Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Paving a Rough Road to Peace

JACQUELINE KIMMEL/THE HOYA J Street U’s Georgetown organization advertises with posters in Red Square.
JACQUELINE KIMMEL/THE HOYA
J Street U’s Georgetown organization advertises with posters in Red Square.

Elijah Jatovsky (SFS ’16) was running with Jacob Sorrells (SFS ’16) to the Capitol when Jatovsky happened to mention J Street U, an organization he had heard of at home. Fully expecting to have to explain to his friend that J Street U is a national organization dedicated to finding a two-state solution in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Jatovsky was surprised that Sorrells not only had heard of J Street U but also was already actively working to bring it to campus. The shared interest was too much to pass up; the two, who were freshman at the time, decided on that run to bring J Street U to Georgetown.

Jatovsky and Sorrells both bear deep connections to Israel. Jatovsky is an Israeli citizen through his mother and lived there for half a year while attending an Arab-Jewish school in 2006.

“[This experience gave me] a vested interest in playing a role to improve the region,” he said.

Sorrells had a similar experience when he went to Israel. Despite his Jewish upbringing, he never felt that connected to the Jewish community until high school when he became involved with a Jewish teen leadership organization called B’nai B’rith Youth Organization. Through BBYO he took a trip to Israel and met with a Palestinian activist who inspired his interest in Israeli-Palestinian dialogue. The group was presented with information about the situation in the West Bank and participated in a discourse on different infrastructural problems, such as the removal of waste, lack of resources in schools and unpaved roads.

“I had known about things like this before but I had never thought about the issues that critically,” Sorrells said. “What was particularly striking was not just what [the Palestinian speaker] was saying, but how our Jewish group leaders were responding to him. They responded very abrasively; when he would say something, they would immediately refute it. They would either say it was an exaggeration, a misconstruing of the truth or the fault of corrupt Palestinian authorities.”

He began to feel uncomfortable with the way the conversation was being conducted and felt conflicted on who to believe.

J Street U was the perfect place for Sorrells to discover his views on the conflict. A vehicle to capitalize on his increasing interest in Israel and focus on his humanitarian values, Sorrells found it to be empowering.

“J Street happens to embody so much of what I was internalizing. I felt lonely. I felt there wasn’t a place out there for my voice. It was such an incredible discovery to realize that a whole community of people out there felt similar to how I felt,” Sorrells said.

While some events had taken place at Georgetown in prior years under the name of J Street, a club solely devoted to the organization had never existed on campus. Jatovsky and Sorrells decided to revitalize the movement to form an official club. J Street U is a national movement active in over 50 universities.

“[It advocates for] vigorous leadership to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through a two-state solution,” Jatocsky explained.

This national affiliation makes J Street U slightly different than other groups on campus, which Sorrells explains allows the group to have more resources. They can get speakers from the national organizations to train their members with skills like making personal connections, and can attend large national conferences. Sorrells even interned for the national organization last semester.

The club has undergone an escalation in activity in the past few years. It was founded in fall 2012, but it now has over 250 members in its listserve and constantly gets a turnout of over 30 people at its events. Recently, J Street U has put on several successful speaker, training and education events. Last semester, the group screened “The Other Son,” a film about a Palestinian boy and Israeli boy who realize they were switched at birth, in cooperation with the Georgetown Israeli Alliance. The screening brought over 100 people together to talk about the conflict, and included an introduction by both a Rabbi and an Imam.

However, this event also showed the problems that can arise by trying to tackle such a difficult issue. Students for Justice in Palestine ultimately decided to withdraw from the screening due to concerns that attending would not align with SJP’s national organization’s platform. Jatovsky was disappointed in the media portrayal of the event, which he believed presented this decision as a fight between Israeli and Palestinian students. Jatovsky understands that this black-and-white portrayal is often hard to avoid and cooperation is often challenging.  Sorrells says it’s difficult to not oversimplify the issue.

“When you have to make a pitch at SAC fair, you only have a couple of seconds,” he said. “We often say, ‘Do you support peace in Israel?’ This seems to be shortchanging the complexity of the issue, because in the short term a two-state solution might bring a wave of violence, so it’s not all just about peace. It’s hard to give the whole story when it is such a complex issue.”

The club is based on one-on-one meetings with members and prides itself on trying to advance dialogue. The group’s most recent project aims to capitalize on this support by creating a petition in favor of the recent U.S.-mediated peace negotiations, which they will present at the national J Street U Town Hall Conference at Johns Hopkins this April. Its petition has garnered over 200 signatures already and has the support of six GUSA senators, the Georgetown Israeli Alliance and both the College Democrats and Republicans. They hope to present the petition to Secretary of State John Kerry, who may attend the conference, to demonstrate student support for his negotiations.

“[Negotiations have reached] a critical moment. Our support will hopefully push this over the brink. Too often, these negotiations fail because of a lack of support. Hopefully, this will show how many people want a solution,” Jatovsky said.

Sorrells agrees that the conversation about what to do in Israel has not been balanced.

“[It] has long been dominated by a vocal minority who have not been open to a two-state solution. The whopping majority of people have been silent. This [convention] shows leaders that they have the necessary political capital to boldly pursue a two-state solution and they won’t lose their place in office by supporting the plan,”  Sorrells said.

Indeed, the possibility for success in Kerry’s negotiations highlights one of the unique aspects of the club.

“[We] are trying to put [our]selves out of business,” Sorrells explains. “[If the negotiations are a success], hopefully the club won’t exist beyond this next year.”

While there still might be a place for the club to foster dialogue or educate people if the conflict is resolved, the role of the group would change fundamentally.

“I was surprised [initially] by how well the club was received,” Sorrells said. “Everyone in J Street U is so excited about what they are doing; it really inspires me and keeps me going every day … J Street has a way of getting you more involved than you initially wanted to be.”

Leave a Comment
Donate to The Hoya

Your donation will support the student journalists of Georgetown University. Your contribution will allow us to purchase equipment and cover our annual website hosting costs.

More to Discover
Donate to The Hoya

Comments (0)

All The Hoya Picks Reader Picks Sort: Newest

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *