After years of amity between the Muslim and Jewish communities at Duke, campus religious leaders hope that renewed violence in the Middle East does not break interfaith bonds.
"[The violence] has the potential to burn the existing bridges and widen the gap between the two communities," Muslim chaplain Abdullah Antepli said. "This is a test for both communities-disagreeing doesn't mean we cannot be friends."
Many at Duke have watched closely as Israeli forces launched an offensive in the Gaza Strip Dec. 27 in response to rocket fire from Hamas, an organization that controls the area and is considered a terrorist group by most Western nations. The conflict, now in its fourteenth day, has claimed the lives of more than 700 Palestinians and 10 Israelis. Nearly half of the Palestinian casualties are women and children, according to United Nations estimates.
The Arab Student Organization in concert with the Muslim Students Association and Duke Against War will hold a "Vigil for Gaza" tonight on the Chapel steps to show support for Palestinians in Gaza.
"We wanted to raise awareness on both sides, and we wanted to honor the lives of those who were victimized," said MSA Co-president Ahmad El-Naggar, a junior. "We're not trying to antagonize the Jewish community or anyone else."
The advertising for the event, however, has already raised a few eyebrows.
Fliers posted across campus feature gruesome scenes from the conflict, such as bloody images of dead Palestinian children, on large color posters. Others accuse Israel of committing crimes against humanity.
"The language is strong-clearly, those who prepared the fliers wanted to express their grief and criticize the Israeli policies in this particular Gaza situation," said Antepli, who was not involved in creating the fliers. "I am concerned that this will create enmity and reactions from the Jewish community. I hope this will not be the case."
"A genocide is taking place in Gaza," one poster reads, attributing the statement to Israeli historian Ilan Pappe, who used the phrase in a September 2006 article published on a pro-Palestinian Web site.
"I don't think that it's ever a good idea for anyone to display in public images as graphic as those on the fliers," Rabbi Michael Goldman of Duke's Freeman Center for Jewish Life wrote in an e-mail. "This trivializes the suffering of the people depicted in them."
Several Jewish students also expressed frustration over the advertising, but still plan to attend to show solidarity.
"We all knew we might have political disagreements, and this is one of those. I still think that many students on both sides hope for peace," said junior Rachel Silverman, a Jewish student who plans to attend the vigil. "But I think it's very offensive to call this a genocide."
Max Kligerman, a sophomore and president of Duke Friends of Israel, said he believes the Jewish state has a right to self-defense in response to Hamas rocket attacks in Israel. He added that DFI intends to put up posters of its own "illustrating the facts of this conflict."
Those involved with organizing the vigil insist that it is meant solely to draw attention to the human cost of the conflict and call for an end to the violence.
"It's not a matter of religion, not a matter of politics," said sophomore Yasmina Chergui, president of the Arab Student Organization. "It's a matter of a humanitarian crisis.... We all agreed that you can't really hide the truth, and the images are actual footage of what's really going on."
Another point of contention at the vigil may be the presence of Palestinian journalist and blogger Laila El-Haddad, who said she plans to speak at the event.
El-Haddad, Trinity '00 and a former Chronicle columnist, aroused controversy last February when she accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza at an event at Duke intended to be a peace vigil after another violent flare-up.
At the time, Silverman, who was then president of Duke Friends of Israel, wrote a letter to The Chronicle criticizing El-Haddad's remarks.
"I don't appreciate that she is the speaker, but I'm still going to go to mourn the loss of innocent lives," Silverman said Thursday.
El-Haddad said she plans to address "the continuing Israeli occupation" and its effects on her parents, who live in Gaza City.
"They're being terrorized right now, living day to day," El-Haddad said of her parents. "The only light illuminating their world is Israeli bombs ripping through the sky."
Despite the elevated tensions, both Antepli and Goldman said relations between the two communities have improved markedly since 2004 when the Palestinian Solidarity Movement- came to campus for its annual conference. The PSM supports an end to U.S. aid to Israel and has been termed anti-Semitic by some.
Since 2004, campus leaders have worked to repair the strained relationships. In September 2006, following Israel's invasion of Lebanon, Jewish and Muslim students created the Peace or Pieces Coalition to find common ground. Upon his hiring in June 2008, Antepli said he hoped to engage all students, not just Muslims, and organized interfaith meals during the holy month of Ramadan in September.
Thursday afternoon found Goldman and Antepli sitting together in Goldman's Freeman Center office discussing how to maintain the bonds of friendship between their two communities and battle both anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.
"I have been really proud of the way that Jews and Muslims and Arabs have behaved on this campus over the three-and-a-half years I've been at Duke," Goldman said. "We wish for our respective communities to be able to express their opinions freely while maintaining their respect and compassion."
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