Intense Presentation on Palestine

So last night I went to San Diego State University where the Muslim Student's Association brought in a guest lecturer on Palestine. Unfortunately the person slated to come, a professor at Berkley got stuck in traffic and was unable to attend. So instead they found their third choice, a Palestinian who had some interesting insights onto the history of the situation in the middle east.


His main angle and source of information were a few key books, but primarily his own life experience and stories from his relatives and neighbors. While his stories and points were mostly valid, it lacked strength in argumentation. For example, if I told you that I saw a cop beating up a black man on the street, you could infer that the police were racist and brutal. However, unless I backed up that statement with facts on the situation, irrefutable ones that everyone can agree on, or at least understand, I probably wouldn't get you to believe that this cop was in the wrong.

Despite his best efforts (whatever a last minute call to present could be) his perspective was widely disapproved by the audience. During the questions and comments (mostly comments), his personal background was slightly attacked and chaos errupted. One lady spoke about her Jewish family who bought land pre-World War 2 in Palestine and has lived ever since. They might not agree with everything that has happened until now, and definitely hate the violence their own nation (or any nation) uses, but she sees that their people now have land.

nother lady demanded we all give money to support Palestine. Unfortunately today you really can't give direct funds to Palestine because it is lead by a democratically elected governement which has been deemed by the west as a terrorist cell. This means give them money and you'll probably have a kindly gentleman from the CIA or Homeland Security on your doorstep within a few days.

A final lady spoke up and said, "Look, forget religion and your personal involvement in the situation. This is a violation of human rights and women and children are dying and the big governments have pulled out funds to make a point. We need the entire world to react to this regardless if you are a Jew or Muslim or Christian or of no faith, for this has to do with everyone as human beings."

I would have to say that she gave perhaps the best comment I have ever heard regarding the crisis in the Middle East, especially since everyone always tends to get so personal about it no matter what their involvement.

So I say, don't give money, don't talk on something you don't know factually. Work to challenge people to understand the direness of the situation and help in any way they can by giving these people a chance to live a normal life. Do the same in any humanitarian crisis in the world for that matter. Don't just sit back while millions of people are killed without a chance of survival while we debate politics endlessly and try to mix our heritage or personal religious affiliation into it. We are all humans and those who are reading this comment right now are fortunate enough to not only have food, shelter, and safety, but also technology. Help the less fortunate.