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Round II
UM-Dearborn holds talk on
Israel-Palestinian conflict.
Don Cohen
Special to the Jewish News
I
f everyone wants peace between
Israel and the Palestinians, why isn't
there peace? That was the question
up for discussion at the University of
Michigan-Dearborn on Feb. 7.
"The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict:
The Psychology of Mistrust in Action"
was presented jointly by Aaron Ahuvia,
Ph.D., a professor of marketing at the
University of Michigan-Dearborn
College of Business, and Saeed Khan,
who teaches Islamic and Middle East
history in Wayne State University's
Department of Near East and Asian
Studies in Detroit.
Ahuvia began by citing a 2007 Zogby
International opinion survey that
showed 90 percent of American Jews
believe Palestinians have "a right to
live in a secure and independent state
of their own" and 88 percent of Arab
Americans believe the same about
Israelis.
He suspected that most in both com-
munities would be surprised by the
results as they hear overwhelmingly
about, and from those who reject, such
outcomes.
Similarly, Khan shared results of a
2008-9 opinion survey sponsored by
the pro-peace group OneVoice. That
survey found two states is the only solu-
tion that can garner significant accep-
tance — about 70 percent — among
Israelis and Palestinians. (The two-state
solution was the top choice of Israelis;
the top choice of Palestinians was either
a single secular state — 88 percent —
or single Islamic state in all of historic
Palestine).
Given the support, or at least accep-
tance, of a two-state solution among
Arabs and Jews here, and in Israel, Gaza
and the West Bank, the professors then
asked, "If support for peace is strong,
what's the problem?"
To answer the question, Khan ref-
erenced a 2002 study by the Program
of International Policy Attitudes at the
University of Maryland, which found
Israelis and Palestinians who opposed a
two-state solution did so either because
they wanted the entire land for them-
selves or because they think the other
side opposes a two-state solution.
Other studies showed 70 percent of
Palestinians don't believe Israelis are
serious about peace, while only 30 per-
cent of Israelis feel the same way about
Palestinian intentions.
"The problem is not that either
side doesn't want peace said Khan.
"The problem is that both sides are
convinced the other side doesn't want
peace:'
Ahuvia presented five common "psy-
chological biases" that lead people "to
overestimate the prevalence of malevo-
lence:'
The presentation concluded with
discussion of the Hamas Charter and
the Likud Party Platform to show why
political positions also lead to distrust.
Ahuvia added that terrorism is the
Israeli clinching argument against
Palestinians; Khan explained that
settlement expansion is the Palestinian
clinching argument against Israel. They
agreed that terrorism and settlement
expansion should be curtailed in order
to promote understanding and negotia-
tions.
While well-received, the program
attracted just a few students among the
dozen people in the audience.
In contrast, about 200 people attended
the contentious Jan. 26 campus talk by
Dr. Norman Finkelstein, a harsh Jewish
critic of Israel who spoke on "Freedom
Denied, Palestine under Siege." That
program was sponsored by five campus
peace, Arab and Islamic organizations
along with Jewish Voice for Peace-Detroit.
The Ahuvia-Khan presentation
was sponsored by UM-D's Office of
Inclusion, in part as a response to
the Finkelstein program. The quickly
planned Feb. 7 program did not receive
extensive publicity and did not have any
student organization sponsorship.
"I think it's great that the university
is producing and sponsoring balanced
programming on this very important
topic:' said Karen Gales, a program
associate with Hillel of Metro Detroit,
who advises the Jewish Student
Organization at UM-D. P 1
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February 10 • 2011
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