This past Tuesday, I, along with 400 or so of my peers, went to Statler Auditorium to hear Palestinian Ambassador Afif Safieh address the Cornell community on what was advertised as “A Palestinian Perspective.” Ambassador Safieh’s speech came at a crucial time, with tensions and violence having mounted in Gaza a few days earlier. I was happy to see that the audience was very respectful of Ambassador Safieh during his speech, as the spiel given in the beginning about “our right to protest without obstructing the speaker’s right to free speech” brought back images of John Ashcroft and students with potato sack hats. No, I’m happy to report that Ambassador Safieh’s extraordinarily elegant speech (let’s not address the fact that English is probably his third language and yet he still speaks it infinitely better than I could ever aspire to) was completely free of interruption. (This, unfortunately, is something I cannot say about President Skorton’s introduction, which went on for what I honestly believe to have been a full 15 grueling minutes. In fact, I think the only thing left unsaid by whoever it was introducing him was whether Skorton prefers boxers or briefs.)

As expected, however, the opposing viewpoint came out during the question-answer period. If you weren’t at the talk, I’m sure you’ve heard from your friends of the — let me try to be diplomatic — extreme and offensive naïveté of one student, who I am ashamed to call a fellow Cornellian, when he began his question with what he thought was a funny joke. The naïve young lad preceded his question with: “How many Palestinians does it take to screw in a light bulb?” It’s really unfortunate that Cornell cannot assess whether an applicant to the University has common sense as well as good academic scores before admitting them. Luckily, the audience booed this questioner (sorry kid, you are not Russell Peters), showing the ambassador that most of us, thankfully, are not racist bigots.

At its core, this student’s question was somewhat reasonable. Minus all the prejudice, his question was essentially: “how can Israelis trust Palestinians when Israeli civilians are constantly being attacked by Hamas,” citing different instances of Israeli causalities. In fact, had this student asked this question instead of the one he actually asked, he would have received a less severe ass-whooping than the one he consequently received from Safieh. Safieh’s response, which was so well-phrased that the ambassador had to ask the audience to stop applauding, contained one phrase which has stuck with me since: “I have one remark to say about causalities … you mentioned casualties [caused by] Hamas … in the last 4 days, we have had in Gaza … 117 killed, and on the Israeli side three killed. I for one say that all of the victims were unnecessary victims … you are only thinking of the three and you probably think that the 117 killed deserve to have been killed … I have often told Israelis that …” — and here’s the kicker — “anybody who does not condemn Israeli indiscriminate bombardment is not morally equipped to have an opinion on Hamas’ bombings.” Throughout his speech Safieh condemned suicide bombings and Palestinian militant terrorism, and cited that as a Christian he did not identify with or support Hamas.

With the Israeli-Palestinian conflict having gone on for at least six decades, we seem to find ourselves forgetting that both sides are human, both sides have families and friends that they love and want to protect, and both sides just want to be able to live happy and peaceful lives. The hate emerges when, for whatever reason, these people are inhibited from their human right to security and the pursuit of happiness.

One of the main reasons that I took this column was because I felt that the Middle East was represented from a very one-sided perspective at Cornell, namely that of a very anti-Arab one. I felt that it was very important to highlight the Arab world from another side because I think that it is essential that any individual, on any side of an argument, be able to clearly see and understand both perspectives of an issue. One of the most interesting talks I’ve had at Cornell was when I sat down with fellow columnist Ben Birnbaum ’08 and discussed, from each of our own perspectives, the Hezbollah-Israel war of 2006.

If we are ever to see peace in the Middle East, it will only take place under the leadership of enlightened individuals who see each side’s legitimacy and right to live, and this begins, as corny as it may sound, right here at Cornell, be it by hearing the Palestinian Ambassador speak, or by going with a Jewish friend to Shabbat dinner.

Nora Choueiri is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be contacted at nchoueiri@cornellsun.com. A Helping of Hummus appears alternate Mondays.