Speaking in the wake of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's death, international lawyer and Israeli spokesman Arthur Lenk told Penn Law students that "the Palestinians should have their own state."
"I'm here as a representative of the government of the state of Israel," Lenk said to an audience of around 40 people on Thursday, "to say I strive for the day when there [will be] two states living side by side in peace: Israel and Palestine."
Speaking at Penn's School of Law, the Israeli spokesman maintained that his government's first responsibility is the protection of its citizens. He evoked Article 51 of the U.N. Charter, which gives states the right to act in self-defense "if an armed attack occurs against a member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has taken measures necessary to maintain international peace and security."
"Israel had to take steps to protect its people," Lenk said of Israel's highly controversial barrier that separates it from the Occupied Territories. "The step that it chose was a temporary, nonviolent one -- the building of a security fence."
The lawyer said the fence would come down when Palestinian terrorist organizations cease to target Israeli civilians.
"We don't want a fence," Lenk said. "The fact is that the fence works. ... The barrier has drastically sunk the number of attacks."
Lenk championed Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to close down Israeli settlements in Gaza, which passed last month in the Knesset -- Israel's parliament. He believes the highly touted political maneuver will serve as a "gesture ... a sign that things can be better."
"The Palestinians would have control and responsibility for the Gaza Strip. It would answer some of the basic concerns we hear from Palestinian spokespeople regularly. They will have control over their own destiny," Lenk said.
Some members of the audience were skeptical of Lenk's position on disengagement, calling Israel's "gesture" a petty offering. Sharon's plan leaves the majority of Jewish settlements in the West Bank intact.
Penn Law student and Ph.D. candidate in Near Eastern Studies Adnan Zulfiqar challenged the speaker's position on the security wall.
"It doesn't make sense if you're saying, 'No violence, no fence.' The fence creates no violence. How will we know when it's no longer needed? Why isn't the fence gone yet?" Zulfiqar said.
"He didn't really speak [about] the disruption of Palestinian lives," Zulfiqar added, saying that Palestinians may end up "taking six hours to travel 15 minutes" because of the border security.
Other students said they conditionally supported the fence.
"I'm for the wall in the sense of protecting lives," Penn Medical School student and Ph.D. candidate in Biomedical Studies David Keleti said. "But I think that the sooner it comes down, the better. It's horrible to see Israeli taxpayer money go to something so divisive."
Keleti said he felt that the speaker took a defensive position on Israel's policies. He had expected him to speak more on the role of international law in the conflict.
Lenk works as a counselor in the Department of International Law in the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem. He drafts legal opinions and policy regarding Israel's foreign relations, and is a member of the bar in both Israel and New York.
Lenk was brought to campus by the Jewish Law Students Association.
