David J. Skorton, president of Cornell University, and his wife, Robin L. Davisson, a professor at Cornell’s College of Veterinary Medicine and Weill Cornell Medical College, are traveling in Israel as part of a conference on higher education. The couple is writing about their trip for WorldWise.
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The whine of the sirens from our Palestinian security escort rises above the noise of widespread construction as our van moves along the streets of Ramallah in the West Bank, headed toward Jerusalem. We have just spent an uplifting hour with Salam Fayyad, the prime minister of the Palestinian National Authority. An eloquent, American-educated economist, Fayyad is planning and executing a variety of focused community development projects, improving transparency of the Authority’s finances and solidifying West Bank security in Palestinian hands — all toward preparation for statehood.
Later that day we spend an equally positive hour with the president of the state of Israel, Shimon Peres. An enormously experienced and widely respected leader, he has served as Israeli prime minister, founded a center aimed at fostering Arab-Israeli joint ventures, and is a Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Interestingly, he emphasizes the importance of education and discovery, outlines a new Israeli neuroscience initiative, and points to the goal of “democratization of the fruits of research.”
The next day we share lunch with James Cunningham, U.S. ambassador to Israel, just back from Washington where President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu met to great fanfare. With appropriate caution, the ambassador, too, acknowledges progress and conveys hope and optimism.
Each of the three leaders acknowledges that the differences of perspective and narrative between Palestinians and Israelis may be intractable. However, relevant to our mission, they all point to higher education as a vehicle for change. We see further emphasis on postsecondary education and research throughout Israel and the Palestinian Territories as a way toward even greater economic development through innovation, and, perhaps more important, productive interactions between the peoples of two increasingly separated communities.
One impression hard to escape is that governments alone are unlikely to find a formula that will ensure a lasting peace. Joint ventures toward mutual goals, no matter how difficult, must play a role. Whether using molecular genetics to better understand isolated regional populations as an avenue for improved prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease; combining forces in archeological digs for increased understanding of our collective past; or unlocking the aggregate beauty and wisdom of the Muslim, Christian, and Jewish scriptures – are not the academics of our nations in a good position to approach each other with more mutual respect and hope?
We have a chance to test this assertion in a fascinating discussion with three prominent journalists – Khaled Abu Toameh, a Palestinian with The Jerusalem Post; Israeli Ronnie Shaked of Yediot Ahronot (Israel’s largest Hebrew language daily), and Ethan Bronner of The New York Times. These knowledgeable and street-smart observers describe how things have changed, but also how they have stayed the same. Although their perspectives differ wildly in some respects, all see a meaningful role for higher education in finding a way forward.
So, it is more important than ever for faculty colleagues throughout the world to resist and oppose academic boycotts against Israeli institutions, to reject fatalism, and, instead, to enlist faculty, students, staff and higher-education leaders throughout the world to connect with colleagues in Israel and the Palestinian Territories: facilitating bidirectional student and faculty exchange; combining our aggregate knowledge, skills, resources, and spirits; learning about each other one interaction at a time.
7 Responses to Leaders and Correspondents: Palestinian, Israeli, American
ikhoury - July 12, 2010 at 10:16 am
This is an encouraging post indeed, and I’m glad that the President of Cornell and his wife a professor at Weill Cornell Medical College, which established a campus in Doha, visited both Palestine and Israel to try and find ways of bridging what is a seemingly intractable conflict.However, I find myself disturbed at the “Kumbaya” approach to solving a conflict in which the power is clearly one-sided. Israel holds the power, imposes embargoes, prevents students from Gaza from attending universities in the West Bank, and violates international law as a state regularly by ignoring UN mandates to stop settlement-building and expanding in the West Bank. We also know that not all Israeli and Palestinian universities are the same. Tel Aviv University and Birzeit are not the same as Bar-Ilan or the Islamic University of Gaza. The level of fanaticism varies greatly among institutions and while blanket boycotts are not the answer, the worldwide academic community needs to take a strong stance against Israel’s regular violations of the law that not only prevent Palestinians not only from surviving, but also prevent their educational opportunities and advancement.Partnerships such as those that exist between Al-Quds and Brandeis Universities are certainly encouraging and break down barriers on individual levels. That kind of partnership is admirable. However, without tackling the central issue of the illegal occupation and that fragment of Palestinians who react violently to that occupation, we are not addressing the core issues. Again, these academic partnerships are necessary and vital, and they are slowly chipping away at a very large block of stone.
