After months of controversy, the annual conference of the Palestine Solidarity Movement proceeded with minimal disruption.
After months of controversy, the annual conference of the Palestine Solidarity Movement proceeded with minimal disruption this weekend.
Fewer than two dozen people protested the conference, and University officials said the whole weekend was calm. A bomb threat forced the University to close the Bryan Center for 90 minutes Sunday morning, but police found no actual danger.
Conference organizers repeatedly praised Duke’s hospitality. Organizers said about 600 people attended parts of the conference and about 100 Duke students attended some events.
“The conference was wonderful,” said Rann Bar-on, PSM spokesperson and a graduate student in mathematics, particularly noting the dialogue that took place in workshop sessions closed to the media. “It really gave students a chance to debate and to learn about different views of the occupation.”
Security was out in full force throughout the weekend. Participants passed through metal detectors at every building. Maj. Phyllis Cooper, a spokesperson for the Duke University Police Department, said about 60 to 75 security officers were stationed near the conference sites and at the Freeman Center for Jewish Life, where a multitude of independent programs about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were held.
Protests, however, were sparse. More than 100 students and community members attended pro-Israeli events at the Freeman Center instead of protesting the conference. Demonstrations against PSM rarely drew more than eight people, most of whom were from out of town. Demonstrators spent much of their time civilly talking with participants about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the goals of PSM.
Much of the criticism against PSM has focused on its fifth guiding principle, which explicitly states that PSM does not comment on the “strategies or tactics adopted by the Palestinian people.”
A group of protesters from Amcha—the Coalition for Jewish Concerns arrived from New York Saturday night and spent Sunday singing outside the Intramural Building, where PSM held closed planning sessions most of the day.
“When you refuse to condemn bombing, you support it,” said Rabbi Avi Weiss, who led the Amcha group. “We are not here to chant and to scream; we are here for the souls of those who were murdered by Palestinian terror.”
Fayyad Sbaihat, national spokesperson for PSM, said such accusations are a distraction from the main issues of the conference: Palestinian quality of life and divestment.
“We are staring in the face of the world’s strongest propaganda machine,” Sbaihat said, noting efforts from outside groups to thwart the conference. “The higher profile of this conference draws more opposition and more support.”
Most of the panels and workshops focused on divestment, or the withdrawal of financial support, as a way to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the violence in the region. A series of cultural events with pro-Palestinian messages capped off Friday and Saturday nights’ activities.
In a Saturday night vote, member organizations reconsidered PSM’s official policy of not commenting about Palestinian violence. One resolution proposed adding a guiding principle that said attacks against civilians are unacceptable. A second proposed striking the controversial fifth principle from the guidelines entirely.
Both resolutions failed to garner the two-thirds majority necessary for approval. Sbaihat noted that the proposal to strike the fifth principle nearly passed.
He said some groups voted against the resolutions even though they agreed with them. “They were very concerned that if we take specific stands on the issue that we might alienate some of the member groups,” he said. “They thought of it as respecting differences and wanting to put them aside or strengthen the similarities.”
The conference voted on a total of 11 resolutions, and the results of the votes will be available Thursday, Sbaihat said.
He said the discussion about violence was a productive way to address the diversity of positions among member organizations. Since PSM is an umbrella organization and a coordinating agency, most groups only have a loose affiliation with each other.
Sbaihat said leading up to the ballot votes, groups sought out people for debate. “Some of the member organizations ended up talking to each other for the first time,” he said.
The conference was primarily comprised of students, but many members of the Durham community and beyond attended the events as well. A group of ultra-orthodox Jews who oppose a Jewish state until after the coming of the Messiah also joined the conference Sunday.
In a final event Sunday evening, about 60 participants walked silently through West Campus and lined up along a metal barricade that police constructed on the Main West Quadrangle. For several moments, they stood with their backs to the 20 pro-Israeli protesters who were chanting on the other side of the quad.
PSM participants never faced their objectors as they chanted: “Divest from Israeli apartheid.” Then they started a traditional Middle Eastern dance.
The demonstration gathered about 30 curious observers who chose not to participate on either side. Several of them noted that even though the conference prompted dialogue about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the event appeared ridiculous as PSM participants danced in a circle and pro-Israeli protesters sang, “All we are saying: Stop killing babies.”
Others just remarked on the security presence. “There’s more cops than there are protesters,” sophomore Daniel McCartt said.
The entire area had been fenced off, and about 100 security officers were deployed, said Kemel Dawkins, vice president for campus services.
Reports that multiple busloads of people would arrive from extremist Jewish groups proved false, and all events were non-violent.
The primary incident was a bomb threat Sunday morning. Someone who claimed to be “one of the people from Israel here at this conference” called DUPD at about 9:43 a.m. and said three bombs had been placed in “Bryan Hall.” Officials immediately evacuated the Bryan Center. The county bomb squad searched the building, and it opened again at 11:03 a.m.
A handful of student groups chose to move afternoon meetings away from the Bryan Center, and several food vendors said business was slow all day. Employees said they found the experience disconcerting.
“I’m still sort of shook up,” said Susan Hemingway, who works at the Lobby Shop. “I do have a splitting headache.”
Sunday’s PSM events were originally slated to take place in the Bryan Center, but conference organizers decided Saturday night to move them to the Intramural Building, where the majority of conference events were held.
In a statement Sunday night President Richard Brodhead praised the calm tenor of the weekend and noted that it was not the end of campus discussion about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “We will have more programs on these issues in the future and expect this important discussion to continue,” he said.
Karen Hauptman contributed to this story.
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