Juniors present on Israel-Palestine conflict in River ISA event

By Conner Orr

The two juniors went into depth about the current situation between the two states and how it came about, dating back to some of their original conflicts that began in the late 1940s. The presentation then discussed how these original wars developed into the bigger conflicts later on in the 20th century after Israel faced much opposition from the Arab Coalition during the Yom Kippur War. 

They then discussed the course of actions the conflict has taken since the late 1990s including information on HAMAS, the Gaza Strip, and the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. This then led to the second half of the presentation where information on collegiate awareness of the issue was discussed. An example mentioned was how 13 Harvard graduates were denied their diplomas for shouting “free, free Palestine” as they walked out of their graduation commencement. Another example were Western Washington University students who practiced non-violent ‘die-ins’ on college campuses.

Lastly, Mae and Emerson provided websites and a book to read to encourage all attendees to continue to educate themselves on an ongoing and highly relevant topic that is impacting people all around the world.