The presentation was sponsored by Partners for Peace, a non-profit organization that works to raise awareness of the conflict between Israel and Palestine.,”

Three women from Palestine and Israel spoke to students Thursday about their efforts to find peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The presentation was sponsored by Partners for Peace, a nonprofit organization that works to raise awareness of the conflict between Israel and Palestine.

Huda Abu Arqoub, a Muslim Palestinian; Tal Dor, a Jewish Israeli; and Amal Nassar, a Christian Palestinian, each had a distinct story to tell, and said they were all affected differently by the conflict, which started in 1948 when the state of Israel was formed.

Abu Arqoub lives in Palestine's occupied West Bank region and is an educational consultant with Palestine's Ministry of Education. She said because of her job, she has a terrible time just getting to and from work each day. She has to leave for work very early in the morning so she will have enough time to pass through the various military checkpoints along her route.

"The Ministry of Education is considered a terrorist organization," she said.

Because she is Palestinian, she cannot even visit the city she was born in, Jerusalem.

Abu Arqoub said she believes education and nonviolent activism are the best ways for the conflict to reach a resolution.

When she spoke, Abu Arqoub encouraged students to speak out to ask the U.S. government to stop supporting Israel's military.

"You have the privilege of democracy," she said. "You can speak up."

Nassar and her family founded an organization called Tent of Nations that educates Israelis, Palestinians and foreign visitors to the region on the conflict.

The Israeli military has been trying to seize her family's land since 1991. Nassar said the military does its best to push Palestinians to violence, but she believes violence is not a good way to respond.

"Our people just want to live the way other nations live," Nassar said. "We have to work on educating people from all over to get peace."

Dor's experience with the conflict is quite different from those of Abu Arqoub and Nassar.

As an Israeli, she said she did not grow up with much knowledge about Arabic culture, mostly because her parents immigrated to Israel from South Africa.

Dor said she didn't meet a Palestinian until she was 23 years old. At that time, she had also never heard of the Palestinian name for the Israeli War of Independence – the "Nakba," or catastrophe.

"I saw a reality that was kept away from me," Dor said. "It was very easy for me to ignore what was going on."

Dor now works with a group called Zochrot that puts signs on Palestinian villages that were destroyed during the war. The signs – which acknowledge the villages did exist – are often vandalized or torn down.

"What is difficult for Israelis is that (Palestinians) are a people with a culture, so they do anything they can to erase that," Dor said.

The group also plans olive tree planting campaigns as a way of encouraging peace.

"If we want to have justice, we have to recognize what we have done," Dor said.

Despite the fact that they all have different backgrounds and faiths and are active in different ways, all three women said they hope to see peace between their countries.

"My vision is to see three religions living together and sharing the land in peace in Jerusalem," Nassar said.

Their speeches allowed students to hear a firsthand perspective on the situation.

"They offer a perspective of hope and offer information that is not readily availible (to us)," said Amal Muna, a junior in the College of Arts & Sciences and vice president of the Arab Student Association.

Dor said she thinks activism through the people is way the conflict will be solved.

"I don't believe in the government (to solve this); I believe in people," Dor said. "Come to the land and see with your own eyes (what is happening). My true belief is in grassroots and popular resistance."

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