Lauren Margulies '01 and Ethan Katz '02 organized the teach-in, which drew approximately 100 students to the Cole Assembly Room. NOOR and Hillel were co-sponsors of the event.
The teach-in panel consisted of three professors and two Five College students to address the escalating conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.
"[This crisis] ought to challenge us to learn and then to really think about real problems in real people's lives and what they represent," said Margulies.
Margulies, who spent six months of this year in Israel, added, "Back on campus, I found myself talking about the conflict with friends who cared about what was going on, but who felt that they lacked the information that might enable them to discuss the situation meaningfully. That is why we are here: to get information, to learn, and to think."
The first speaker, University of Massachusetts Professor of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies Tayeb Al-Hibri, began his comments by returning to a similar discussion hosted by NOOR and Hillel a month earlier about the peace process. Al-Hibri talked about the places where the peace process fell apart and what possible hopes for peace might still remain.
"The Arab world of the 1990s is very different from the Arab world of the 1980s," said Al-Hibri. "It doesn't really matter anymore what leadership is around; the Arab world today is a very unstructured place."
He also described the common Palestinian complaint that "there is a double standard in the way America approached negotiations."
Al-Hibri also commented on the possibility of a peaceful resolution.
"We may be at the very last moments for a solution, which would be a unilateral withdrawal of Israel from the West Bank," said Al-Hibri. "Unfortunately I don't think this will happen."
Professor of History and American Studies Gordon Levin also commented on the failures of the peace process. He suggested that Israel could have given more ground in order "for the effort to have succeeded." He also added that, without a final settlement, "Barak was not willing to continue to withdraw."
Levin also emphasized that the "real goal of these negotiations" was the willingness of Palestine to, even in some small way, find a way to recognize the state of Israel. ""It's ironic but true that only the Palestinians can give legitimacy to the state of Israel."
Associate Professor of Religion Jamal Elias structured his observations around a series of questions for the audience and accused the American press of "dumbing down the discussion" about the Middle East. He cited a Fox News reporter who said "this violence started when Ariel Sharon visited a shrine sacred to both Jews and Arabs."
Elias took issue with references to the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock. He said that he was disturbed that "the Temple mount, Solomon's temple, the holiest of holies [was] reduced to a shrine," and "that a place of this magnitude [the Dome of the Rock] was reduced to a two-bit mosque."
Elias added that, "in [his] opinion, the Palestinians are oppressed people and we generally sympathize with oppressed peoples around the world."
"Why are the Palestinians not equal?" asked Elias. "Is it because the people on the other side are like us?"
The first student to speak was Tal Liron '03, who was born in Long Island, but grew up in Israel and served in the military there.
Liron spoke critically of a United Nations (UN) resolution prohibiting "excessive violence" to quell riots.
"These people [from the UN] are not ignorant of these matters and to call it excessive is incredibly cynical," said Liron. "No Israeli trusts the UN."
Liron, who characterized himself as on the "extreme left" concerning Israeli politics said that he was " incredibly, incredibly hopeful for the peace process." He also recognized that people on different sides can have entirely opposite versions of what is right.
"It's all about ideology, it's not about information," added Liron. "I didn't want to come [to the teach-in]. We all have the same information and we think entirely opposite things."
The final speaker, Mount Holyoke College student Mona Alsaad, is Palestinian and was raised in Palestine.
"My whole childhood was surrounded by feelings of tension and fear," said Alsaad.
She recalled her thoughts during the intifadah, an uprise of violence between Israelis and Palestinians in the 1980s. "What was the motive to make people risk their lives?" she asked. "We are fighting because we want to live a normal life-we want your life-we want basic human rights."
"I want to feel that I belong to a country. Palestine is not recognized as a country and it hurts me," added Alsaad. "They don't understand that, in certain situations, you have to throw stones. I really feel that my country is a prison for me and my people."
Alsaad, who said she checks the news on a daily basis, spoke of fear for her family in this time of violence. "Every time I hear my city was [attacked,] I call my parents to check that they're still alive."
"Before you judge the Palestinian struggle you should look at the incentive and the motive," said Alsaad. "It's not Arafat, it's the Palestinian people. It's an emotional uprising."
"There can be no doubt that Thursday's teach-in reeked of unwarranted, convoluted pro-Palestinian leanings," said Theodore Hertzberg '04.
Liron, in some of his final comments during the meeting said, "Probably I disagree with everything said here."
"The teach-in was not overly sympathetic to one side," said Katz.