Take the time to learn both sides

Year after year a group of students on campus hosts a week that
is meant to raise awareness about what Palestinians have been
facing for

decades.

This week is meant to bring a conflict that takes place on the
other side of the world to the heart of campus.

This year, the week titled “Israel and Palestine:
Obstacles to Peace” will witness what it has traditionally
witnessed year after year ““ heated debate, inflamed
sensitivities and seemingly unavoidable confrontations.

But the tradition of a week to promote awareness persists, and
this year, while the week might happen to don a new name, it is
still an attempt to shed light on the commonly misconstrued ““
or often untold ““ side of the same story.

The Middle East has been, is still, and into the foreseeable
future will continue to be rife with conflict and violence.

For being such a faraway dispute, the cries in the Middle East
are heard incredibly close to home.

Whether we deem it important, the tension in the Holy Land
affects our country, our campus and by extension affects us.

As members of one of the finest institutions of higher learning
in the country, it is our responsibility to be fully aware of the
differing opinions that come with issues.

This week serves as a perfect opportunity to be involved in this
campus’s tradition of diversity.

As a responsible and caring citizen of the campus community, you
should take part in the events of “Obstacles to Peace”
week so you are able to formulate your own opinion on this highly
contentious but crucial issue.

Events like Norman Finkelstein’s lecture tonight have and
will spark disagreement among students, but what is this campus if
not a breeding ground for opposing ideas and controversial
views?

Some students went so far as to attempt to pass an Undergraduate
Students Association Council resolution condemning the decision by
the Muslim Students Association to bring Finkelstein to campus,
attributing hate speech to him and aligning him with racist
ideology.

But regardless of whether the resolution passed, or whether the
claims were false, the issue poses a greater problem.

Where are we as a student body if attempting to deny
students’ exposure to different viewpoints is acceptable?

What have we come to if we are resorting to petty actions to try
to keep a student group from bringing a speaker to campus who they
believe will have something of worth to

say?

How can we disallow a speaker from imparting a well-researched
and scholarly take on an issue that will be presented in an
appropriate and academic manner?

This campus is being quickly robbed of its academic freedom, and
as students who have the right to be informed we do not have the
right to deprive anyone else of this right.

It is in this spirit that students should participate in this
week.

We are amazingly lucky to have a campus that caters to all sorts
of opinions and ideas, and as an institution that prides itself on
tradition, we must carry on the tradition that affords us this
marketplace of different beliefs and opinions.

While the Muslim Students Association and other groups
affiliated with this week might be slammed with accusations of
anti-Semitism, we must realize and remember that this week is about
awareness and understanding of the Palestinian struggle and that
anti-Zionism must not be equated with anti-Semitism.

In this academic sphere, these political issues should be
handled with scholarly debate and logical arguments, rather than
name-calling and unfounded assertions.

Out of respect for the credibility of our peers, the dignity of
our tradition of diversity, and the attempt at fostering
understanding of a controversial and sensitive issue, we should see
what “Obstacles to Peace” week has to offer.

And what is this campus good for anyway if not a little bit of
political debate and some good old-fashioned controversy?

Kolsy is a fourth-year political science student.