As the Israeli-Palestinian conflict shows little sign of relenting abroad, two speakers — one Jewish and the other Arab — came together to in a bid to show students that in frank conversation and honest debate may lie the way forward.
Corrections appended. With the failure of the BDS resolution before the Student Assembly this past Thursday, Cornell Hillel and Cornellians for Israel, both of which strongly opposed the measure, declared a victory for peace. However, peace and dialogue have not won out just yet. If Hillel and CFI are serious about promoting human rights of Palestinians and Israelis, they must walk the walk. If Hillel cares about dialogue, it should strive to bring in Palestinian speakers as well as Israeli critics of the occupation of Palestinian land such as Breaking the Silence, a group of Israel Defense Forces veterans that candidly discusses military activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and B’tselem, a human rights organization dedicated to ending the occupation.
Henry Lavacude-Cola ’22 described the sessions as “a little uncomfortable” at first due to the fact that he didn’t know anyone in his group, but he said that by the end, he felt “more comfortable sharing” aspects of his identity.
Feeling way too cold for the month of April, locked out of Greta’s room, we cuddled on the couch to exchange spring break tales, or rather, spring adventures. Greta traveled a grueling 20 hours to Hoi An, Vietnam; meanwhile, Eleni went without wifi (gasp!) for a week in Havana, Cuba. Of course, after a play-by-play about how much pho Greta consumed and Eleni’s evenings spent salsa dancing, we naturally shifted to a more serious discussion about fashion. GO: I think people, myself included, forget that the fashion industry exists everywhere. Fashion and clothes are a part of every culture: it extends past the Core Four: New York City, London, Milan and Paris.
Cuddling in Eleni’s queen sized bed recounting a fun evening, we began discussing our lack of photo documentation this year. By the time you reach senior year, is taking a #selfie in your novel mixer costume lame/sad/pathetic/overdone? Or were we having too much fun dancing and twirling? Either way, we’re getting nostalgic and sappy as our time at Cornell comes to an end:
GO: Won’t we want to look back at pictures of us in our Brandy Melville crop tops and LF chokers, which are likely to be painfully outdated? ET: Or the body contouring, mini dresses that may only be acceptable and flattering in this realm of our lives?