CLASH OF RELIGIOUS BELIEFS

Last week was Palestine Awearness Week. Various key note speakers and other activities took place throughout the whole week. The interesting part about the whole issue was the reaction by some members of the Jewish community here at CSULB. When author Anne Baltzer, a Jewish American Columbia graduate that has visited with people in Palestine and has toured different college campuses in the country to talk about the illegal occupation of Palestine by Israel, Rachel Bookstein, CSULB's Hillel director, was very disappointed on the alleged misleading information that Baltzer was giving in her presentation "Life In Occupied Palestine: Eyewitness, Stories and Photos."
According to Bookstein, Baltzer was not presenting the whole picture and that she was simplifying a much rather complicated issue. Bookstein questioned why Baltzer wasn't showing the pictures of terrorists and the ones who wish death to the people of Israel.
But Bookstein missed the whole point. Baltzer was trying to show a different picture than the one we are used to seeing on our local TV news. When was the last time that Palestine school girls are shown taking the bus at 3 a.m. just to make it in time to school because they have to cross the many check points.
Bookstein also mentioned to the reporter (me) that she wasn't surprised that a Jewish person would think that way and that Baltzer should be more careful with this type of information.


Media Credit: Chay Chhuon
Jewish author Anna Baltzer discusses "Life in Occupied Palestine: Eyewitness, Stories and Photos" at the Beach Auditorium Tuesday afternoon. In this slide, she describes the discrepancy between international outlets concerning Isreali-Palestanian conflicts.