Di Phi Debates, Makes Palestinian Resolution

Several society senators representing each side of the controversial debate took a stand and battled onslaughts of tough questions and comments for more than an hour.

Founded in 1795, the society, which is the oldest UNC student organization on campus, holds debates every Monday night on various topics like psychoactive drugs and national security.

With cane in hand, the Joint President of the Senates Eric Allison called the meeting to order and, after a few small business tasks, the debate commenced.

Sen. Ryan Ong began the evening with his argument for statehood saying that the Palestinians have a specific, permanent territory which could sustain a stable government.

Ong's argument was immediately attacked by opposing Sen. Matt Moeser, who claimed that Israel has conquered the Palestinians and, "when a territory is conquered it is theirs."

During a query session, when guests and other members can ask the current speaker questions, President Pro Tem Derick Mattern countered Moeser's point.

"I like this right of conquest idea," Mattern said. "Can I beat you up after the meeting and make you mine?"

The tension rose further when Sen. Kunal Nandy brought up religious oppression issues between Jews and Muslims and the United Nations' responsibility in working against them.

Matt Bonzek, Dialectic Society president, quickly tried to downplay Nandy's concern for justice by saying, "The only reason why (U.N. members) are considering Palestine's request is because of exploding car bombs."

With that, the debate shifted to terrorism, and some claimed that if the region was given statehood then terrorism would become a standard method in politics.

"In order to stop terrorism we have to step on a few toes, but we have to make sure it's only toes that are stepped on, not larger acts of violence," Bonzek said.

When the formal debate concluded, several guests and members took to the podium and voiced their opinions and reactions to presented arguments.

When everyone present seemed satisfied with the amount of testimony, a vote was taken.

A show of hands resulted in a 8-4 vote with the majority opposed to granting the Palestinians statehood.

The society's debates, located on the third floor of New West, are open to the public, and a list of the weekly topics can be found on the group's Web site, http://www.unc.edu/di_phi.

The University Editor can be reached at udesk@unc.edu.