Conference draws scorn, remains peaceful

DURHAM - Protesters, police and hundreds of Palestinian sympathizers flooded Duke University this weekend during the hotly debated yet peaceful Fourth Annual Conference of the Palestine Solidarity Movement.

Members of PSM voted Saturday against both the removal and rephrasing of a guiding principle that prevents the group from openly condemning violence.

But Rann Bar-On, PSM spokesman and a graduate student at Duke, said Sunday that the resolution failed by only a few votes.

The group voted to pass a resolution calling for coordination with the Anglican and Episcopal churches. "It will be an outreach with these folks," Bar-On said.

"We will send people to the churches to get them to pass a divestment resolution." Divestment is a policy, adopted by PSM, of withdrawing funds from groups associated with or in support of Israel.

A small Jewish group turned out each day to protest the conference for not condemning the terrorist acts of some Palestinian radicals. Sunday afternoon, 18 men and women from across the country came holding signs and chanting.

"Our only intent is to press the PSM to take an open stand against terrorist bombings," said Daniel Shuval, demonstration coordinator of Amcha, a group formed to support Holocaust victims. "They are justifying the killing of Israelis by not condemning terrorism."

But a second group of orthodox rabbis representing Neturei Karta International from New York stood across from the other protesters claiming that "real Jews" don't believe in a Jewish state, and that Zionists are not Jews.

"Zionism is a 100-year-old political movement to gain land, which is expressly forbidden by God," said Rabbi Yisroel Weiss.

"The Islamic people are extremely hurt by what is done in Palestine, and we are kidnapped because it is being done in the Jewish name."

The group joined the remaining 45 conference members in a march across campus while more than 50 students watched.

The Jewish group chanted first while the Palestinian supporters stood in silence then abruptly started chanting and performing an Arabic celebration dance.

Brewing tension

Controversy surrounding the PSM surfaced in August, when it was announced that the conference would take place at Duke.

Despite protest from on- and off-campus organizations - including an online petition with 90,000 signatures - Duke officials refused to cancel the conference, saying that because organizers followed procedure, they would not stop the event.

Still, the weekend remained peaceful. Students across campus held demonstrations, including an event last week by Chabad, the school's Jewish organization, which featured the display of a bombed-out bus. The Freeman Center for Jewish Life also held a counterconference.

A three-day event

During the course of the conference, several panels were held to discuss the ongoing conflict over Israeli and Palestinian borders.

Each panel discussion ended with a question-and-answer session where Bar-On said dialogue was encouraged regardless of point of view. "We want people to engage in debate instead of screaming at us."

But when two men voiced opposing opinions, they were quickly asked to hurry with their questions or take their seats.

Bob Dickman, a 1969 Duke graduate from Burbank, Calif., stood up Friday to ask about the Israeli view, but was met with some opposition. "I feel they are basically endorsing terrorism," he said before the conference. "I want to present another side of the issue."

On Sunday, Rick Dorfman, a student at Rutgers University School of Law-Camden, asked panelists to condemn the violence. But when he tried to discuss the issue, three men blocked him from the microphone and asked him to have a seat.

But for the most part, discussions stuck to the overreaching theme of the weekend: divestment.

As the situation worsens, Palestinians continue to suffer human rights abuses at the hands of Israelis, said Diana Buttu, a legal adviser for the Negotiations Affairs Department of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Buttu also discussed the International Court of Justice's ruling that the Israeli security wall is illegal and that construction should cease. She added that Israelis do not view Palestinians as equal, and that Palestinian homes and businesses are being destroyed to make way.

"It's not just a system of apartheid discrimination," Buttu said. "It's a system of trying to get rid of Palestinians in those areas while taking as much land as possible."

There also were discussions about the history of the U.S. role in the conflict. Most other events associated with the conference were closed to the public.

Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.