On Saturday, March 1, the Josef Korbel School of International Studies hosted activist Fadi Quran in a presentation titled “Disrupting the Status Quo: What path towards Freedom, Justice, and Dignity” with about 50 students, staff and members of the Denver community in attendance. Quran is a West Bank native and a member of Al-Haq, a West Bank-based Palestinian human rights organization.
Through much of his presentation, Quran discussed various factors that have harmed Palestinians in the West Bank, including military, economic and political influences. He also mentioned Israel’s attempt to help settlers into the West Bank, where he said Palestinians are discriminated against.
Quran discussed the relationship brought on Palestinians by Israel’s leading water supplying company Merkorot.
“In the Jordan Valley on the eastern side of the West Bank, there are villages that get only 40 liters of water per person per day,” said Quran. “The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that people be getting 100 liters, and anything below that is a health hazard. [Palestinians] can literally look across the street, and they can see Israeli settlers in settlements who are swimming in swimming pools, or who are watering their lawns, or who are farming huge portions of land, and often times this land had been taken from Palestinians.”
Quran went on to state that, according to a World Bank Group study, if Palestinians were given access to more resources they could potentially add two billion to their gross domestic product. He said this would help relieve Palestine of some of its foreign aid necessities.
Students largely showed positive reactions to the event. First-year student and international studies and public policy major Caleb Petry praised Quran’s use of statistics and his connection to the area.
“I thought the event was very informative and gave a good insight into how the Palestinians actually feel about the issue,” said Petry.
“[Quran] has been actively involved as a protester himself in his youth, and also as a legal advocate now. What stood out to me really was the issue of water in that the Israelis’ control the water distribution in the West Bank.”
Petry added that he felt the distribution of water is preferential to Israelis, because 80 percent of water is provided to them.
Graduate student Andrew Godziek also commended Quran’s presentation, saying he believes it had a greater aim in terms of the Israel and Palestine conflict.
“I think one of the biggest, most positive things to come out of it was sort of shifting the discourse away from an Israel and Palestine conflict to something that is more of a struggle for justice, dignity and freedom,” he said.
