The United States has a moral obligation to support both the Israelites and the Palestinians in their ongoing conflict, ambassador Philip Wilcox said Monday night.
We should not take sides, he said.
"The state of Israel and the United States over the years have created a type of quasi-alliance," Wilcox told students and faculty in the L.A. Pittenger Student Center Forum Room. "But we also owe a debt to Palestine-they too are human beings and deserve respect."
Wilcox, former Chief of Mission and U.S. Consul General, discussed Israel's and Palestine's conflict in a presentation titled "Israel and Palestine: Resolving a Two-State Peace." The presentation was sponsored by the Office of the Provost, the Office of International Education and the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies.
George Wolfe, director of the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies, said Wilcox's presentation shed light on one of the world's most significant issues.
"Of all the conflicts throughout history, I felt the Israel and Palestinian conflict has been the most befuddling," Wolfe said. "I gave up ever trying to understand it until I heard Mr. Wilcox speak. He's very informed about the situation."
The primary reason for the Israelite and Palestinian conflict was that two powerful nations had claims to the same land, Wilcox said. When Israeli and Palestinian leaders declared a ceasefire agreement Feb. 8, the world saw a new sense of hope after years of conflict, violence and terrible bloodshed, Wilcox said.
"But this continues to be an attractable, insoluble conflict," Wilcox said,
The Israel and Palestinian conflict can be traced back to the post-War World II era, when Israel was proclaimed a state in 1948, he said.
"It was a sublime moment for the Jewish people, but for the Palestinians it was catastrophe-they lost their lands, they lost their hopes and many lost their lives," Wilcox said.
One of the reasons the United States supported Israel throughout history is because it felt a sense of remorse and moral debt to the Jewish people after the Holocaust, Wilcox said.
"The United States and its allies didn't do a great deal to stop the operation of the death camps, and we felt indebted to the Jewish people," Wilcox said. "Yet we had no sense of who the Palestinians were or their sufferings. "
Today, the United States is still trying to come to terms with Islam, Wilcox said.
Fahad Alqurashi, a Ball State Ph.D candidate with the linguistics program, was pleased that Wilcox remained neutral throughout Monday's presentation.
"He provided the audience with real facts," Alqurashi said. "Resolving the Israel and Palestinian conflict will affect the United States, not just the Israelis and the Palestinians."
Alqurashi, who is from Saudi Arabia, hopes Ball State continues to support the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies to organize similar events for the future, he said.
"This event was good for American students who have never been to the Middle East and who have been brainwashed by the media," Alqurashi said. "I liked Wilcox's point that Palestinians are indeed human being -- it's a point we never hear from American politicians. Giving Palestinians a human face helped to reconceptualize the situation. This event was good for the Ball State community."
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