Medill News Service article - Published: Nov. 28, 2001

West Bank students discuss their homeland with UIC group

By Patrick Cooper
Medill News Service

The technology didn't come through for University of Illinois at Chicago Prof. Lennard Davis on Wednesday, but the idea certainly did.

Despite the failure of a video conference connection, a group of the UIC students talked by phone for an hour with students at the Palestinian Birzeit University, with questions about each other's cultures flying from Chicago to the West Bank town of Ramallah and back.

"Students Talking to Students," the brainchild of the UIC's Davis and his wife, connected the students so they could share their thoughts and experiences of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Surprisingly, many of the students' questions for each other were similar.

The Palestinians asked whether Bush spoke for most Americans and what the Americans thought of the bombing of Afghanistan.

The Americans asked whether Yasser Arafat spoke for most Palestinians and what the Palestinians thought of suicide bombers.

A Birzeit MBA student pleaded with the UIC panelists and the about 40 people in the audience to understand the situation in the Mideast. "Can you imagine?" he said. "Can you, please?"

The Birzeit students said the latest flare-up in the decades-long fighting has changed their lives. Birzeit senior Muna Shikaki talked about the war-modified commute most students have from their homes in Ramallah to the university's small suburb.

It used to be 10-minute drive, Shikaki said. Now, with Israeli checkpoints in place, the drive can take as long as 40 minutes. And far worse, according to Shikaki, "is the humiliation."

Palestinians must walk through the checkpoints under the eye of machine gun-toting Israeli soldiers, she said angrily. "They have to get out of their cars. They have to get out of their taxis."

Born and raised in the United States, Birzeit graduate student Amer Kheiry said his experiences in the West Bank had been incomparable to his undergraduate years at the University of Texas.

"As much as we sit here and tell our personal stories, you have to come and see for yourself," Kheiry said. Listing the Israeli army's American-made guns, planes, helicopters and tanks that Birzeit students see regularly, he said the situation stirred complicated emotions in him.

"It's hard for me to say 'God bless America,'.... It's very confusing."

Throughout the discussion, students from both schools stressed the diversity of their national cultures and tried to break down myths.

One Birzeit student brought up the well-known CNN video footage of a group of Palestinians rejoicing on Sept. 11, laughing and passing out candy to children. She said these people were extremists, comparing them to U.S. citizens who wear T-shirts printed with hateful statements, like "Kill Arabs."

"I would ask you to have some patience with us," panelist and UIC PhD. student Rebecca Maniglia told the Palestinians. Following the terrorist attacks on the United States, she said more Americans had opened their eyes to the world and their country's role in the global scene.

"I think (the change) will bear some good fruit, but it will take time," Maniglia said.

"We should just never lose hope," said UIC senior Fawzi Mohammad. He noted there were "good people on both sides" of the conflict.

The head of UIC's English department, Lennard Davis and his wife, Bella Mirabella, a New York University professor, came up with the idea together following the Sept. 11 attacks. They wanted a talk, not a debate.

Instead of bringing faculty or experts together for a discussion, he convened students because "the emotional conflict and the desire to know is greater" for them, Davis said. "Faculty feel they know everything."

Davis was encouraged that Wednesday's talk became "more heartfelt" as it went along. He and his wife plan to create a kit or program so other universities can host similar events.

In their closing remarks, many of the students from UIC and Birzeit said they would like to continue their conversation. Davis said he plans to try the video conference again next semester.

Meanwhile he is setting up a e-mail discussion group for the students. He said he is also developing a course for next fall that would bring UIC and Middle Eastern students together by video conference for an entire semester.

But just setting up Wednesday's discussion proved more difficult than expected. The talk was set to take place more than a month ago, but then Israeli troops closed Ramallah. Birzeit remained shut down until recently.

Another complication arose when the woman who was Davis's prime contact at Birzeit was injured in a demonstration.

Dalia Habash's legs were broken some type of "noise bomb" exploded at her feet, Davis said. Unable to walk enough to pass through a checkpoint between Ramallah and the university, she remained at home Wednesday.

Then, finally, Birzeit had technical problems that prevented the video, and briefly audio, from working Wednesday. "They're there. We're here," Davis told the audience before they were able to establish a telephone connection. "And all we're missing is contact."

Pausing a second to think over his words, he let out a small laugh. "That's kind of metaphorically interesting, isn't it?"