Guest speaker emphasizes peace, justice amid war in the Middle East
Palestinian scholar Sa’ed Atshan gave a talk on Oct. 9 about his vision for peace in the Middle East. He called for the United States to stop sending arms to Israel and for people to become informed and take action. Photo by Kieran Stevens.
Abdullah Karabatek, Contributing Writer
Palestinian anthropologist and professor Sa’ed Atshan visited VCU’s campus on Oct. 9 for a guest speaker event titled “On Faith, Peace, and Justice: Reflections from a Queer Palestinian Quaker.”
Atshan spoke about trying to instill peace and creating a peaceful environment in the Middle East and beyond. He said this starts with “a vision for justice and for equality for all Palestinians and Israelis.”
The vision of justice and equality starts with a ceasefire and negotiation between the two countries, according to Atshan.
“The United States has to stop supporting Israel unconditionally,” Atshan said.
He believes the United States should stop heavily funding Israel’s military and leave resolutions to the two countries, minimizing involvement from other parties, he said.
Atshan said people should seek to learn more about this conflict.
“I think that we educate ourselves,” Atshan said. “We lobby our elected officials to be more fair-minded and more even-handed. We stop sending the ammunition, the weapons that are killing civilians.”
Atshan said his vision for peace stems from a comprehensive, global understanding of the conflict. He emphasized the importance of being informed and taking action and said individuals must take personal responsibility. By doing so, they can contribute to creating collective power, a crucial element in his approach to peace.
Atshan said education is being impacted the most in Gaza.
“Nowhere is the assault on education today more severe than in Gaza, where people are experiencing genocidal violence,” Atshan said.
Atshan urged those who were interested in resolving this conflict to look and educate themselves on what is going on around the planet.
“Deexceptionalizing Palestine, Israel — and recognizing that what we’re seeing there resonates with so many conflicts around the world,” Atshan said.
Atshan said examining a conflict externally and evaluating elements from other situations globally is another way to resolve tension.
“There are also reverberations that are common with so many different episodes in history and in the present,” Atshan said.
Atshan explained that in Gaza, many educational institutions that serve hundreds of thousands of people are being destroyed, severely impacting access to education. All 12 universities in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed by strikes as of March, according to Le Monde.
“For over a year, an entire generation of children and students have not been able to access education because of the war,” Atshan added.
Atshan said the war is taking a personal toll on him, having affected those close to him.
“My family’s in-laws, who were sheltering in the Orthodox Church in Gaza, were hit by an Israeli airstrike which hit the Orthodox Church in Gaza, killing people, injuring others and that was devastating,” Atshan said.
Atshan said having close friends and family experience this conflict firsthand led him to emphasize the importance of coming to a ceasefire.
“We need United Nations peacekeeping troops to protect Palestinian civilians who lack any form of protection,” Atshan said.
Musbah Anwari, a second-year biology student, said Atshan’s presentation was “really eye-opening.”
Anwari said the current generation gets a lot more news from social media.
“With all the social media now — TikTok, Instagram — I feel like the audience is definitely getting more news to them than we would before,” Anwari said.
She said the talk helped expand her perspective.
“It made me see all the different ways people are affected, not just from one standpoint of being in the West, but also seeing how people are being affected in those major current events,” Anwari said.
