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In a visit to the Tempe campus Thursday, the chief representative of the Palestine Liberation Organization said that violence between Israel and Palestine can only end through a “two-state solution” — an option in which negotiations between the groups would lead to the creation of an independent Palestinian state.
Maen Rashid Areikat, a 1983 ASU graduate, spoke to about 15 people in a Memorial Union conference room. Barrett, the Honors College, sponsored his visit.
Areikat said the issue is Israeli people are in violation of the law and are bombing mosques and killing innocent people.
“PLO continues to believe that a two-state solution is the only way,” Areikat said.
Areikat said the U.S. needs to hold both Israel and Palestine to the same level of accountability.
“We had to fight to raise the Palestinian flag in Washington,” he said.
On Sept. 20 Palestinian officials put in a bid to the United Nations to be recognized into statehood. The bid is currently on hold.
Areikat said the PLO looks forward to being neighbors with Israel.
Sustainability freshman Maya Kraidman said she doesn’t believe a two-state solution is a possibility because there needs to be direct negotiations between Hamas, a Palestinian Islamic party that governs the Gaza Strip, and PLO.
Kraidman said she believes PLO and Hamas needs to support the right for Israel to be a state.
“But, I think it was great to hear both sides of the argument,” Kraidman said.
Undergraduate Student Government Polytechnic President and applied biological sciences senior Joshua Hoyt said it was great to hear an expert express his negotiation for peace.
“Peaceful negotiations are the only ways to the future,” Hoyt said.
Reach the reporter at thaniaAB@asu.edu
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