Olive Tree Initiative Reports on 2012 Trip

On November 1, the Olive Tree Initiative held their annual event where participating students report on their experiences in Israel and the Palestinian Territory. I attended. The theme of the event was “New Perspective: Challenging the Status Quo”.

The event was opened by Daniel Wehrenfennig,  OTI director. Then there were a few words by Sharon Salinger, Dean of Undergraduate Education. In her remarks (I am paraphrasing), she praised the participating students as students who were willing to have their perspectives changed.

Then Vice Chancellor Thomas Parham spoke. (He accompanied the group.) In his remarks (again, I am paraphrasing), he mentioned bearing witness to people suffering, people searching for human dignity and justice, and of the incongruity of a  Holy Land where people on both sides do unholy things.

Then followed several students from UCI and UCLA who spoke of their impressions while traveling for two weeks to Washington, Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Jordan. There were Jewish students, Muslim students and others who gave short presentations. There was a theme, if you will, that most Israelis and Palestinians want a peaceful, two-state solution, but that their leaders on both sides seem content with the status quo given the geo-politics at work-including the current unrest in the Middle East and the uncertainty of where it will lead.

For the most part, there was little editorializing, but what there was followed the Palestinian narrative. The most biased came from an unidentified student who could not come, but whose words were read by a UCLA OTI representative. It was full of the words, “occupation”, “Palestinian resistance”, “non-violent resistance”, and “struggle”. There was also  mention of the Freedom Theater in Jenin (West Bank), which engages in “creative resistance”, and the program called “Resistance Through Rehabilitation” (referring to rebuilding structures and buildings), as well as the Wi’am Center in Bethlehem (a signatory to the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions against Israel).

During the presentations, it was learned that while in Washington, the OTI met with Midfdle East negotiators Dennis Ross and Robert Malley. There was no mention of meeting with the Muslim Public Affairs Council
(Hat tip Investigative Project on Terrorism) as they have in the past.

Similarly, no mention was made of any meetings in the Palestinian territory with such figures as George S and/or George N Rishmawi or Mazin Qumsiyeh, all of whom have links with the International Solidarity Movement and who have been favored contacts in the West Bank.

In closing, I want to go back to a couple of points that I have made in the past. As previously reported, there is a long-standing California state freedom of information request for OTI records that have yet to be turned over including financial records as to OTI’s expenditures.

Secondly, I am still of the opinion that OTI is a thinly-disguised venture that pretends to be non-partisan as to either side, but favors the Palestinian narrative. Since the program began in 2007, of all these students who have been “willing to have their perspectives changed”, it seems it applies only to Jewish students. More than a couple have returned and joined Students for Justice in Palestine-a rabidly-anti-Israel student organization. I am still waiting to hear the first Muslim student come back and state publicly that they now support Israel’s right to exist.