Re: Berkeley Leading Change [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- OK, I now understand that these discussions were/are *not* a good new thing, after all. In particular because of what Snehal S. wrote, as quoted below, I retract my earlier recommendation that this be tried elsewhere. Clearly, no real progress has been achieved, perhaps not even intended; on the contrary, just another distraction of a type infamous since long, here in Sweden too, for instance. I'm forwarding this also to some other lists. Rolf M. Malmö, Sweden At 21:19 2002-06-24 -0700, you (Dave Kersting [EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: If Israel's supporters insist on maintaining its identity as an officially Jewish state, if they insist on perpetuating the violent expulsion of ethnically unsuited Palestinians, they must be expected to suppress reasonable discussion, through shouting, slanders, etc, rather than allow their violent racism to be calmly and reasonably identified for what it is. Israel's racists would have us define a reasonable dialogue as one which helps them pretend violent state-racism is not violent state-racism. Dave Kersting Lest anyone get the wrong idea, these discussions are not being attended by the majority of pro-Palestinian activists who see these discussions as distractions and deliberate attempts to sideline activism in favor of consciousness-raising and navel-gazing. These discussions have done little to change actual policy and even less to reduce the venom of the zionists on campus against the pro-Palestinian activists. I encourage people at other schools who are genuinely interested in Palestinian liberation to treat these dialogues with suspicion. Snehal S. UC Berkeley From: Rolf Martens [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] CC: [EMAIL PROTECTED],[EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED],[EMAIL PROTECTED],[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: eFreePalestine! Re: Berkeley Leading Change Date: Mon, 24 Jun 2002 15:24:04 +0200 One thing in the below I don't agree with: That rallies, flag- waving, finger-pointing and taking sides would be obsolete. It certainly is not, quite on the contrary. But this kind of discussions and dialogue reported here as being engaged in at Berkeley University, USA, certainly is a (new) good thing. It does not rule out that other, and in my opinion should be tried at universities (etc) here in Sweden (etc) too. So this goes to some other lists as well. Rolf M., Malmö, Sweden At 04:21 2002-06-24 +, you (amazonmama2000 [EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote, to the Free Palestine list: At the University of California, Berkeley -- and increasingly on other college and high school campuses -- students are discovering healing Dialogue to replace obsolete rallies, flag-waving, finger- pointing, and taking sides that increase alienation and fan the flames of war. Jewish and Arab students are not waiting for governments, politicians, and institutions to change the world. Remarkable young women and men are taking it on themselves to begin breaking down walls to build long-awaited, authentic human relationships. The newly-gathered students at Cal call themselves Salaam-Shalom. They learn from one another, each expanding each one's own knowledge, discovering together new compassion and creativity. For more information about Salaam-Shalom at U.C. Berkeley, send e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] encourage other campuses to follow this path. Published in The Daily Californian -Tuesday, June 18, 2002 http://www.dailycal.org/article.asp?id=8806 Group Finds Discourse on Middle East Conflict: Students Emphasize 'Friends' to Build Relations By EMMA SCHWARTZ Contributing Writer Amid shouts of hatred fueled by the Middle East conflict, one UC Berkeley student group seeking to represent a variety of perspectives calls for a dialogue of understanding. Friends is a common buzzword for members of Salaam Shalom, a group that aims to build peaceful relations between Israelis, Palestinians, Arabs, and Jews on campus. People say dialogue is easy, but it's not easy to tear your soul inside out, says group member Judy Gussman. The group's first meeting, held at the end of the spring semester, was at times heated as the group tried to make sense of violence through open dialogue. It was a little tense, says Laura Haddad, a Salaam Shalom member. But as someone at the meeting put it, if it weren't a little tense we wouldn't have been getting anything done. However, if we hadn't been friends first, we wouldn't have been able to hold that discussion. The group has yet to stage an open forum on serious issues surrounding the conflict. For now, the students focus on forging friendships between members. We haven't had a big discussion because we believe we have to know each other first, Haddad says.
