Teach-in examines Israeli oppression

  NICOLE MILLER/Daily Bruin At Meyerhoff Park, third-year student Mahmud Penjwini, of the Muslim Student Association, speaks against Israeli aggression.

By Melody Wang

Daily Bruin Reporter

Recent outbreaks of violence in Israel sparked the Muslim Student Association to hold a teach-in about the current Palestinian situation Tuesday afternoon.

The event at Meyerhoff Park was part of a “National Day of Outrage,” with more than 20 colleges and universities nationwide holding similar teach-ins and rallies.

“We want to have a united effort among us to show a united opposition to what’s going on,” said Sohail Shakeri, president of MSA West, a coalition of MSAs in California, which organized the event.

For the past month, the media has continuously reported tension between the Israelis and Palestinians, but problems have existed for more than 50 years since Israel was created.

At the teach-in, MSA members described the oppression of Palestinians by Israeli soldiers and how current events in the Middle East affect everyone in the world.

For example, MSA member Haider Sabri attributed the recent drop in the stock market and increase of oil prices to what’s going on in the region.

“Israel is a constant instability in the world,” Sabri said.

But others said MSA is focusing too much on the problem and not enough on the solution.

“(The Palestinians) have no vision of peace, they only have a vision of violence,” said Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller, who has advocated the establishment of Palestine since 1993.

At the teach-in, MSA members handed out green arm bands to students to show their support for the Palestinians.

“We need anybody and everybody to support this,” said MSA member Karim El-Sherief. “This isn’t just a Palestinian issue. It’s a human issue.”

Speakers at Tuesday’s event described in detail the killing of thousands of Palestinians, and voiced their thoughts on the issue.

“This is not a war for independence,” said Gabriel Piterberg, a professor in the history department. “It’s a struggle of an oppressed civilian population against an existing state with one of the most powerful armies in the world.”

Reem Salahi, a director of the Mentors for Academic Peer Support, talked about Palestinian children dying in the struggle against oppression while throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers.

“They’re the ones who are fighting the opponents that we in the U.S. are too scared to fight,” Salahi said.

Salahi added that while it is tragic that these children are dying, they are dying as heroes.

Seidler-Feller disagreed and said parents are the ones sending their children out to fight.

“The question is why are mothers teaching their children to be martyrs?” he said.

But Piterberg said it would be difficult to establish peace with both Palestinians and Jews present in the country.

“You can’t have a Palestinian state with its own rights, when you have 150,000 Jewish extremists sitting in the middle,” Piterberg said during the teach-in.

Seidler-Feller said because of the current crisis, rallying is not the solution and people need to work toward peace and compromise.

“Human history has been of different people learning to live side by side,” he said.

While the issue discussed at the teach-in was controversial, there was no organized opposition present like there has been in past years when MSA held similar events.

Last year, for example, MSA held forums and rallies denouncing the oppression of Palestinians while members of the Jewish Student Union held signs opposing MSA’s viewpoint.

Seidler-Feller said today is not a time to yell and scream, but for some serious dialogue.

“It’s not a question of passivity, it’s more of an issue of maturity,” he said.

Other universities who participated in Tuesday’s event include Stanford and Colorado State University.