Invited by the Rutgers Hillel Student Board, international organization “OneVoice Movement” came to the University last night to speak at length of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict last night in the Student Activities Center on the College Avenue campus.
The event featured two keynote speakers — activists Dana Sender, who represented OneVoice-Israel and Roza Helou, who represented OneVoice-Palestine. Sender spoke about the Palestine-Israel conflict’s impact on her childhood in Israel, while Helou spoke about its impact on her childhood in Palestine.
“We’re here to share personal stories so you know what it’s like to be an Israeli and a Palestinian,” said Sender, who served in the Israeli army as a social worker.
Helou, whose father was imprisoned by Israeli forces for his affiliation with the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, talked about the struggles she faced in Palestine because of the violent nature of the conflict and said she wishes to be free of the trauma one day.
“It’s not easy for us because we’re in a conflict each and every day … we need to live a normal life like you live a normal life,” she said.
The Rutgers Hillel board invited OneVoice to speak last night because they agree with the overall message the organization promotes, said Ezekiel Pariser, Orthodox Committee Chair of Hillel.
“OneVoice’s goal is to encourage and promote solutions to the conflict … to help citizens of America see the conflict from both sides [and to] encourage leaders in government to act and help in the conflict,” said Pariser, a School of Arts and Sciences junior.
Hillel Vice President and event coordinator Kim Schwartzman arranged the event in December after her Jewish studies professor Samuel Peleg encouraged her to work more closely with OneVoice, an organization Peleg was affiliated with.
Although the initial purpose of the event was for Hillel to work with OneVoice to relay both sides of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, School of Arts and Sciences senior Schwartzman said the goal has slightly changed.
“At first, it was just to get people to hear both sides of the conflict, but now we think this is a perfect event to help open minds,” she said.
Pariser said Hillel wanted both sides of the conflict to be heard so University students could see the real, uncolored issue at hand.
“Hillel’s goal [in holding] this event is to promote dialogue that invokes the public to both sides of the issue,” he said.
Rachel Steinberg, the International Education Program manager for OneVoice, agreed that both sides of the issue should be heard, but disagreed that OneVoice wanted to encourage any one solution.
“We’re not trying to promote anything,” she said, “But there is significant consensus for a two- state solution based on 1967 borders.”
OneVoice is a purely non-partisan organization, Steinberg said.
Following Sender and Helou’s narratives, as well as Steinberg’s short Powerpoint presentation, audience members were given the opportunity to ask questions of the two speakers to end the event.
Pariser hopes the event made a positive difference to the University community.
“It will promote peaceful dialogue on campus, in which both sides are given the opportunity and the chance to express themselves in an informed and intellectual and academically honest forum,” he said.
The Hillel student board extended an invitation to BAKA: Students United for Middle Eastern Justice in a letter to the editor published in The Daily Targum on Feb. 7 but BAKA declined to take part in the event.
Hoda Mitwally, the public relations officer for BAKA, said she, along with BAKA, do not agree with the two-state proposal OneVoice promotes.
“OneVoice’s approach takes a very Israel-centric approach … there’s hardly any mention of what falls upon the Palestinians,” said Mitwally, a School of Arts and Sciences senior. “It calls for a two-state solution which is extremely flawed.”
Mitwally disagreed with Pariser and said the event did not impact the University community in any way because OneVoice withholds a significant number of details that surround Israel-Palestine conflict from the public.
“OneVoice places a veil on these very important issues and turns important discussions on Israel-Palestine into a pow-wow session where everybody holds hands and talks about peace but does not talk about how to formulate the conditions for peace and justice,” she said.
Although the organization refused to take place in the event, members of BAKA had the right to attend on their own, Mitwally said.
Sami Jitan, events coordinator for BAKA and a School of Arts and Sciences senior, considered attending the event because he wanted to know if OneVoice would spread any misconceptions surrounding the Middle-Eastern conflict.
“I’m interested to see what they’re saying,” he said. “As Rutgers students are going to be listening to the event and taking what they say, I’m interested to see what kinds of misconceptions that might be propagated at the event.”
Mitwally nor Jitan believe Hillel or BAKA are ready to sit down without administrators to discuss the matter at hand.
“I think a lot needs to be acknowledged before we can sit down,” Jitan said.
Mitwally, on the other hand, does not agree with Hillel’s approach in any aspect.
“Well the approach that Hillel is taking is to silence Palestinians and supporters of the Palestinian people, to pigeonhole them into positions, to make accusations about what they stand for,” she said. “I don’t think we’re ever going to agree on our politics.”
Schwartzman said she wishes to remain hopeful that Hillel and BAKA can negotiate successfully one day.
“We’re still going to keep on trying to reach out,” she said. “If it takes us nagging them to co-sponsor, we’ll do it.”