Collegiate Times

The Departments of Interdisciplinary Studies and Political Science sponsored a noted professor in the field of political science, Bashir Bashir, to speak at Virginia Tech last night on the subject of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in terms of the Palestinian experience.

The Departments of Interdisciplinary Studies and Political Science sponsored a noted professor in the field of political science, Bashir Bashir, to speak at Virginia Tech last night on the subject of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in terms of the Palestinian experience.

Bashir is a fellow at the Van Leer Institute in Jerusalem and a professor of political theory at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He spoke on the subject of what he called the "Politics of Reconciliation," regaling the audience with personal experiences and political views on possible resolutions to the conflict.

The guest professor spoke on his views of the structure, and flaws, of countries that are deemed as "established democracies," and pointed out how these countries often use the term democracy to mask the problem of the majority discriminating against the minority. In this particular case, he used the issue of clashing cultures of Israelis and "indigenous" Palestinians.

"Palestinians are twenty percent of the population in Israel, they are people who hold Israeli passports," said Bashir. Yet, "Palestinians are the most disadvantaged group in Israel."

His proposed solution to the dispute using methods of political theory was for the Israelis to first acknowledge that "historical injustices have been done to the Palestinians... These injustices were not based on what God wants, but were the deeds of man."

They must secondly "apologize and take responsibility for the actions that they have done through state ordered discrimination... They must take responsibility and move forward." But in order to make amends for what has happened, he called for a "redistribution of resources amongst Palestinians and Israelis." He lastly called for an inclusion of Palestinian nationals, leaving behind the flag of the Jewish State, the Star of David on their flag, and create a flag that is representative of all citizens. Bashir spoke of how Palestinian refugees need to be brought back into their country from being spread throughout surrounding countries. "Palestinians are the largest refugee community in the world. There are 5 million refugees," said Bashir.

The Collegiate Times will publish an interview with Bashir in Friday's edition.