Peace requires understanding

In order for communities to exist in this world, they have toput aside their differences, said Ariel Bendor, the dean of Law atHaifa University in Israel.

Bendor touched on terrorism, democracy and forgiveness during abrief trip to the SMU campus on Wednesday afternoon. He spoke to anaudience over lunch in the Hillcrest Room of at the Underwood LawLibrary.

“In order to go forward, we first have to forgive,”Bendor said.

Reguarding the hostile relationship between Israelis andPalestinians, Bendor doesn’t think that it’s right forpeople to do crimes in the name of religion, and those that commitcrimes for religious reasons are not free of sin, but criminals andmurderers.

“The moral beliefs of the society, not the personalbeliefs should prevail,” he said. “These peoplecommitted crimes regardless of the reason. Forgiveness is a key toour society as well. A current example is the way that the blackand white communities are working together now in Africa. Thosewhites who were a part of apartheid have realized that they werewrong and are working for restitution.”

Bendor said that there is a border between any two normalcountries, but concerning the fence that Israel built is a nationalsecurity consideration that has created political and legalproblems. If it had not been built inside the occupied territories,he believes that there would have been no problem.

“I believe that Sharon is acting out of a defensiveposition rather than one of attempted reconciliation,” Bendorsaid. “I think that he thinks the interests of the people arethe most important. He is attempting to whatever he thinks can bedone to achieve peace. The defense issue is not based onreconciliation. If there can be no reconciliation, then at least wethere is a fence between two enemies who cannot come to asolution.”