As tensions in the Middle East escalated yesterday, members of Harvard-Radcliffe Hillel and the Society for Arab Students (SAS) said they were planning events to maintain positive relations between the two communities even though plans for a joint vigil earlier this week failed due to differing objectives.

Both Hillel and SAS held peace vigils this past week in response to rising tensions in the Middle East.

But the separate vigils showed that participants had different visions of the conflict.

Joey Shabot '01, former co-chair of Hillel's interethnic committee, approached SAS representatives last week about the possibility of a joint vigil to mourn casualties in recent conflicts between Israelis and Palestinians.

But the discussions fell apart over the issue of whom the rally would mourn.

Hillel proposed mourning all those killed in the recent conflicts. SAS representatives were uncomfortable with the idea of mourning Israeli soldiers.

"I cannot mourn for an Israeli defense soldier in the same vigil in which I mourn for a 12-year old child hiding behind his father's back, or a friend of mine who got killed, because they are civilians in their hometowns, while the soldiers were sent by the government to enforce the Israeli occupation in the West Bank," said SAS President Rayd K. Abu-Ayyash '01.

"The Hillel vigil wanted to include everyone including the soldiers, and there is the difference, we could not morally do that," he said.