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Palestine Conference Ends With Rally and Protests Sunday, October 17, 2004 | The fourth annual national conference of the Palestine Solidarity Movement ended peacefully Sunday afternoon with a rally that had about 50 conference attendees marching through Duke's West Campus, chanting slogans and dancing in a large circle. The march began outside the intramural building, with some of the participants holding photographs of Palestinian suffering. They walked silently, joined by a group of Hasidic Jews who oppose a Jewish state, past people playing tennis on the sunny afternoon and occasional clusters of curious students. Once they reached the quad, they formed a line and stood silently for few moments while protesters lined up along a barricade behind them. The PSM conferees and supporters then began chanting "Divest from apartheid Israel" and started a folk dance around the quad. "There was dialogue at an incredibly high level," said Rann Bar-On, a Duke graduate student who helped organize the conference. He said he hoped discussions about the Israeli-Palestinian issue will continue on campus. Duke administrators, who were out in force throughout the weekend, said the conference and related events planned by other student groups had gone smoothly. Anticipated large-scale protests never materialized, and administrators and faculty members said that panel discussions and impromptu exchanges outside the conference venues were both passionate and respectful. For several months, Duke has been the subject of praise and criticism for agreeing to host the conference, citing free speech and academic freedom. Duke President Richard H. Brodhead said he hoped the conference would inspire broad-based discussions about the Israeli-Palestinian conference throughout the year.
"From the very beginning of this controversy, Duke made clear it was not in favor of one side or the other. Rather, it embraced its role as a university in providing a setting where people can voice their opinions freely. That's what's happened over the past few days, and I thank everyone -- our security teams, our student affairs staff and many others -- who worked so hard to help us live up to our best traditions as a university. I'm especially proud of our students who, even though they have different political views, all showed great leadership in pulling off successful events amid considerable challenges." One source of controversy in the run-up to the conference involved the PSM organizers' refusal to sign a statement denouncing terrorism. On Saturday evening, PSM delegates twice voted to not change the language of Guiding Principle 5, which says, in part, "As a solidarity movement, it is not our place to dictate strategies or tactics adopted by the Palestinian people in their struggle for freedom." Pro-Israel backers say the statement is tantamount to an endorsement of terrorism, a point repeatedly raised by about 20 protesters Sunday who stood behind a metal barricade outside the PSM conference. One proposal would have removed the statement altogether, which 24 of 44 delegates voted in favor of but which fell short of the two-thirds vote needed to pass, said PSM national spokesman Fayyad Sbaihat. A second proposal, to modify the principle to say "the PSM does not support or endorse any acts of violence committed either by states or by non-state actors," was approved by 12 delegates, Sbaihat said. Bar-On said he favored changing the language of Principle 5 "because it would make a lot of our work easier without sacrificing any of our fundamental ideals." He said he plans to bring up the issue again at the group's winter meeting. After a full day of panel discussions on Saturday, PSM organizers had planned to move their Sunday morning discussions and strategy sessions to the Bryan Center. After meeting with Duke officials about potential security concerns, however, the conference continued to meet in the intramural building on West Campus. At 9:43 a.m. Sunday, Duke Police received a telephone call from someone claiming to be "one of the people from Israel here at this conference." The caller said three bombs had been placed in "Bryan Hall," leading officials to evacuate the similarly named Bryan Center. The county bomb squad searched the building and declared it safe for reentry at 11:03.