Re: Berkeley Leading Change [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK]
HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --- One thing in the below I don't agree with: That rallies, flag- waving, finger-pointing and taking sides would be obsolete. It certainly is not, quite on the contrary. But this kind of discussions and dialogue reported here as being engaged in at Berkeley University, USA, certainly is a (new) good thing. It does not rule out that other, and in my opinion should be tried at universities (etc) here in Sweden (etc) too. So this goes to some other lists as well. Rolf M., Malmö, Sweden At 04:21 2002-06-24 +, you (amazonmama2000 [EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote, to the Free Palestine list: At the University of California, Berkeley -- and increasingly on other college and high school campuses -- students are discovering healing Dialogue to replace obsolete rallies, flag-waving, finger- pointing, and taking sides that increase alienation and fan the flames of war. Jewish and Arab students are not waiting for governments, politicians, and institutions to change the world. Remarkable young women and men are taking it on themselves to begin breaking down walls to build long-awaited, authentic human relationships. The newly-gathered students at Cal call themselves Salaam-Shalom. They learn from one another, each expanding each one's own knowledge, discovering together new compassion and creativity. For more information about Salaam-Shalom at U.C. Berkeley, send e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] encourage other campuses to follow this path. Published in The Daily Californian -Tuesday, June 18, 2002 http://www.dailycal.org/article.asp?id=8806 Group Finds Discourse on Middle East Conflict: Students Emphasize 'Friends' to Build Relations By EMMA SCHWARTZ Contributing Writer Amid shouts of hatred fueled by the Middle East conflict, one UC Berkeley student group seeking to represent a variety of perspectives calls for a dialogue of understanding. Friends is a common buzzword for members of Salaam Shalom, a group that aims to build peaceful relations between Israelis, Palestinians, Arabs, and Jews on campus. People say dialogue is easy, but it's not easy to tear your soul inside out, says group member Judy Gussman. The group's first meeting, held at the end of the spring semester, was at times heated as the group tried to make sense of violence through open dialogue. It was a little tense, says Laura Haddad, a Salaam Shalom member. But as someone at the meeting put it, if it weren't a little tense we wouldn't have been getting anything done. However, if we hadn't been friends first, we wouldn't have been able to hold that discussion. The group has yet to stage an open forum on serious issues surrounding the conflict. For now, the students focus on forging friendships between members. We haven't had a big discussion because we believe we have to know each other first, Haddad says. The first dialogue, which was just for the group organizers, asked members what brought them to the group in an attempt to make the discussion personal rather than political. It has involved a great deal of soul-searching of things you were raised with, Gussman says. They all have the ability to step back from that and look at their world in a new way. The group began as an attempt to add a peaceful perspective to the campus debate on the Middle East conflict. I was distressed by two things, says UC Berkeley graduate student Roger Studley. First, there is a lack of any communication between people from different camps and groups. Secondly, everything on campus is one group shouting at another and shouting back. It's very political, noisy, and nobody is sitting down and talking to one another. Many members of the group joined out of frustration with the apparent lack of dialogue between already existing groups who have a stake in the conflict. I got involved because I noticed the intense polarization on this issue, says Robin Baral, a UC Berkeley student. I've been here long enough and involved in enough activism to know what happens. I felt like the politics had gotten in the way with people getting to know each other. Haddad says the group offers an alternative route for those who don't feel a place in either of the two major political groups, the Students for Justice in Palestine and the Israel Action Committee. Students say that while they have no illusions that they are going to solve the conflict, they believe a resolution cannot be reached without discussion. We take seriously that it is important to understand someone else's view as much as your own, Studley says. We believe that the first thing you have to do is get to know an individual. Once you have that, you are much less likely to shout and will be able to understand someone's opinion with further complexity rather than as a political stripe. Students from Muslim and Jewish student groups said that Salaam Shalom has great potential to clear up misunderstandings. I think this