162100 - July 12, 2010 at 5:16 pm
With that kind of ‘blaming’ rhetoric we will never move forward. Whatever happened to a sense of shared responsibility?
ikhoury - July 13, 2010 at 7:17 am
Thank you for your response. However, a sense of “shared responsibility” can’t work when Israel has the tanks, the ammunition, the power to close borders, the power to prevent Palestinians from obtaining services, goods, and education, and the power to randomly arrest and detain Palestinians, the power to control the lives of a people under occupation. The Palestinians have the power to silently accept their fate or the minority who choose to react violently. This isn’t shared. It is shared responsibility just as the United States is shared between Native Americans and the Europeans who colonized them. Let’s keep it real.
szgoldberg - July 13, 2010 at 4:37 pm
Is is coincidence that comment #3 contains links to Turkish pornography? Why has it not been removed!
szgoldberg - July 13, 2010 at 4:44 pm
And now a comment on the situation.Some years ago (in the 1980′s) I was interested in possibly applying for a Fulbright to teach at Bethlehem University. Since I was going to be visiting Israel prior to the application deadline I thought it might be worthwhile to visit the university. I arrived in a car belonging to an Israeli colleague. The vehicle could clealy be identified as coming from Israel by the color of the licence plates. When I approach the gate to the university and identified the person I hoped to see the guard was most unwelcoming and in fact drew a knife. At that point I thought discretion the better part of valor and made my exit to visit the Church of the Nativity. Contrast this with the openness of the Israeli institutions (which also have high levels of security)Shared responsibility means that those in the Palestinian West Bank must play a responsible role in working for a real peace, and I say this as a firm believer that two state solution is the only solution.
1978rosebud - July 14, 2010 at 11:13 pm
#1 comment fails to respect the fact that the UN made Israel a nation, despite this the next day 1948 war in which all surrounding arab countries attack Israel. Fast forward, several more wars started by their arab buddies and now Israel has gained more land due to their arab neighbors agressive behavior. Meanwhile homicide bombers have killed so many Israeli men women and children that in comparison to 9/11 the suicide/homicide bombs in Israel have amounted to a much higher casuality on a nation than anyone could fathom. Still Israelis want peace, they want to live and laugh and not send their children off the mandatory army service at the age of 18. But until Palestinians love their children more than they hate the Jews, there will never be peace. And if Israel was such a monster than they would not let Red cross through or supply all of the Palestinian areas with water and electricity. It is Gaza not Israel which holds captives (Gilad Shalit) and does not let Red cross through. Think again comment #1. Have you lived in Israel? I have. You sound like you read ONE news source. The wrong one. And as for Israel preventing various students from entering Israel, let us remind you of the University of Jerusalem attack and several other attacks in which innocent lives were lost because Israel let down their guard. What should Israel do sir? Roll over like a good dog and wait for their death?
csingerwashington - July 15, 2010 at 2:04 am
Israel does not enforce security measures against Palestinians for no reason at all nor for some nefarious reason that amounts to racism, as some people try to convince the rest of the world. Since its creation in 1947 as a partition of the previously Ottoman Turk empire turned British mandate, Israel has struggled for survival against hostile neighboring countries and the Arabs who inhabited the same land area. In 1947 the UN also created an Arab state, but both the inhabitants of that state and the surrounding Arab countries rejected the UN partition and attacked the Jewish partition state which called itself Israel from May 1948. After Israel successfully defended itself in 1948 (at a loss of 11,000 people) or roughly one-sixth of its citizenry, again in 1956, in 1967 and in 1973, the Arab League of nations met and declared an intifada or jihad against Israel. From that time, Israel has suffered thousands of casualties and injuries from terrorist attacks on schools, buses, restaurants and other public places. This is why Israel enforces strict security on the many Palestinians who enter Israel on a daily basis from the surrounding area. This is why they built the big wall and why they will not allow boats with weapons to dock at Gaza. Israel wants to live in peace with the Palestinians and they want to enjoy a normal life of commerce and other community exchanges with their Palestinian neighbors. It is the terrorist organizations inciting the Palestinians that are the problem. The West Bank is now prospering and over 100 security checkpoints have been removed since the citizens of the West Bank have been persuing a peaceful co-existence under President Abbas and the Palestinian Authority. Peace will work if the Palestinians decide to stop using terror as a strategy and negotiate instead. Peace and compromise has worked in Ireland and it can work in the middle east!