Students reflect on current situation in Israel
By Daily Bruin Staff
May 8, 2002 9:00 p.m.
The Associated Press A police officer looks at slot mashines
after an explosion destroyed a pool hall in Rishon Letzion, Israel,
Tuesday, May 7, 2002. The suicide attack killed more than 15 people
and injured at least 60, late Tuesday, near Tel Aviv.
By Peijean Tsai
DAILY BRUIN CONTRIBUTOR
[email protected]
It all looked so familiar. The club looked the same, and so did
the buildings.
Though he had been a few miles away, news of the bombing of a
suburban pool hall brought back mental images that were all too
reminiscent of areas that third-year Jewish studies student Gideon
Estes had just visited months ago.
On Tuesday, a pool hall frequented by Israeli teenagers in
Rishon Letzion, Israel was the target of a Palestinian suicide
bombing. This was the first attack in more than three weeks, and
the first one since the Israeli army began pulling out of the West
Bank.
This recent attack especially moved students who had traveled to
the Middle East in previous years.
For Estes, the external vice president of the Jewish Student
Union, news that Rishon Letzion, a suburban city near Tel Aviv, had
been hit reminded him of the suburbs he had visited last
summer.
“I’ve walked and driven through the suburbs of Tel
Aviv, and I remembered how the buildings and clubs looked,”
Estes recalled.
In addition to emotions of sorrow and anger, Estes felt
dumbstruck that this particular city had been a target.
Because it was located in the suburbs “deep within the
heart of Israel” away from disputed territories, Rishon
Letzion was an unlikely target and considered a “safe
city,” said Estes.
For Robbie Hurwitz, a third-year political science student
currently studying at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, this bombing
was not a surprise, but he was still devastated by the loss of
innocent lives and said everyone in Israel is affected by the
news.
“Israel is a small country … like a large family. There
is no Israeli who doesn’t know somebody who has been killed
in terrorist attacks or in defense of the country,” he
added.
News of the Rishon Letzion bombing also did not come as a
surprise to Daren Schlecter, a third-year psychology student.
Schlecter, who visited Israel in December 1999, said that he has
become “desensitized” to the violence in the Middle
East.
For some, however, there will never be a point of emotional
desensitization.
“People who feel desensitized really don’t
understand reality. Imagine it happening to your family ““
would you be desensitized?” said Mohammad Mertaban, a
third-year psychobiology student and a member of the Muslim
Students Association.
Mertaban’s own experience living in Lebanon from 1993 to
1996 where he witnessed refugee camps and lived the results of
“Israeli massacres” like the bombing of Qana, has given
what he calls a better understanding of the situation than people
who have not seen conditions in the Middle East firsthand.
He said that though he was against the killing of “any
innocent civilians,” people who are not firsthand witnesses
should be careful not to make judgments about the current
situation, even suicide bombings.
“We’re in no position to condemn a suicide bombing
because none of us has experienced what they’ve been through
under 53 years of oppression.
“It’s very difficult for us to understand the
situation they’re living in,” Mertaban said.
Seeing Israel now is “very surreal” to Justin Levi,
who visited Israel in summer 2000 when operations were relatively
peaceful.
“It’s unsettling to see how bad it’s gotten,
having felt so secure when I was there,” said Levi, president
of the Jewish Student Union and a third-year political science and
history student.
