On Friday, March 6, 15 students and alumni held a community gathering in President Fred Lawrence’s office demanding a meeting discussing the restoration of the university’s partnership with Al-Quds University. This group requested the meeting be held within the week. Catie Stewart ’16, Eli Philip ’15 and Naomi Hornstein ’15 organized the event with a core group of the students from the Brandeis University and Al-Quds University Student Dialogue Initiative. Following an hour long sit-in, Lawrence agreed to meet with the students on Tuesday, March 10. The students, however, believe Lawrence did not allow them to fully express their concerns, even when the meeting did occur.

Brandeis suspended its partnership with Al-Quds University in November 2013 after a rally on the campus in which demonstrators marched in dark clothing carrying fake weapons shouting anti-Semitic slogans. Al-Quds President Sari Nusseibeh issued a statement condemning the events, which Lawrence found “unacceptable and inflammatory,” according to an August 2014 article in The Brandeis Hoot.

Shortly after the partnership ended, Stewart and Philip founded the initiative to promote continued dialogue between the universities and restoration of the partnership. The initiative organized a trip to Al-Quds last summer and held an event to discuss their experiences in the fall. They also spearheaded a campaign in which over 200 students sent emails to Lawrence requesting reinstatement of the partnership.

“We want to impress upon our administration that students are very interested in this and that this is an issue that’s good for the student body, that’s good for Brandeis University and that it’s not something we’re going to give up on,” said Philip of the initiative’s goals.

Students from the initiative have attempted to meet with Lawrence since November. After a series of emails, Lawrence scheduled a meeting in February, which he later cancelled. Lisa Lynch offered to meet the students in April; however the students were frustrated by how long it had been since their initial inquiry. In an interview with The Hoot, Stewart, Philip and Hornstein explained that the group decided to stage the sit-in after Lawrence failed to reschedule their February meeting.

“We don’t want to escalate, but we’re just fed up with being ignored,” said Stewart.

Entering Lawrence’s office, students informed Executive Assistant to the President Celia Harris of their desire to speak with Lawrence. Harris explained that Lawrence was unavailable. Students stated their intent to hold a community gathering in Lawrence’s waiting room for the remainder of the office hour. David Bunis ’83 the senior vice president, chief of staff and chief legal officer, sat in on the gathering.

While in Lawrence’s waiting room, Stewart and Philip discussed why they feel the partnership and cross-cultural dialogue are important. The students read and discussed poetry and narratives which they labeled as very powerful to express their thoughts on the overarching and daily conflict between Israelis and Arabs and the importance of dialogue. Works included those of Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai and a pair of letters between Israeli and Palestinian authors Sayed Kashua and Etgar Keret, written after Kashua had immigrated to America. Risa Dunbar ’17 shared an original poem about her encounter with an Israeli-Arab girl she met while visiting her school during a summer program.

Of the readings, Hornstein said, “I think it was very powerful, especially for the Chief of Staff and President Lawrence, to see there’s people who really care about this … It’s very important to open up the dialogue and have those tough conversations.”

Partway through the gathering, Student Union President Sneha Walia ’15 arrived for a scheduled meeting with Lawrence. Walia offered to split her time with the students; however Harris explained this would be inappropriate as they were not on the schedule. Walia said that perhaps there would be time left over at the end of her meeting. Stewart expressed her dismay at not being allowed to split the time, stating, “It’s pretty demonstrative of how our voices are not being heard, and not for real reasons of not having time … but because the administration does not want to hear us.”

Lawrence emerged from his office at the close of the hour and scheduled the Tuesday meeting. Following the meeting, however, Philip, Stewart and Horstein expressed their dissatisfaction with Lawrence. The students have a proposal for reinstating the partnership, which they stated Lawrence refused to look at.

Of the meeting, Stewart said, “It was clear to us that he was not trying to hear our voices. He had made up his mind before walking into that room that he was not going to act or do anything to renew the partnership.”

The Hoot attempted to contact President Lawrence, but Lawrence and the Brandeis Communications team did not provide comment as of press time.

The students will hold a press conference today, Friday March 13 at 2 p.m. in the SCC. They will discuss their proposal, the meeting with Lawrence and expound their belief that Lawrence has made no indication that he will reinstate the partnership.

Stewart, Philip and Hornstein believe the partnership is valuable for both universities, promoting dialogue and enhanced understandings between cultures. The students also discussed the negative impact of the suspension on Al-Quds. Horstein stated after the sit-in, they contacted Al-Quds students who were were thrilled about the meeting at Brandeis and proud of the initiative’s actions.

Philip stated he believes the partnership “is an opportunity for people from our university to have a serious dialogue with people who are from a very different culture but also with people that we normally think of as disagreeing with us.” He also hopes Brandeis is a place where tough conversations can take place. He hopes the dialogue between Brandeis and Al-Quds can serve as a model for valuable dialogue throughout the Brandeis community.

The students hope today’s press conference will help educate students on the status of this issue.

“I hope the president’s office knows we are not going to be shut down,” said Stewart. “They can try to ignore us, they can try to silence us, but we’re not okay with that, and we want to encourage all the students on campus who aren’t okay being shut down to join us.”