Israel Palestine Forum sparks debate

Approximately 150 students, staff and locals attended Warwick University’s Israel Palestine Forum’s (IPF) impassioned debate on the subject of the West Bank Barrier on Thursday 17 February.

The IPF aims to provide a platform for informative debate about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Thursday’s event, entitled “Wall versus Fence” sought to explore issues surrounding Israel’s continued construction of a “security barrier” in the West Bank.

Two high-profile speakers presented different perspectives on the issue before the floor was opened for questions.

Chris Doyle, Director of the British Council for Arab-British Understanding, opened proceedings. Doyle had taken a British delegation to the West Bank a few weeks earlier and he questioned the legality of the barrier.

Doyle argued that, whilst a barrier built on the internationally agreed borders would be legitimate, Israel’s building in the West Bank is actually an offensive measure and does not promote peace in the area. He claimed that it goes 22 kilometres into occupied territory and intrudes massively on Palestinians’ lives, separating them from their land and families as well as food, water and education.

James Marlow, a political affairs broadcaster who has appeared on the BBC, Al Jazeera and Sky and has lived in Jerusalem since 2001, then gave a speech defending the barrier as a necessary protection against suicide bombings. Marlow’s discourse contrasted starkly with Doyle’s. He gave a personal account of the issues that provoked Israel to construct the barrier in the West Bank. Marlow described a number of catastrophes in which innocent Israelis had been killed and showed a video of the aftermath of a suicide bombing that had taken place on a bus in Jerusalem. The video has never been shown on British television because of fears that it would be too disturbing.

Marlow’s speech was provocative and the audience had to be asked to hold back their comments on several occasions. There was particularly vocal disturbance at the showing of the video, as well as following Marlow’s claim that Palestine has never been a recognised nation state and his comments about Chief Palestinian Negotiator, Saeb Erakat.

IPF Treasurer Joe Whalen described the event as the society’s “best attended this year”. All seats were taken and a number of the audience stood throughout. Many had personal connections with Israel and Palestine. The high level of interest, controversial topic and emotive nature of Marlow’s speech meant that, when the floor was opened for questions, a fiery debate ensued.

The audience’s questions were mostly directed at Marlow, either to challenge or request that he further clarify his argument. Many of the audience highlighted casualties on the Palestinian side, with one woman from Coventry claiming to have had 15 of her family killed by an Israeli air strike on Gaza.

Doyle later remarked, “I am not sure that, during the debate, we stuck to the issue at hand”. The IPF’s Social Executive, Jack Everson, echoed his comments, claiming, “The most relevant question was how can Israel justify constructing an illegal barrier in occupied territory with the claim that it improves the security of their people? It was a shame that this was not asked”.

Nevertheless, the strict rules and chairing of the forum, imposed by English Literature student, Joel Kinehan, allowed the debate to remain constructive and many of the attendees continued their discussions afterwards, over hummus and baklava. The level of interest impressed Doyle, who said, “It was fantastic to see such a great turnout, with the audience clearly keen to learn more about the issue and passionate about the subject”.

The audience also appeared to enjoy the event. Charlotte Boul, a first-year Physics student said, “the talks were really interesting as I did not know a great deal about the wall, so I learned a lot”. Sam Gratorex, who studies Chemistry, remarked, “I was very impressed with the forum. For a student-run event to have two established speakers, a huge turnout and a well structured and insightful discussion was fantastic”.

The forum was attended by a number of University staff, including David Mond, a Professor of Mathematics who has written and spoken extensively about the Israel-Palestine conflict. Mond described the IPF as an “excellent innovation”, who also said: “It is a great thing to bring together speakers with opposing views in an environment where respect is insisted upon, both for the discussions it makes possible on the issues at hand, and for the experience of democratic politics that it provides.”

It is with this same aim that the IPF will be holding their next forum, entitled “Palestinian Statehood – With or Without Israel?” at 6pm on Thursday 3 March, in S0.21.