GLASGOW: Pick a side: "Palestinians do not deserve a State and are incapable of governing themselves. They must be managed, imprisoned or exiled. Or "The state of Israel is a hydra-headed monster, comprising Zionist ethnic cleansers, US imperialists, and Arab collaborationist regimes. Pick a side. Any side, so long as it s black and white. Farcical, perhaps, but this is the true extent of polarizations to be found in Britain today on this issue. When it comes to the Middle East conflict, the Middle Way is largely shunned in favor of anger, antagonism and hot-blooded hatred. Sadly, this is most visibly demonstrated on university campuses, the supposed home of reasoned thought and academia. Thousands of miles from the land of copious feud and falafel, students on a rainy campus in the North of England plan demonstrations, book teaching rooms and smother the concrete buildings with slogans, posters and wallpaper paste. One group claims solidarity with Palestinians, the other with Israel. In universities up and down the UK, these microcosmic conflicts sometimes turn criminal, on occasion involving police action or even worse, violence. Together, both sides wage their own little war on campus. By lending encouragement to absolutist agendas in the Middle East, they re happy, from the comfort of student halls, to sacrifice the lives of Israelis and Palestinians as academic cannon-fodder. But this is my view. Others might disagree. Regardless of how we perceive the morality of constructing a replica Middle East conflict here, the fact is that the attitudes of a large number of British students are often far more entrenched and extreme than those found in Israeli or Palestinian universities. Thankfully, vast numbers of young people in the Middle East give us much more to be optimistic about. The OneVoice Movement enables citizens on both sides to define their own future. Since 2002, OneVoice has enlisted over 600,000 Israelis and Palestinians in its movement, working in parallel with offices in Tel Aviv and Ramallah to achieve an end to violence, occupation and a just, peaceful two-state solution. Personally, what I find most frustrating about the British debate on Israel/Palestine, is the complete domination of academic viewpoints and the outside opinions of so-called experts . On the whole, there is a complete lack of reference to what the majority of Israelis and Palestinians themselves actually want. The damage caused by this conflict to community relations here in Scotland is certainly not isolated to university campuses. The lack of trust and dialogue between communities, particularly Muslim and Jewish, the latter of which is my own, can be largely attributed to a conflict thousands of miles eastwards. Most Muslims and Jews will empathize with stories of a very polarized upbringing. My own was characterized by pro-Israel rhetoric. It wasn t anti-Palestinian as such, but the suffering of the other side was simply ignored in favor of misguided patriotism. A Muslim friend of mine reports a similarly one-sided upbringing, with Palestinians portrayed as martyrs and heroes in the righteous struggle against the Zionist entity. Reading this as neither a Muslim nor a Jew, nor a student, one might question its relevance. Alongside extremism, apathy is another common response to the Israel/Palestine saga. I try not to make a habit of visiting Islamist terrorist websites, but you ll struggle to find a single one that fails to mention Israel. It s not mentioned as a passing reference, but as a specific justification for attacks such as the one on Glasgow Airport. After the 9/11 attacks too, Osama bin Laden said that Israel had been his prime motivation. To be apathetic about a conflict that seems fairly distant and endless is quite understandable, but unfortunately it is something that affects us all. Last February, Alex Salmond declared: The key role for Scotland... will be as a peacemaker - providing the facilities and the opportunity for conflict resolution. By standing with OneVoice in Scotland, we have the facility and opportunity to diffuse tensions between communities here, while delivering on the hopes and aspirations of Israelis and Palestinians. Those in the Middle East are faced with a choice - working to find a way out of the conflict, or leaving their children to inherit it. As onlookers in Scotland, we have a choice too: to contribute to the solution, or to be part of the problem. Pick a side. Anthony Silkoff,21, studies psychology at the University of Glasgow and is Chairperson of OneVoice Glasgow. This article was the winning paper at the Young Scotland Programme 2008. This article is distributed by the Common Ground News Service (CGNews) with permission from the author.
