A key voice in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process visited Stanford Tuesday night as part of a speaking tour of American universities.

Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Ambassador to the United States Afif Safieh spoke at Kresge Auditorium in an event presented by the Coalition for Justice in the Middle East (CJME). The event was co-sponsored by the Organization of Arab Students in Stanford and Students Confronting Apartheid by Israel.

Lecturer Khalil Barhoum, coordinator of the University’s African and Middle Eastern Languages program, introduced Safieh, reading from an open letter Safieh wrote to President George W. Bush in a 2003 issue of The Guardian.

“I believe, Mr. President, that you are badly advised and poorly surrounded, and I sincerely hope that you will unburden yourself of the shallow and belligerent neo-conservative ideology and the delirious Christian fundamentalist theology,” Barhoum read aloud in Safieh’s words. “My understanding of the Christian faith is that Christ has never left us and that there is no need to support unquestioningly Israel’s territorial appetite to accelerate His return.”

Safieh opened by speaking about the situation of the Palestinian people.

“Palestinians have been the victims of the victims,” Safieh said. “They have suffered three successive denials — a denial of their mere physical existence, a denial of their national rights and, the most morally disturbing, a denied recognition of their pain and suffering.”

Safieh said he felt that America, which plays a large role in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, has allowed Israel too much leeway.

“I believe America to be the locomotive for bringing about a Palestinian nation,” Safieh said. “America is a super-power and deals with us as the only remaining super-power. But when it deals with Israel, it acts like it is Luxembourg or Liechtenstein.”

Safieh criticized what he saw as a lack of international involvement and intervention in the conflict.

“Too much has been left to local military authorities,” Safieh said. “There are two asymmetrical players, and Israel becomes tempted to impose conditions.”

“Any diplomatic outcome that reflects the imbalance of power will not be permanent, durable or lasting” he added.

Safieh urged greater involvement from powers besides the United States in the conflict, though he felt that ultimate success would depend upon America.

“Europe is still an actor in search of a role,” he said. “And the Middle East has a role in search of an actor.”

Safieh also criticized Israeli reactions to the suffering of Palestinian civilians.

“Any society that is insensitive to the pain they inflict should expect a reduction in sympathy for the pain they suffer,” he said.

The crowd in attendance met Safieh with a positive reception, with little or no sign of disagreement in questions and crowd reactions.

“I agreed with every word he said,” said Nir Evron, a graduate student in Comparative Literature.

“I thought it was really good,” said Amir Badat ‘10. “I’m not really that familiar with the conflict, but as a speaker you could tell he was passionate. You’d expect him to be tired after saying these things so many times, but he had emotion.”

Students recognized, however, that the event represented only one take on the Israel-Palestine conflict.

“I thought it was a fairly good event,” said Jonathan Gelbart ‘11, who described himself as pro-Israel. “I’ve heard much worse from Americans regarding anti-Israel sentiment.”

“Obviously he’s coming from the other side from Israel,” Gelbart added. “But nothing he said was too outrageous. I thought the stuff read from his letter was more extreme.”

Jen Wang ‘10 offered Safieh a final question, asking which U.S. presidential candidate he supports.

“As a foreign diplomat, we are expected to exercise self-restraint in something like that — unlike American diplomats in our country, I might add,” he said. “But we’ve seen a reawakening of American idealism in this campaign, and I hope the result won’t send the youth back to disillusionment.”

“This is a chance for America to reconcile with the world,” he added.