Students, Speakers Celebrate International Day of Solidarity

By Sheena Chestnut
Stanford Daily
Monday, January 7, 2002

Just days before a pair of suicide bombings by Islamic militants killed 25 in Israel, a small group gathered on Nov. 29 at Stanford to observe an International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, presented by the Coalition for Justice in Israel/Palestine.

About 30 people met in Bldg. 320 to hear four speakers present their experiences and opinions and had the chance to ask questions of the panelists.

According to a publicity e-mail for the event, the day is observed by the United Nations every year on Nov. 29. On that day in 1947, the UN General Assembly adopted the Partition Plan, which provided for the establishment of a "Jewish state" and an "Arab state" in Palestine.

The coalition offered fliers explaining its mission to "educate the American public about the plight of Palestinians living under the U.S.-sponsored Israeli occupation and apartheid and contribute to the campaign against these violent, inhumane acts."

According to Modern Thought and Literature doctoral student Yael Ben-zvi, one of the panel's organizers and a member of the coalition, "[The organization's] main goal is educating the public about what it often doesn't get a chance to hear in the media. We believe that if more facts about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and the nature of U.S. involvement in it were known, our communities would have been able to help resolve this painful conflict for the benefit of all sides."

Modern Thought and Literature doctoral student Evelyn Alsultany spoke about the conflict in light of the events of Sept. 11 and urged citizens to "resist the attempts by the media, politicians and individuals to reconstruct a distinct separation between an 'us' and 'them.'

"Our relationship with peoples of other nations has changed, particularly those who have experienced terror and tragedy," she continued. "[People need to] take this moment of identification to stand in solidarity and demand peaceful solutions to the problems that cause violence and terror."

Alsultany argued, as did several others, that the U.S. must stop aid to Israel and support the Palestinian people's right to self-determination and national independence.

Dudy Tzfati, an Israeli post-doctoral fellow at UC-San Francisco and co-founder of the Alliance for a Just Peace in the Middle East, added, "In solidarity lies the possibility to bring two collective identities together to overlap somehow, so that they are no longer mutually exclusive."

Responding to the recent wave of Palestinian suicide bombings in Israeli territory, Tzfati said, "Solidarity with the Palestinian people does not mean supporting the killing of Israelis, just like solidarity with the Israeli people does not mean supporting the occupation and the killing of Palestinians."

"If we care about both [groups] and want to save the lives of Palestinians and Israelis alike, [we must] oppose the occupation and assassination policies that led to this bloodshed," he continued.

Senior Randa Serag, who attended the presentation, said she wanted to express her "solidarity with the long-oppressed Palestinian people."

"It was enlightening and encouraged me to think about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in new ways," she said.