By Jeremy Pelzer

Student government editor

For many Americans, the violence and hatred between the Israelis and the Palestinians is only as close as a video clip on the nightly news, or an article in the local newspaper.

Biological sciences instructor Nida Sehweil-Elmuti, a native of Jericho in the West Bank, said she too was indifferent to what was happening in her native land– that is, up until three years ago.

In 1998, Sehweil-Elmuti moved back to the West Bank with her family. From her house in the city of Ramallah, Sehweil-Elmuti could see the violence, once so distant, unfold before her eyes.

“In the street, some Palestinians would throw rocks at the (Israeli) jeeps, and the soldiers would fire on them – rubber bullets, real bullets, tear gas,” she said.

“The Israeli Army had no business being there other than to instigate,” she said.

Sehweil-Elmuti said she was appalled at the way she saw Palestinians treated by the Israelis.

“It reminded me of the apartheid regime in South Africa,” she said.

“For example,” Sehweil-Elmuti said, “people with American passports can purchase cars with a yellow tag, and are free to drive anywhere.”

Palestinians, on the other hand, have to have a green tag, which forbids them from using many of the main roads.

As a result, the only access many Palestinians have to the outside world are small, incredibly steep mountain roads – a limitation that Sehweil-Elmuti said has led to people lacking basic needs such as food, water and gasoline.

“It’s like the Holocaust where Jews had to wear arm bands It’s exactly the same thing,” she said.

Tension between Israelis and Palestinians was not always so high – Sehweil-Elmuti said that her grandmother remembers living next to Jewish neighbors.

However, assistant political science professor Tomoaki Nomi said that a series of miscommunications and misunderstandings set the two groups against each other.

During World War II, Nomi said, the British, seeking both Jewish and Palestinian support, independently promised what was then called Palestine to each side.

So, Nomi said, when the Jewish state of Israel was created in 1948, Palestinians felt cheated out of the land.

Fifty-three years later, the two sides are still disputing the territory. Unfortunately, many have resorted to violence and terror rather than peace talks to solve the conflict.

Fortunately, Nomi said that the violence has been more limited than what took place before 1995, when the Oslo Peace Accord was signed between the two sides.

The Oslo accord, which would return the West Bank and Gaza Strip to the Palestinians in exchange for peace, gave a little bit of hope to people, Sehweil-Elmuti said.

“The violence (by the Palestinians) stopped coming out of desperation,” Nomi said.

However, Nomi said that any sign of a new peace deal leads to an escalation in violence.

“There are a lot of people on both sides who want to disturb the peace process,” Nomi said. “Some people believe that their government is giving away too much, and violence is a way to stop that.”

Sehweil-Elmuti, who would one day like to move back to the West Bank, said she would like to believe that the two sides can reach a lasting peace.

“I think (Israelis and Palestinians) would do very well living side-by-side,” she said.

However, first the Israelis have to start treating Palestinians as equals, Sehweil-Elmuti said.

“People can look past the ethnic and the religious – but you’ve got to have justice,” she said.