Bringing the conflict to campus

Twenty-six year old Kim Gordon used to regard Hebrew University as a safe haven, until one afternoon a Palestinian walked into the corridor of the main cafeteria of the Jerusalem campus, set a time bomb under Israeli papers, and walked out.\nThirty seconds later, he took 10 lives with him as the bomb exploded in the busy eating area.\nGordon, a native of Jerusalem, traveled to the U.S. with two other Israelis to share her personal experiences of living with caution and fear, but also going on with her daily life.\n"I tried to stay at home and not go out, but essentially, that is surrendering to the terrorists, so you need to go on with your life with the loss, with the fear and the courage," Gordon said.\nGordon, along with Dani Abelow and Avishai Ratsabi, both 26, spoke to a crowd of students Monday night in the business school. They talked about their lives in Israel, experiences in the Israeli Defense Force and give students a first-hand perspective on living among who they call terrorists.\n"Reading, hearing, and seeing all of the different media reports don't always give the full context of what is happening," Abelow said. "Seeing isn't always believing -- if you see something on television, it isn't the whole story."\nThe war between Palestinians and Israelis wages daily. Palestinians want their own state. Israelis are reluctant to give up land. Monday, Israeli troops killed 14 Palestinians in an attack on the Gaza Strip. \nAbelow, who received a degree at Bar-Ilan University, near Tel Aviv, worked at a camp with Israeli teenagers during the past summer who had lost relatives within the past two years as a result of suicide bombings by Palestinian fundamentalists.\n"Israel is not only my home, but is also the Jewish homeland," Abelow said. "It's very symbolic of the Jewish people, and it's difficult to see what's on TV because it looks like a war zone. People should definitely still come to Israel, because life does go on, and by visiting Israel, one can show support for the country."\nRatsabi recently returned from his mandatory reserve duty in the IDF, where he served as a guard and "trekker" at a border along the Gaza Strip. \nHe described one of his experiences when a group of seven Palestinians cut a hole in the electric fence right before the soldiers were going to bed, and Ratsabi and his group stayed up all night and failed to find the infiltrators.\n"It was like chasing ghosts," he said. "You didn't have a clue of their whereabouts, and it was so frustrating and I felt so helpless, because although we gave over 100 percent, we still failed."\nThe Israeli graduate students are three of approximately 50 different students traveling in groups of three around the United States with the "Israel at Heart" program and sharing their personal experiences with Americans.\nPrior to their visit at IU, they were at University of Kansas, and plan to visit two campuses in Michigan.\nThe students emphasized that almost everyone in Israel knows someone who was injured, or killed in the violence, and despite their mental anguish and fear, they proceed with their lives and retain hope for the future.\n"I have hope, because if I didn't think we could reach a peace agreement in the future, we wouldn't be here in the U.S.," Abelow said. "We're not trying to teach people. We're trying to give them a little bit more information to open their eyes and to portray a more accurate picture than the media provides."\nGordon emphasized to the students that whenever going to a mall, the movies, or even to her university, she is checked at least two times. \nDespite the extra precautions she has to think about during the course of a normal day, she explained that her activities strongly resemble those that a typical student would do in the U.S.\n"We try to lead normal lives -- by going to school, clubs, movies, or partying with our friends," Gordon said. "We do the same things you do, but we have to think and rethink about going different places, and unfortunately -- it has almost become natural to watch your step and avoid big crowds"