t look
others in the eyes and know what pains them,” he said.

During the question and answer period, tempers flared as
Seidler-Feller declined to hear a question from a student who began
by comparing an Israeli general to Adolf Hitler.

“He was trying to provoke me.” Seidler-Feller said.
“The comparison of Jews to Nazis is particularly
abhorrent.”

Al-Maryati spoke of the drawn-out peace process.

“You have to work for peace,” he said. “It
doesn’t happen by just saying let’s get
along.”