Within the framework of the lecture series Current Historical Issues, organised by the lecturer of the Faculty of Humanities Josep Serrano, on Monday UIC Barcelona hosted the conference “Israel and Palestine” to address the conflict with Meir Shimon Bar Hen, Chief Rabbi of Barcelona and Catalonia of the Orthodox Jewish community, and Ahmed Al Khatib Aiesh, Palestinian architect.

Both speakers stressed throughout the sessions that this is a war emanating from politics, not religion. The rabbi affirmed that the agreement between peoples is possible, but that the problem is the leaders: “If there are no politicians, there are no wars. The Palestinian people need someone who can govern by and for the people, without any personal interest, with clear ideas, without hatred and with a desire to be constructive,” said Meir Shimon Bar Hen.

Ahmed Al Khatib Aiesh, a Spanish architect of Palestinian origin who left his country in 1967 “under duress”, stressed the importance of differentiating between identity or origin of a person and religion in his speech: “This confusion has led us to think that there is a conflict between Jews and Palestinians, and it is not. If the problem were religion, the rabbi and I wouldn’t be sitting here together.”

The two speakers have also analysed the current state of the war, highlighting the number of civilians killed, many of them children, and have expressed concern over the uncertainty about the end of the current war. “Is peace possible among peoples? Yes. Is peace between politicians possible? No.", the architect said after stating that "the peace process is impossible as long as the Zionist movement exists".

On peace, the Rabbi wanted to share an important reflection with the students: “The word peace is a very strong word, which can only be made by God; we can only achieve tranquility (…) The problem is to live together accepting differences and there are people who are not prepared to do it”, concluded the rabbi.

This conference is the second session of the cycle of lectures “Current Historical Issues”, organised by the Faculty of Humanities.