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Close to 100 people gathered in the Thomas J. Dodd Center Thursday night to listen to two speakers, one Israeli and one Palestinian to discuss the current conflict in the Middle East.
The event was run by OneVoice, a nonpartisan Israeli and Palestinian organization that works for peace in the region. OneVoice currently has more than 200,000 members in the region.
"OneVoice transcends the divides that have traditionally kept the region off the road to peace and on the highway to war," as stated in a release from the organization. "People in the region are beginning to stand up for their moderate beliefs and their willingness to compromise to secure a future that is at once a painful sacrifice and culmination of years of dreams. As those who claim to defend and represent them, we must follow their lead."
The Palestinian speaker, Nelly Soudah, 24, joined the OneVoice program because she and her sister wanted to help work for peace and statehood for her community. Soudah currently works on OneVoice events in and around Ramallah, according to a description of the event posted on the facebook.com web site.
Odelia Englander, 25, spoke from her perspective as an Israeli. She joined OneVoice after a suicide bomb attack seriously wounded one of her friends. Englander works actively with the organization in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, the facebook description said.
"I hated every Palestinian, I wanted revenge for my friend," Englander said, describing her feelings after the attack that hurt her friend.
Upon further contemplation, Englander changed her views on the subject matter.
"I said to myself, 'I don't want the situation to go on like this, I want peace.'"
"Growing up, hatred and fear grew with me," Soudah said.
She described the imprisonment of her sister's fiancé, who was beaten so severely that he lost his sight and the trouble she had originally moving past her anger to work for peace.
"We're not here to talk about right and wrong," Soudah said. "We're both suffering and that's enough."
After a presentation on the history and goals of OneVoice, both speakers shared their stories and the event was opened up for a question and answer format discussion with the crowd.
Topics include the Hammas government, which currently runs Palestine and does not recognize Israel's right to exist and the possibility of a two state solution to the conflict was also discussed.
The event was brought to UConn in large part because of Edward Giebau, a 5th semester Middle East Studies major. Giebau said he had attended events discussing similar topics before but found them to be attended by students who mainly supported one side, depending on who hosted the event. He contacted organizations on campus that represent both Jewish and Muslim students in an attempt to make this event balanced.
"I loved it," said Reem Teomesani, a 3rd semester pharmacy major, who was so upset by an event discussing the same issue last year that she was brought to tears. She said the OneVoice presentation felt more diverse with opinions being presented from both sides.
"It was pretty interesting," said Faisal Kashem, a 7th-semester business major, "It was very optimistic and its good to see people take this to heart and try to cross boundaries.
"They [OneVoice] are very smart," said Nik Shpilberg, a 5th-semester philosophy major who is an Israeli. "They have got the right idea, but they won't succeed unless everybody helps."
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