Reconciliation week puts human aspect on conflicts
By Gina Belmonte
For over half a century, the Israeli-Palestinian regional conflict has persisted, costing thousands of human lives and displacing millions more.
Next week, events organized by a Jewish and a Muslim student will put a focus on the numerous children who have died in this conflict.
Several student clubs and university departments have come together under the leadership of seniors Ari Zlotoff, who defines himself as a practicing Jew, and Roujin Mozaffarimehr, who defines herself as a non-practicing Muslim.
They are coordinating reconciliation week, a series of events dedicated to recognizing the tragedy in the Middle East and its worldwide implications.
"The whole point is not to draw out a solution or force negotiations," said Zlotoff.
"It's a mourning service to realize the loss of lives, to bring conflict closer to home and to have people realize that there are kids involved, and recognize the tragedy," said Zlotoff.
Zlotoff visited Israel in December of last year, after he began planning this project.
Political science professor Eric Hanson said he would like reconciliation week to open up a better dialogue on campus about these issues.
"Hopefully the weekly events will provide a better understanding of the complexity of this particular issue, which will enable them (students) to make positive contributions to mutual understandings in the future," said Hanson.
Another of the week's purposes is to momentarily discard the entangled political tensions and highlight the similarities between the people of the two cultural groups.
The week will begin with a screening of the HBO documentary "To Die in Jerusalem" on Monday, May 19.
The film follows the story of an Israeli mother who sets out to meet the mother of the Palestinian suicide bomber who was responsible for the death of the Israeli's teenage daughter.
On Monday, participants are asked to fast from noon until 6 p.m. Students will then break the fast with a catered meal in the quad outside of Bannan Engineering.
Tuesday night, after another day of fasting, participants will feast in a celebration of various foods, dancing and music at Wrap This, a Mediterranean cuisine restaurant near campus.
The week's finale will consist of an interfaith service on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. in the Mission Church.
The service will include members of various religious backgrounds from the university community.
It will also include children's testimonies, poetry readings and prayers, said Zlotoff.
"Trying to find something that's common and shared is the most basic level to operate for a peaceful solution," said senior James Driscoll.
"The involvement of children is a common shared tragedy and common human prayer is one way of at least getting the people in the same room," he added.
Planning for the events began around November, when Zlotoff and Mozaffarimehr were taking Hanson's senior seminar on religion and politics.
In the seminar, Zlotoff and Mozaffarimehr were inspired to create a platform for members of the Santa Clara community to come together and approach the tensions surrounding these issues from a spiritual angle, without any political spins.
"In the end, reconciliation is between human beings, not political positions," said Hanson.
One reason why there hasn't been a successful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is there hasn't been some kind of reconciliation process to provide a mutual understanding of both sides, said Hanson.
This would also create a sense of sympathy and concern between the Israeli and Palestinian perspectives, he added.
Reconciliation week hopes to amend this problem at Santa Clara.
"I think it's a major conflict which has continued for so long because, unfortunately, tension is ruled by and dictated by positions on the extreme," said Farid Senzai, a political science professor who specializes in Middle Eastern affairs.
It's obviously a very complex issue, Hanson said.
He added that Zlotoff and Mozaffarimehr did a good job of consulting the constituents of all perspectives.
The origins of the conflict center around a territorial dispute over the land between Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon, which includes the religiously-significant city of Jerusalem.
Intense war and violence have been regular occurrences between the people who reside in this area since the United Nations declared Israel to be a state in 1948.
As a result of these conflicts, the borders between Israeli and Palestinian territories, as well as the surrounding Arab countries, have changed several times.
This has resulted in many Palestinians fleeing to refugee camps in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and throughout the Middle East.
There are over four million refugees in these areas, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.
Zlotoff and Mozaffarimehr turned to several departments and student clubs for support in the coordination of the events.
The Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, Campus Ministry, The Arabic, Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies program and the political science and the religious studies and modern languages deparments all sponsored the event.
Volunteers from the Arab Cultural Society, Muslim Student Association, Santa Clara Community Action Program and several political science majors also participated in the event planning.
Contact Gina Belmonte at (408) 554-4546 or gbelmonte@scu.edu