Palestinian and Israeli students Wednesday night shared their views on the territorial conflicts in the Middle East with all who would listen at an event titled \Palestine 101.""
""In the West Bank, in Gaza, the year is not 2004,"" said UW-Madison graduate student Mohammed Abed, a member of the Palestine Right to Return Coalition and leader of the discussion. ""Every day is 1948 in slow motion.""
That was the year Israel declared its independence, leading to a short but violent conflict as five Arab countries-Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and what is now Jordan-invaded the new Jewish state.
""For years, the nightmare scenario for Israel was not Palestinian suicide bombers,"" said Joel Bennett, a member of the Hillel Board of Directors. ""It was Iraqi tank brigades lining up along the Jordan River.""
The wall, which in many places is a fence, that Israel has begun to build around the West Bank is just one modern-day reminder of the ongoing separation between the two ethnic groups.
Abed said the wall would ""swallow up"" about half of the West Bank as it snakes through Palestinian territory. West Bank residents, he said, would have to pass through Israeli checkpoints to reach their own farms.
Israeli and international courts have temporarily halted the barrier's construction as they deal with these and similar objections.
Tensions grew during the discussion as audience members debated how the two embattled groups could reconcile.
""At the end of the day, it will be the leaders of the two countries who will have to make the decision,"" said Hillel member Shirin Ezekiel.
However, no one present spoke favorably of Palestinian leader Yassir Arafat and Israeli President Ariel Sharon's ability or inclination to bring peace to the region.
Fayyad Sbaihat, a Palestinian and UW-Madison senior who came to the United States in 1998, said Sharon ""gets high off of war.""
""I think that peace can only come about from normal people talking,"" said Abed, who called the leaders of both nations self-interested.
Abed supports the unification of Israel and Palestine into a single entity, a view he admits is hardly popular.
""For me, part of being in Israel ... is being in a Jewish state,"" Ezekiel said.
