Intellectual firefights
Put 200 informed, thoughtful, international students in a room with a controversial Israeli diplomat, and let the intellectual firefight begin. That's what's going to happen next Monday here at Pearson College, when such a man comes here to speak to us (presumably) about the Israel-Palestinian conflict. In the interests of avoiding outside protesters, I'll keep his name to myself for now, but I think it should definitely be interesting.It's likely, as I've mentioned, that he'll be very one-sided, but I think it should provide a great opportunity to ask some challenging questions. I've already spoken to my Palestinian roommate about it, and I know that he's a little concerned. But I'm confident that if we can keep emotions relatively at bay and be respectful, it should be great. I'm convinced that it's important in any context to listen to other points of view, as skewed or as biased as they might be. Then, it's important to challenge those biases and seek objectivity. Particularly in such a scenario as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
I'm looking forward to hearing how an Israeli official sees the situation, and particularly how he will react to thoughtful and pointed questions from students from such places as Israel, Palestine, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq and all over the world. It should be quite a good discussion. I will, of course, post a rundown of the event next Monday for your reading pleasure.
