Student groups respond to Palestinian officials' recent bid for United Nations membership by holding public discussions on campus.

On Tuesday, Prof. David Lipsky ’61, ILR, gave his “last lecture” as part of Mortar Board Senior Honor Society's "Last Lecture" series.

To the Editor:

Re: “Race, Empire and Palestine: A World View,” Opinion, Oct. 22

We are former Sun columnists who have written in the past about the Arab-Israeli conflict, and understand that the issue is fraught with complexity. While we are proud that The Sun publishes a range of viewpoints, rambling columns that feature demonstrably false “facts” undermine the credibility of the Sun as a whole.

Robert Malley, the program director for Middle East and North Africa at the International Crisis Group in Washington, D.C., addressed a modest crowd inside Goldwin Smith’s Hollis E. Cornell auditorium yesterday evening.

Malley, who is widely regarded as an expert on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, gave an insider’s perspective on the nature of the crisis and offered a uniquely anecdotal appraisal of the problems currently facing Israel, Palestine and the United States.

On Monday morning I found myself running breathlessly up to campus, on my way to Clark Library to finish a long overdue electrodynamics problem set. When I arrived on the Arts Quad, I was greeted by 1,300 black flags and a host of signs displaying statistics from the Battle of Gaza.

Later in the day, detractors would remove the signs from the Arts Quad. They would stow away statements made by the U.N., Amnesty International and the BBC. They would stamp out the statistics — houses destroyed, children murdered and war crimes committed. But they wouldn’t uproot the flags.

There were simply too many flags. In the 15 minutes between classes, who could uproot all 1,300 of them?

This week, 1,300 black flags — each one memorializing the death of an Israeli or a Palestinian in the ongoing conflict in the Middle East — grace the Arts Quad. On Monday, the first day they were displayed, the accompanying signs were ripped up and destroyed. While this action was both illegal and morally reprehensible, the display itself did little to foster dialogue, serving instead to further polarize each side of the debate. If peace — both on campus and in the Middle East — is to be achieved, actions must go beyond battles fought on the Arts Quad.

In President Skorton’s most recent Sun column, he rightfully encouraged members of the Cornell community to engage in reasoned discussions on the current events in Gaza. If we are to have a constructive dialogue, though, we must acknowledge the facts and discard the lies and double standards. Unfortunately, several recent Sun articles are plagued with numerous such fallacies. I am compelled to write this piece to address a few of those faults.

Cornell boasts of having one of the most diverse student and faculty populations in the world. With undergrads, grads and professors from over 120 countries, few are better suited to keep you up-to-date and informed on rapidly changing world events. This weekly section will highlight prominent global issues through a Cornell perspective.

Last Saturday, hundreds of Georgians in T-shirts emblazoned with the red crosses of the Georgian flag linked hands along New York City’s Fifth Avenue to protest the Russian attack on Georgia.