Last Thursday afternoon, Adam Shapiro, a Washington University
alumnus and member of the International Solidarity Movement, spoke
to students and faculty about his work with the nonviolent group in
Palestine and Israel, as well as his trip to Iraq last June.

He began by speaking about the drastically different
perspectives of the local and international parties involved in the
conflict in Palestine and Israel.

He said that statements like one by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon about adopting a more unilateral policy against Palestine
seem absurd to those living in the region, who see Israel’s current
policies as unilateral.

“What does [that statement] mean? What worse could it mean?”
Shapiro asked. “The parameters (of the conflict) are absurd …
[they] create a very absurd situation in which people try to make
sense of their lives. It’s very hard to think of it as absurd when
it defines your life in some ways.

“When statements are made, pundits talk about them, but people
on the ground don’t know what to make of them,” he said.

Shapiro, a New Yorker who was born to a Jewish family, spoke
mostly about his experience with ISM, which, according to its 2001
Mission Statement, is “a campaign against the Israeli occupation of
Palestine, and for a just and viable peace.”

He said the campaign grew out of a group of concerned foreigners
in Palestine and Israel before the beginning of the second Intifada
in September 2000 who were concerned with the excessive force the
Israeli Defense Force was using against nonviolent Palestinian and
Israeli protesters.

“The message is clear from the United States and the European
Union: We will not even recognize this kind of protest going on.
The message is that nonviolence has no place, only through the
‘might is right’ principle,” Shapiro said. “That message is a
message to the people who like to use violence.”

The foreigners, some from the United States and European
countries, decided that their native governments would not take
action against the IDF policies and they would need to take action
themselves.

“Where we [as foreigners] can participate, where we can cut in,
in a sense, is in using ourselves as a resource in order to support
those people choosing to use nonviolent means,” Shapiro said.
“We’re trying to promote alternative means.”

Shapiro said that once foreign citizens began placing themselves
in crowds of nonviolent protesters and homes that were being
attacked by the IDF, ISM members could lower the level of violence
used by the Israeli army.

“We bring an element of safety, an element of protection,”
Shapiro said. “It’s a message to the international community, and
Israel and Palestine, that there is another method to be used.”

The latest offense by the Israeli government, Shapiro said, was
the building of a security wall and fence in Palestinian territory,
which one audience member characterized as a “land-grab.”

A number of audience members took issue with Shapiro, though,
saying the Israelis needed the wall in order to protect themselves
from Palestinian terrorists.

Shapiro claimed that Israeli military leaders, including Sharon,
had stated that the wall would not entirely solve the security
problem Israel was facing.

“I think occupation makes Israel less free,” he added. “As long
as [the wall] goes up in defiance of world opposition … this will
only fuel the ones who want to commit violence to use different
tactics.”

Shapiro also spoke about his film, “About Baghdad,” which he and
his colleagues made when traveling in Iraq in June, 2002. He said
that he found Iraqis are getting a very narrow impression of U.S.
citizens, through military personnel and corporate
representatives.

“[Americans] have our own absurdities but we are now responsible
for Iraq and Iraqis,” Shapiro said. “We as Americans are watching
all of this taking place without our input.

“We have become, by the virtue of the war, the virtue of the
occupation, the most important people for the future of Iraq.”

He also criticized corporate and diplomatic personnel who are
isolating themselves from the Iraqi people by residing in secured
compounds and Saddam’s former palaces. “We’re just deepening this
idea of a regime that’s better than its people.”

“[Americans] need to connect with people on a different level. I
think this is what’s been missing,” Shapiro said. “We only hear
about it as it relates to us, not how it relates to Iraqis … and
that’s what we must demand of our media.”

Shapiro holds two masters degrees, one from Georgetown
University in Arab studies, and one from New York University in
political science.