The protesters opposed the conference, carrying signs with messages such as "Stop Support of Terror" and "Suicide Bombing is a Crime Against Humanity," and chanted slogans such as "All we are saying is stop murdering babies." "We're disappointed in Duke," said Rabbi Ari Weiss, the founder of Amcha, a Jewish organization in New York that sent a group of protesters. Describing the PSM as "a sham" and "people who support terror," he said, "I don't think Duke would allow the KKK to meet but this group [the PSM] refused to vote down terror. It's shameful. If you're unprepared to vote it down, you become an accomplice." Weiss described himself as a follower of Martin Luther King who believes "the death of an innocent Palestinian is no less than the death of an innocent Jew." He argued, however, that Palestinian deaths are related to legitimate acts of self-defense by Israeli forces rather to deliberate terrorism. "You have to look at intentions," he said. "There's nothing that justifies murder." Another protester said he found Amcha "too confrontational," while another voiced disappointment that more Duke students had not come to the scene to learn from the variety of viewpoints being exchanged. "Where are they?" he asked. Earlier Sunday morning, Judith Ruderman, vice provost for academic and administrative services, stood outside the conference venue, watching several dozen people arrive for a panel discussion titled, "What Palestinians Are Up Against: Oppression or Discrimination." She noticed two red-shirted members of the group Jews to End the Occupation. "The thing I love about this conference is we have so many diverse people here," she said, as she stood outside the entrance of the IM Building. "The Jews in this country don't speak with one voice on these issues; therefore, it's not surprising to see many Jews at this conference in solidarity with part or all of the conference mission." Miriam Cooke, a Duke professor of Arabic literature and culture who participated in the conference, said there was none of the extreme rhetoric some had predicted. She also expressed disappointment that more people with opposing views did not attend to make it a true exchange of ideas. "It was a place where dialogue would have been possible if it hadn't been over-hyped," she said. Jonathan Gerstl, executive director of the Freeman Center for Jewish Life, said he was thankful the weekend had ended peacefully, and expressed hope that discussion of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will continue on campus. For such discussion to be productive, he added, all sides must condemn terrorism. "Without condemning terror, you can't begin to build empathy," Gerstl said. "Without empathy, you can't begin to have a dialogue. My hope is that Duke students will have had something sparked by the conference." "I know I learned a lot," Mollie Lurey, student leader of the Joint Israel Initiative, said of her experience over the past several weeks. "It's time to stop worrying about who's right and who's wrong, and see where we can find a path for conversation and dialogue." Joey Konefal and Doug Mullen, seniors majoring in mechanical engineering, walked past the IM building late Sunday to see what was happening. Both said that talk about the PSM conference had made them more aware of the issues surrounding the Israeli-Palestine conference. "This brings it to the forefront and makes you think about it. Most college students could simply avoid it, because in some sense you are buffered from the outside world here at Duke," Mullen said. "It's kind of frustrating when you hear the two extreme sides. It's pretty clear that one side is not in the right and one side is not in the wrong." Konefal said he and three friends sat in their dorm on Friday discussing it for about a half-hour. "You couldn't help but be aware of what's going on," he said. But, "I think people are -- for the most part -- very hesitant to weigh in with some decisive opinion." Julie Reber, who watched the group of conferees, their supporters, Duke staff and others wind through the path at West Edens Link, agreed that students who weren't already passionate about the issue are afraid to engage in conversation about it. "I think people are too afraid to ask people about it because they're afraid of hurting people's feelings," said Reber, a senior majoring in biology. "Obviously it is very passionate for some people and they're afraid to disagree or to admit they don't know." Duke junior Tomas Lopez, who watched the conference's final rally outside the West Union building, said he was "a little disappointed" more Duke students didn't show an interest in the conference. He said many Duke students are "just wrapped up on their day-to-day lives" and can be "very jaded when it comes to politics, especially hot issues such as this one." He said most of the student with whom he spoke about the conference were more interested in how the university handled the issue than the substance of the conflict. Lopez, the co-president of Mi Gente, said he hoped the conversation does not die down now that the conference is over. "If the role of the university is to help us find ourselves and be better decision-makers and citizens, then all the discussions including whether to hold something like this are worth continuing."
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"We've had a peaceful conclusion to a lively weekend," Brodhead said Sunday. "The Palestine Solidarity Movement conference, the programs at the Freeman Center, the Concert Against Terror and other events provided our students and others an opportunity to learn about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and related issues. We will have more programs on these issues in the future, and expect this important discussion to continue.
Most of the day's events were closed to the media, so reporters and administrators spent much of the day stationed outside the IM building listening to about 20 protesters gathered nearby.