A student-panel discussion on the role of international law in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, held last night in Huntsman Hall, showed that people can be controversial while still being civil.
Sponsored by Penn Arab Students Society, the panel was moderated by Wharton Graduate Association President Hassan El-Houry, a second-year MBA student, and featured a diverse group of six speakers from various cultural and humanitarian groups on campus.
Each panelist approached the issue of international law from his or her specific area of interest. El-Houry emphasized that each panelist presented only his or her own personal viewpoint, and stressed the importance of respect and support for one another.
First to speak was College graduate student Aviad Eilam, of Kedma Journal, a campus Jewish-themed publication. Eilam argued that international law could not be applied to the Israeli-Palestinian situation because it was too complex an issue to be determined solely by the courts.
"We should take a pragmatic, practical approach to this argument," Eilam said, explaining that change could only come from within each side.
College junior and Penn for UNICEF member Loren Voss, however, stressed the importance of upholding international law for a people she said were being denied basic human needs of consumption, especially Palestinian children.
"They don't even have enough schools as it is, and here they are being turned into military bases," she said.
Voss added that over half of Palestinian households live off of one meal a day.
College sophomore Karim Abdel-Latif of Students for Justice in Palestine described Israeli settlements as illegal and argued that there could be no justice as long as they remained, since they are a cumulative cause of strife for Palestinians.
College senior Aaron Rock, also of Kedma Journal, pointed out that, while most of the Israeli settlements should be dismantled, some should remain because they have become so large. Rock stressed that any viable Palestinian state would need to include Gaza, the West Bank and a Jerusalem capital shared with Israel.
PASS President Reem Kassis, a sophomore in the Huntsman Program, said he was pleased with the way the event turned out.
"The panelists were moderate and were honestly interested in what the other panelists had to say, and the audience was also engaged in the discussion."
"I felt that the speakers presenting the humanitarian views weren't very balanced," said Engineering freshman Hart Levine, "but it was very nice how people were very responsive to listening to other people," he added.
The panel "really allowed for constructive discussion on the whole spectrum of the issues," College freshman Salah Chafik added.
Penn Hillel was absent from the panel because PASS offered them only a seat on the panel, not input in the planning stages, said College senior and Hillel president Ezra Billinkoff.
