"The major flaw of the previous peace processes was the fact that too much was left to the local parties to sort it out," said Afif Emile Safieh, Head of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Mission to the United States, to an audience of about 50 in Barnum Hall on Tuesday night.
He called for the United States to act as an impartial third party and lead the way to peace between the Palestinians and Israelis.
"If ever America aligns itself with one belligerent player in a regional conflict, not only does America antagonize and offend and alienate all the other players in that regional conflict, but it also antagonizes, offends and alienates a group of its own citizens," he said.
Safieh's talk was structured as a panel; after he spoke, Tufts Institute for Global Leadership Director Sherman Teichman and Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy alumnus and Lebanese citizen Rudy Jaafar responded and posed questions. The floor was opened for audience questions at the end. New Initiative for Middle East Peace (NIMEP), a student group, hosted Safieh's talk.
Safieh began his speech by reflecting on his years as president of two branches of the General Union of Palestinian Students and urging students to take advantage of their current opportunities in academia.
"For me it was an era in my life, in my itinerary, in my trajectory, when I learned to respect pluralism and democracy," Safieh said. "The best friends I acquired during this period were people with whom I differed."
Then Safieh went on to discuss history and the moral struggle the Middle East faces. "I believe, unfortunately, history is often a cemetery for oppressed people, who remain oppressed until they vanish into historical oblivion," he said.
"In the Middle East, the moral challenge today is the following: we either have today one people too many-this time it's mine, the Palestinians-or we have a state which is missing and needs to be created," he said.
"Let me tell you that democracy in Palestinian society is part of our political culture," Safieh said. "It is not a phenomenon that was imposed or inflicted on us by the outside."
Safieh did not paint an entirely optimistic portrait of his government, however. "The Orient today is disoriented-we among it."
NIMEP founder and Fletcher School student Matan Chorev (LA '05) said in an e-mail that NIMEP chose to bring Safieh to Tufts because "we decided his voice would enrich -and I do believe it did-this legacy of open dialogue and exploration we seek to promote on campus."
"We had no question that his background and politics would be perceived as controversial but we also had done enough research to know that he genuinely seeks to promote peace and nonviolence and that he is a strong supporter of the two-state solution," he said.
Indeed, students had mixed reactions to Safieh's talk.
"I think that he effectively portrayed the idea that he is an advocate for peace in the area, and the fact that he is obviously pro-Palestinian wasn't as evident as I expected it to be in a lot of what he was talking about," freshman Karl Lindemann said.
Senior and NIMEP member Dan McDermott said that "he brought up a lot of points from the Arab side that haven't really been talked about in the American media for a while."
For instance, McDermott approved of the level-headedness of Safieh's stance that Hamas should be given a chance, as it was democratically elected.
Chorev, though agreeing that Safieh adequately demonstrated his desire for peace in the region, found the talk lacking in other areas.
"Like a good diplomat, he managed to gracefully circumvent the difficult questions he was posed and to treat events in a context and vacuum that is convenient for his argumentation," Chorev said. "His avoidance of an honest discussion of issues of Palestinian Authority corruption, the Qassam rockets, and the like was predictable yet disappointing nonetheless."
McDermott, who is half-Lebanese, also took issue with Safieh's skirting of the subject of corruption. It was "infuriating to hear," he said.
The opportunity for Safieh to speak at Tufts came through contacts at the Fletcher School and Harvard University, NIMEP member and senior Rachel Leven said.
She said the group plans to bring speakers from the Israeli Consulate to campus later in the semester.
Safieh currently has a number of speaking engagements planned by the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
Safieh was appointed head of the PLO mission to the U.S. in late 2005 after working as ambassador to the United Kingdom for 15 years.
