Panelists analyze Palestinian plight

By Dena Elbayoumy
Daily Bruin Contributor

The Open Tent Middle East coalition hosted a forum Sunday
seeking to “debunk myths” and offer analysis of the
Mideast conflict.

Issues speakers discussed included the plight of Palestinian
refugees and measures vital to achieving peaceful co-existence in
the region.

“We are here to voice an alternative point of view that
usually goes unheard in the media,” said Munir Shaikh,
co-director of the event and graduate student in Islamic studies at
UCLA.

More than 500 people have been killed in the Middle East as the
result of the ongoing conflict since the beginning of September,
CNN reported Monday.

This year, Israel celebrated the 53rd year of its existence.
Many Palestinians, however, mourn the day and term it
“Al-Naqbah,” or “the catastrophe,”
according to speakers.

While the placement of blame continues to shift, Israeli, Arab,
Muslim, Jewish and Christian speakers at the conference attempted
to raise awareness about the crisis in the Middle East.

Despite the event’s intentions, some felt that the many of
the panels were one-sided.

“Anything that brings two communities together is a
breakthrough,” said Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller.
“However, the general tone was overly damning of
Israel.”

The panelists assessed factors that they felt have hindered the
peace process and have led to misconceptions in the conflict.

A panel consisting of one Palestinian, an Iraqi-American, a
former Israeli soldier and one American questioned the validity of
the United States government as an impartial third-party negotiator
in the conflict.

“The information given is not based on emotion, but logic,
actual data and facts. What gives this event credibility is that
Christians, Jews, and Muslims are all here speaking out against
oppression,” said Khadija Haseeb, a fourth-year Arabic and
linguistics student.

Panelists argued that U.S. bias was apparent in the most recent
of negotiations between the Palestinian Authority, Israel and the
U.S. in September’s Camp David Accords.

“The world looked at the Palestinians as if they were
completely irrational for refusing to accept 95 percent of their
territory,” said Mahmoud Ibrahim, a professor at Cal Poly
Pomona.

Echoing his sentiments, Rabbi Michael Lerner agreed that the
failure of Camp David was due to terms that did not meet the needs
of Palestinians.

“I’m not talking about their rights, I’m
talking about effectiveness,” he said encouraging
non-violence as a means of protest.

Lerner has recently been under heavy scrutiny for voicing his
views on the conflict .

“I have received death threats, been called one of the
worst self-hating Jews of the world. One Web site not only listed
my home address but directions on how to get there,” he
said.

The importance of public education through massive teach-ins was
stressed as essential in seeing an end to the conflict. The public,
panelists said, has been swayed through the lobby of special
interest groups and distortions by the media.

“When F-16’s are bombing Palestinian homes, they are
ours. It is our tax dollars, yours and mine, financing this
aggression,” said Salam Al-Marayati, a panelist who said his
qualm was with the U.S. government.

Focusing particularly on the right to self-determination,
Al-Marayati said the government has imposed a double standard in
establishing these terms of foreign policy contradictory to U.S.
domestic laws and guaranteed freedoms.

But the event was controversial for some. Seidler-Feller said
there was an “absence of criticism of the Arab
side.”

This was voiced by one audience member during a question and
answer session. She raised the issue of current and historical
anti-Semitism, particularly in Europe.

Upon the audience member calling the Arabs “Holocaust
deniers,” Yossi Khen, a former Israeli soldier, tried to calm
her, and told of his experiences as a soldier for the Israeli
government.

“Israelis (participate in) home demolition, land
confiscations, executing people in cold blood,” he said.
“Every Jew needs to stand up and speak out and say
“˜don’t do it in my name.'”

Despite rifts in opinion, the panel attempted to close with the
event’s theme of unity.

“The world is not divided between Jew, Christian and
Muslim. It is divided between stupid people and not stupid
people,” Al-Marayati said. “Stupid people who deny the
Holocaust, deny the violation of Palestinian human rights and
stupid people who exploit the Holocaust in justifying Palestinian
oppression.”