Renewed violence in the Middle East has consumed the state of Israel in the last year, drowning the once-promising peace process in a hail of bullets and mortar attacks.

Current Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's visit to Jerusalem's Temple Mount last September combined with general discontent about the peace process to bring Palestinians out into the streets in protest, leading to a flurry of deaths that virtually ended any chance for a long-awaited peace settlement.

And with the casualty total quickly reaching high numbers, the violence did not go unnoticed on campus, with student groups with different allegiances in the Middle East responding to the crisis with a series of vigils, rallies and attempted joint discussions.

But as events in the Middle East continue to unfold, Harvard seems to stand as a microcosm of the crisis in the region. Competing claims during a time of intensified crisis in Israel and the surrounding area have left campus groups visibly divided, despite the groups' common stated goal of peace.

Initial Reactions

The Harvard community immediately reacted to the escalating violence in the Middle East in October, as groups such as Harvard Hillel and the Society of Arab Students (SAS) held vigils mourning victims of violence and calling for peace in the region.

On Oct. 9--the date of Yom Kippur, one of the holiest days in the Jewish calendar--hundreds of Jewish students and community members held a vigil on the steps of Widener Library to pray for peace for Israel.

"We mourn the loss of all life in the Middle East, and we hope and pray for a just and lasting peace in the region," Hillel said in a statement issued in response to the renewed violence.

On the next day, SAS held a separate vigil, as more than 150 gathered on the steps of Memorial Church to hold candles and listen to speakers describe the experiences of those affected by the renewed violence.

Representatives of Hillel and SAS said at the time that neither event was intended to be political in nature, and that the events were not co-sponsored so that the groups could mourn in their own ways.

"It is not because we do not stand together, but simply that different people need a different outlet to mourn," said former SAS President Rayd. K. Abu-Ayyash '01.

Members of Hillel's Interethnic Committee had sought a joint vigil, but some SAS members felt uncomfortable with mourning Israeli soldiers killed in the conflict at the same time as mourning Palestinians, who continue to experience greater numbers of casualties, mostly at the hands of 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...." Abu-Ayyash said in October.

But both Hillel and SAS maintained that the separate vigils did not mean that there was any antagonism between the two groups.