Staring at each other in the Leavey Center last year, the two students were skeptical. One, donning a keffiyeh, a traditional Arab headscarf, was tabling with the Students for Justice in Palestine group. The other, wearing a blue “Georgetown for Israel” t-shirt, was sitting with the International Relations Club.
Hammad Hammad and
Rod Solaimani, both now senior international politics majors in the School of Foreign Service, couldn’t have seemed more different at the time. But a growing friendship and journey around the world soon brought them close together. Shortly after crossing paths on campus, the two students met again during Professor
Cynthia Schneider’s diplomacy and culture class. Both were attracted to the course, says Hammad, because it was about bridging the United States with international relations, something they saw themselves doing in the future.
Schneider decided to add a credit to the class by having the students participate in the
Soliya Connect Program. Soliya, a nonprofit organization that uses Web-based videoconferencing technology, connects undergraduates from America and the Middle East through weekly online meetings. Students collaborate on projects such as reporting articles and news clips, and they chat online to discuss their biases, thought processes and opinions.
“Within this forum, we were able to meet and discuss these things without our politically charged backgrounds,” says Solaimani. “We were able to get past those one-liners. We were able to come down from our separate towers and talk.”
Hammad and Solaimani sat next to each other during their Soliya meetings and swapped stories about their interactions with other participants in the project. “Being at Georgetown and participating in Soliya, it crosses those boundaries and barriers and allows for communication on these issues that are important,” says Hammad. “It’s not a matter of saying, ‘Oh, we’re all the same,’ because me and Rod aren’t the same. But it’s a matter of appreciating the differences and being able to celebrate them, rather than fight over them.”
Schneider says she tries to encourage students to see that cultural understanding is part of everyone’s life, and not just something diplomats engage in. She says Hammad and Solaimani’s friendship is an example of how people can make a difference by leading their own lives in a “thoughtful, aware fashion.”
“One of the greatest aspects of Georgetown students is that they come with incredibly rich and varied backgrounds,” Schneider says. “Georgetown honors those backgrounds and tries to enable the students to broaden their perspectives and use their perspective and background as a guide to their learning, which makes it a richer experience for everyone.”
Through their conversations, Hammad and Solaimani discovered much about their own diverse backgrounds. Born in Jerusalem as an American citizen, Hammad grew up near Ramallah in the West Bank. As a Muslim, he attended a Quaker school there until moving to Livermore, Calif., during his high school years.
Though the transition wasn’t easy, Hammad says he always felt like he was between cultures as his parents spoke English at home in Ramallah, and he traveled to the United States several times while growing up.
Solaimani was born in the United States to an Iranian Jewish family and grew up in Marietta, Ga. He recalls speaking Persian with a Southern accent. Though born in the United States, Solaimani remained an Iranian citizen. His parents chose to speak Farsi at home, expecting one day to return to Iran. However, many of his family members fled to Israel after the Iranian Revolution.
Both he and Hammad cite their multiple identities as the reason they are able to have a productive dialogue about such hot-button issues. “You’re caught in between things,” Solaimani says. “I’m not just a Jew, I’ve never been to Iran, but I identify with it so much, and I want my kids to speak Farsi. I also want them to have bar mitzvahs. There are three things tugging at you, and it brings you out.”
The two would get caught in late-night conversations about politics, campus activities and their plans for studying abroad. Once abroad, Solaimani, who was studying at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, contacted Hammad at the American University in Cairo, and they coordinated a meeting in Ramallah. He met Hammad’s family, sampled the food and culture and was determined to bring Hammad to Jerusalem. This proved tricky.
Because of his dual citizenship, there was a chance Hammad could be arrested at a checkpoint, or worse. “We both had optimism and hope, and that’s huge in being able to have the things on the trip happen,” Hammad says. “I feel like it was our duty to pursue this and go further because it was part of our education and an experience that we could all have together.”
Hammad made it through to join Solaimani and other friends. They toured historic holy sites including the Dome of the Rock, the Western Wall and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.
Kari Gorder (SFS’08), a friend of Hammad’s who traveled with him to Palestine, says the friendship between the two Georgetown students is a hopeful one. “All too frequently, educated youths don’t ever really get together and talk without reverting to polemic rhetoric they’ve stored up,” she says. “With Hammad and Rod, they are really funny and outgoing, they have so much more to offer than just the token Palestinian and token Israeli. It is possible to have a friendship that surmounts and circumvents what some people might consider to be an insurmountable difference.”
Both Hammad and Solaimani say witnessing each other’s tensions and unique stresses in the region provided perspective and helped them understand the other’s point of view. They say the Jesuit values of interreligious dialogue and understanding, contemplation in action and
cura personalis also prepared them for the journey.
“I feel like our experience is a microcosm of how I wish all Palestinians and Israelis feel,” says Hammad. “Wherever you feel a conflict between two civilizations, having that dialogue or those experiences are what shape the future.”
Solaimani now serves as a facilitator for Soliya, and the two hope to plan a trip to Iran to visit his family. They are also interested in applying for grants to fund projects that unite Israelis and Palestinians. Both agree that they are privileged to be at Georgetown and are compelled to give back. “You don’t have to wait ’til you have gray hair,” says Solaimani. “You don’t have to wait ’til you have a Ph.D.”
“It starts with small steps,” adds Hammad, “and this is a big, small step.”
