Sophomore Aseel Saied studies nutrition and wellness at Bridgewater College, walking to classes daily on the prosaic campus.
It is a world apart from her youth on the West Bank, where traveling short distances to see friends or new sights meant having to be scrutinized by Israeli soldiers.
“To go to a neighboring city, I go through three checkpoints,” she said during an appearance at the college Thursday. “It is 45 minutes way, but it can take three and a half hours to get there.”
Saied and Bridgewater biology professor Moshe Khurgel, a native of Israel, discussed potential peace in the Middle East and the statehood hopes of Palestine.
In September, Palestinian leaders asked the United Nations Security Council for statehood.
Khurgel said his sense of statehood is that “most Israelis think Palestinians want to live a normal life.” He said most Israelis don’t oppose the declaration for Palestine.
Saied recalls attending school on the West Bank and having to learn about Christianity, Islam and Judaism.
Beyond the checkpoints, there is the fear outsiders have of traveling to Palestine, Saied said.
“I want my favorite singer to come to Palestine,” she said. “But he is Egyptian. He is afraid to go.”
Jamie Frueh, an associate professor who chairs the political science department at Bridgewater, said a U.N. declaration of Palestine as a state would carry considerable weight.
But recognizing Palestine as a state carries numerous questions, Frueh said. For example: “Should a Palestinian state have police or military?”
The statehood request has been opposed by the Obama administration, and a White House spokesman has said U.N. membership would not bring full statehood.
The Obama administration said that objective can be achieved only through negotiations.
Khurgel thinks an ongoing problem in resolving the problems are the number of parties involved.
“There are too many players involved in Israel and Palestine,” he said. “Everybody is pushing their own agenda.”
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