Scholars discuss recent Israeli-Lebanon conflict to packed house at UC Berkeley

More than 300 attendants packed UC Berkeley’s Dwinelle Hall Thursday to hear a panel discussion on the history and context of the recent military conflict in Israel and Lebanon.

The teach-in, dubbed Questioning the 'New Middle East': War and Resistance in Lebanon, featured four UC Berkeley professors and one speaker from the Global Fund for Women, touching on the history of Hezbollah, U.S./Israeli hegemony in the Middle East, life inside what they called the world’s oldest refugee population in Palestine, and the possibilities for lasting peace in the region.

UC Berkeley history professor Beshara Doumani told the crowd the year 2006 signals the beginning of a new trend of reducing U.S. and Israeli dominance in the region.

Doumani cited what he called clear assessments of the conflict between Hezbollah paramilitary forces and Israeli forces, and said Israel was defeated.

“We are involved in a decades-long process that is intensifying against demographic and territorial displacement, which is literal ghetto-ization of an entire race of people,” Doumani said, referring to the shrinking of Palestinian controlled land in the Gaza Strip.

Hezbollah is not the official government of Lebanon but effectively controls much of the country. The group – listed as an international terrorist organization by the United States, Canada, the Netherlands and Israel – is based in Beirut, with strong support from the Shiite populated southern part of the country bordering Israel.

Though most of Hezbollah’s funding is believed to be rooted in Iran and Syria, the organization is more self-sufficient due to the active investment funds and businesses it manages, according to Zeina Zaatari, a program officer for the Middle East and north Africa with the Global Fund for Women.

Because Hezbollah focuses on entities such as hospitals, schools, clinics, death benefits for soldiers’ families, rebuilding, and media, it is has popular support throughout Lebanon and across sectarian lines, Zaatari said.

“Though its interest has always been declared to drive Israel out of Lebanon, the day after the ceasefire Hezbollah leaders were out surveying damage to give aid to people,” Zaatari said.

She said it is important to understand Hamas in Palestine and Hezbollah in Lebanon as part of the global left movement rather than as terrorist groups. Hamas, which gained majority seats in Palestine’s 2006 legislative elections, is also considered a terrorist organization by the United States.

An attendee asked the panelists what they thought about the Israeli people being threatened by all of their neighbors. Many in the room turned their heads, twitched or tightened during the brief pause that followed.

“Israelis are not losing their cities, living on two dollars a day, losing territory — in fact they are gaining territory,” responded panelist Charles Hirschkind, a professor of anthropology at UC Berkeley. His answer elicited boisterous applause.

Doumani suggested that for the past 40 years, international consensus agrees that Israel is breaking international law by occupying Palestine and illegally crossing its border with Lebanon.

“Israel has U.S. support, which leaves an irrational arrogance of power to make the same mistakes over and again,” he said to the crowd that spilled into the hallways.

He compared the recent conflict in Lebanon and Israel (which lasted from July 12 until Aug. 14) to the Israeli invasion and occupation of southern Lebanon in 1982. The earlier conflict lasted from 1982 until 2000.

“All of Israel’s goals failed then and now,” Doumani said. “Gaza was supposed to be a showcase for Israeli withdrawal, but Israel destroyed the infrastructure and just re-invaded Gaza while world attention was on the Hezbollah conflict in Lebanon.”

Doumani said a new Israeli law passed last summer prevents Palestinians and Israelis who intermarry from living together in Israel.

“This is exclusive to Palestinians. Thousands of families are affected by this,” Doumani said. "Israel cannot be a democratic and a Jewish state at the same time.”