Arabs, Jews seek understanding

While peacemakers in the Middle East struggle to find a resolution to the age-old conflict between the Jews and the Palestinians, a group of Jewish and Arab Penn students met Tuesday night to come to an understanding of their own. The meeting was part of a series of dialogues launched by College sophomore Ari Alexander and by the co-presidents of the Penn Arab Students Society, College senior Heba Abdulla and first-year Medical student Kareem Zaghloul. The dialogues are informal, student-led discussions of approximately 20 Jewish and 20 Arab students. In later sessions, the students plan to break up into more intimate groups of about four. Ultimately, the goal of the program is to open the channels of communication and break down the preconceptions between the Jewish and Arab communities at Penn. Alexander cited tension between these groups in the past and hopes that these discussions will help to "break down the barriers and bridge the gaps" between them. "Rarely do people of a different mix come together in one room," he said, explaining that Penn is well-known for the diversity of its student body but not as well for the blending of different cultures. "It is not a question of Jews and Arabs, it is a question of democracy and not democracy, of liberty and not liberty," College sophomore Hanny Hindi said. Most students attended the dialogue because they had family ties in the disputed territories and wanted to achieve a greater understanding of the conflict. The discussion opened with students' reactions to Binyamin Netanyahu's recent speech at Irvine Auditorium. Most felt it was an effective talk and agreed with the former Israeli prime minister's definition of a capable leader. Zaghloul, however, commented on the "duplicity" of Netanyahu's words as opposed to his actions while in office. Though students' opinions of Netanyahu were on the whole fairly consistent, the remainder of the debate was more hotly contested. Still, Alexander noted, it was not as contentious as some of last year's dialogues, at which "people would often break down crying." Issues addressed included the need for a Palestinian state, sovereignty over the West Bank, Israel's repression of Arabs within her borders and Arab terrorism. Among the concerns of Palestinian representatives were eviction from their homeland, the stereotypes surrounding Arabs and the unequal treatment of Palestinians in Israel. The Israeli faction, on the other hand, was most focused on issues of security. By the end of the night, some small agreements among the students had been reached. Those in attendance agreed, for instance, that education was the key factor in the peace process. Also, students acknowledged that changes in the present situation would be gradual and slow.