Groups work for awareness of Israel, Palestine conflict

The organizations look to educate on all sides of the issues.

By Megan Swieca

Published March 5, 2010

Columbia and the conflicts in the Middle East have thousands of miles between them, but several organizations, with varying beliefs and opinions, are hoping to educate MU and the community about the disputes.

Mid-Missourians for Israel is a newly formed pro-Israel organization comprised mostly of people who are Evangelical Christian and Jewish on the MU campus and community.

"Our mission is to be a positive support for Israel in Columbia and at MU," Provisional Chairman Dan Goldschmidt said. "We will also act as a watchdog and speak out defending Israel from anti-Israel rhetoric and speakers."

The group's goal is to bring a minimum of two pro-Israel speakers to MU every year.

The first was Jeremy Gimpel, a commander in the Israel Defense Forces reserves, co-founder of thelandofisrael.com and creator and host of the TV show, "Tuesday Night Live in Jerusalem."

"Everyone is blaming Zionism for the lack of world peace," Gimpel said in his opening address. "No one sees the optimism and spiritual revival in Israel."

Another group at MU familiar with this issue is the Muslim Student Organization. The organization mostly hosts pro-Palestinian speakers but tries to present both sides and inform people about the conflicts.

"The Palestinian side isn't well-represented in the media," public relations officer Bushra Naz said.

Last year, MSO hosted speaker Mohamad El-Housiny, who volunteers with Viva Palestina, a national organization that sends humanitarian convoys into Gaza. El-Housiny recently returned from one of these convoys.

"The realities on the ground are unimaginable to the everyday American," El-Housiny said in an e-mail.

The attacks are occurring both ways. El-Housiny said he could relate to the fear of attack the Israelis have because he has lived in Gaza and witnessed it.

"But my recent visit on the Convoy and having been witness to the atrocities in the Gaza firsthand, it's hard for me to sympathize with the oppressor," El-Housiny said.

The Palestine Israel Peace Association is another new organization with hopes to humanize the conflicts and inform students and the community of both sides.

"It's not bad to be a supporter of Israel or Palestine, what hinders this is that people think you have to only support one or the other," Palestine Israel Peace Association President Saleem Alhabash said.

He said organizations with a certain viewpoint are beneficial because they recruit people who share similar beliefs.

"This organization takes a different approach," he said. "With my interaction with American young people, confrontation makes people uneasy. So we take a step back and want to try to be objective by exploring different sides of the conflict."

All the organizations expressed that the majority of people in both Palestine and Israel are separated from the politics of the situation and are merely victims of a war that has yet to reach a resolution.

Alhabash said the conflict would be resolved if the Israeli occupation ended.

"If they refuse to accept that the Israel committed war crimes, broke UN resolutions and other crimes that are well documented in the Goldstone report and other documents, how we can even have a respectable debate on the subject," El-Housiny said.

Goldschmidt said Israel has always wanted peace and supported a two state proposition, which would give Israel independence. He said Arabs rejected the proposition.

"I do believe that if the Palestinian people were left to their own discretion without the control of their leaders that peace could be found as it has been between Jordan and Israel and that both sides would prosper," Goldschmidt said.

Mid-Missourians for Israel and Palestine Israel Peace Association hope to get students and the community involved as the organizations grow.