Author and Palestinian rights activist Ali Abunimah discussed potential solutions to the Israel-Palestine conflict yesterday at the MultiCultural Center.
Hosted by UCSB’s Students for Justice in Palestine, the lecture featured Abunimah’s perspective on violence and oppression in Israel and Palestine. Abunimah founded Electronic Intifada, a website that publishes commentary on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from a Palestinian perspective.
According to Abunimah, current peace discussions between the two countries won’t provide a suitable outcome for citizens of the region.
“We’re entering the beginning of an end game in the sense that the peace process — the so-called negotiations — cannot lead out of the impasse,” Abunimah said. “They do not offer a path to the two states living side by side in peace.”
Abunimah said the roughly 1.2 million Palestinians living in Israel are controlled by a “three-tiered system of apartheid” similar to that in place in South Africa until the 1990s. By forcing Palestinians out of Israel, Abunimah said Israeli forces are destroying the possibility of implementing a successful two-state solution.
However, president of American Students for Israel Abraham Gean, a fourth-year business economics major, said Abunimah ignored historical evidence of the Jewish people’s claim to Israel.
“There is archaeology that shows that Jews were there thousands of years ago, and he just called it folklore, basically calling it a lie,” Gean said.
Abunimah, on the other hand, said Palestinians are the true victims. He said one of the most pressing issues in the region today is a series of preventative laws enforced by Israeli authorities on Palestinians native to Israel.
“What you have is a set of what I can only describe as racist laws that restrict the movements of Palestinians in a number of ways,” Abunimah said. “My own mother, for example, was born in Jerusalem. She now lives in Jordan, and she’s not allowed to go back.”
Students for Justice in Palestine facilitator Noor Aljawad, a second-year Middle Eastern studies and sociology major, said it is important for the campus to hear a Palestinian perspective on the conflict given America’s openly pro-Israel ties.
“I feel that we often hear the mainstream line about the conflict and it’s very biased,” Aljawad said. “Corporate media has a very pro-Israel bias, so to have [Abunimah] come speak and deflect their propaganda was really cool to hear because it’s hard to find a pro-Palestinian perspective on campus or anywhere else, especially in the media.”
In addition to advocating a system of boycott, divestment and sanctions of the West Bank region, Abunimah said Hamas should be recognized as a legitimate political power forced to resort to violence as a result of dire circumstances.
“Hamas is as pragmatic as any other political movement,” Abunimah said. “Their positions have moved and Israel — despite their claims that it doesn’t negotiate with them — has done so repeatedly. Hamas is ideologically flexible enough to negotiate.”
However, not all audience members shared Abunimah’s support for Hamas.
According to Gean, Hamas has used airstrikes to blatantly target Israeli civilians.
“They don’t attack military bases; they attack coffee shops, they attack dance clubs, they attack schools — their rockets hit everywhere,” Gean said. “They kill innocent civilians. Unfortunately, Palestinians have been killed, but it’s only in an attempt to destabilize the internationally recognized terrorist organization [Hamas].”
Despite hostilities between both sides, Abunimah said he hopes to see an environment in which both Israelis and Palestinians can peacefully coexist.
“I’m advocating the destruction of a racist system and its replacement with a democratic system,” Abunimah said. “I believe the Israeli Jews and Palestinians have a right to live in equality and tranquility. That’s what my goal is; that’s what I’m working for.”
I went to this event and I was surprised by two things. Number one, the speaker held back a lot and those defending the state of israel where incredibly ignorant of the history of the state itself.
Where as the students there from ASI conjured up specious arguments, the speaker was able to counter them with specific facts and real evidence that discredited the premises of their arguments.
I’m dissapointed by the fact that there aren’t enough students willing to actually study the history of the conflict and actually investigate what both sides have to say about it.
While it’s true that many students do not study the history of the conflict enough, I thought the speaker’s own failure to provide a well rounded historical background was even more disappointing. While he didn’t tell many outright lies, he left out major pieces of the bigger picture which are essential to understanding the past and current causes of the conflict. More or less he only talked about the things that suited his point. It seems to me that he sees most of the bigger picture, but chooses to leave certain things out on purpose, and refuses to answer directly… Read more »
Any attempt at that would never get anywhere. It took me an entire class to learn about the conflict in the area. Any account he could give would fall short in anyone’s mind as there was only two hours to cover what is happening now.
I dont know what those major pieces of the picture you are referring to, but I fail to see how Hamas’ treatment of its own people would have any relevance to the discussion he was having.
His suggested “end game” to the conflict is a one-state solution. In this solution, the Palestinians would end up being a slight majority in terms of population, and would have a more sizable majority if/when the refugees outside the country come back. This raises the possibility of Hamas becoming the ruling party of the country, as it is very likely that people would vote along ethnic lines. Hamas has committed unspeakable atrocities against its own people during its rule in Gaza, so one can only imagine how they would treat a Jewish minority. Sort of important to consider if you… Read more »
LOL. you think Hamas will be voted in? Gimme a break.
why not? Fatah is extremely corrupt and has only maintained its hold over the west bank because the Americans trained their security forces and made them professional. If you think about which of the two parties are more popular among Palestinians, Hamas is definitely it. Either way, it’s a gamble no Israeli leader should ever take. Kind of like Russian roulette.
The talk by Ali Abunimah was amazing. Thanks to the audience for great questions. I learned so much. The food was delicious. Thanks to Students for a Democratic Palestine and Mr. Abunimah.
I believe Ali has provided all the argument you need to launch a campaign to boycott all Israeli products at UNM.
ASUNM should immediately consider a resolution to boycott all products from Israel, which is the last apartheid state in the world.
To say that there is only one apartheid state in this world is the source of arguments that anti-Zionism is antisemitism. Apartheid is the afrikaans word for separateness and there are many other countries in the world where governments oppress certain groups or even the majority of the populace. When you that Israel is “the last apartheid state in the world” you are focusing on a single conflict when there is so much more suffering. How could Jews not think that you are targeting them?
who says lol about hamas???
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