The UW-Madison Campus Antiwar Network held a teach-in Monday in opposition to the violent conflicts in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan.
The talk featured several speakers from various coalition organizations like Justice for Palestine and Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice.
Jehad Algharabli, a UW-Madison student originally from Palestine, recently co-founded Justice for Palestine, which is a new grassroots organization on campus.
Algharabli said the mission of the organization is to help educate students about the Israel-Palestine conflict. He said the media do not portray the conflict realistically.
He said the media often present Gaza as a free and sovereign territory, but ""Gaza has been under direct Israeli control—the borders of Gaza, the air space, the waters ... have been controlled.""
Algharabli stressed the need for an equal distribution of blame among all parties involved in the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Christina Taber, a Wisconsin alum and member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, offered a different resolution regarding the Iraq war. Taber cited a need for ""immediate and complete withdrawal ... withdrawing all military troops [and] defense contractors and closing military bases.""
Taber and IVAW support the goal of immediate withdrawal.
""The Iraqis deserve the dignity of full sovereignty and control of their own nation,"" she said.
Taber fears President Obama's recent decision to keep 50,000 troops in Iraq until 2011 will result in ""3 more years of unjustified military occupation.""
During the 2008 election, IVAW produced a commercial opposing the occupation, which was broadcast throughout the United States. The goal behind the commercial was to remind the public a change in presidency does not necessarily mean an end to the war.
Steve Burns, a member of Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice, said President Obama is not as large of an opponent to the war as many people may think. He said Obama views the war in Afghanistan as the ""good war,"" compared to the ""bad war"" in Iraq.
Although Burns was a strong proponent of peace over war, he differed from the other speakers because he did not support immediate troop withdrawal. He supported his decision by saying that the majority of Afghanistan's citizens support forces in the Middle East and hope troops will be withdrawn only after political stability is gained.
