St. Cloud State University hosted the event titled ‘The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: Neighbors, Dialogue and Conflict Resolution’ Wednesday night.

Moderating the discussion was former Palestine Liberation Organization official and Harvard fellow, Nizar Farsakh.

Assistant News Director Steve Coursolle covered the event. 

Right to left: Walid Issa, Nizar Farsakh and Lior Frankiensztajn

The mood was tense last night in Atwood Theatre for the event apart of St. Cloud State University’s Difficult Conversations series.

There was visible security inside and outside the near capacity theatre, for a topic that brings strong and passionate viewpoint on both sides. SCSU Public Safety and St. Cloud Police, both uniformed and plain clothes officers were on-hand.

2013 SCSU graduate, Palestinian, Walid Issa started the conversation sharing his upbringing with eight brothers and sisters in a Palestinian refugee camp.

Issa described his moment that marked him, as narrator Nizar Farsakh put it. What it was like seeing his teacher, a man he looked up to, shot in right front of him by men that jumped out of a white van with guns and just started shooting.

Former Official of Government Activities for Israel, Lior Frankiensztajn said his defining moment came when he was living with Walid in Washington D.C. as part of a program for emerging Israeli-Palestinian leaders.

Lior said he was in a cramped corner ironing when Walid stopped him and took the iron from him, “I thought he was going to kill me with it. That’s how deep it goes. We lived together and I knew him very well, but that’s how we think.”

The conversation wrapped up with Walid and Lior discussing possible solutions to the conflict.

Lior also shared his view towards current Israeli and Palestinian leaders, “Our leaders are war managers, they believe in keeping the status-quo, war. This keeps them in power.”

Issa ended by expressing his need for Palestinian and Israeli youth to be able to meet. “Isolation isn’t the answer, we need to sit down and discuss our issues face to face.”