The two-day conference was coordinated by Friends of Sabeel, an international grassroots peace movement initiated by Palestinian Christians that seeks to bring justice to all Palestinians.

The theme of the conference was "From Occupation to Liberation" and provided attendees with a multitude of ways in which to end this conflict.

Dr. Gabriel Piterberg, associate professor of History at UCLA, delivered the keynote address. He said he believed the first step in negotiations would be an end to the occupation.

"The Palestinians have been completely crushed," he said.

"The only power they have is that they are there."

Piterberg suggested the best solution would be one state that is home to all inhabitants, rather than a two-state solution.

Naji Ali, an independent journalist living in San Francisco, told the crowd he wished people "put the same effort into nonviolence as we do in violence" in resolving the conflict in the Middle East.

"There needs to be a united front for the Palestinians irrespective of who leads it," he said.

Ali further stressed that nonviolence was not an ideology, but a way of life. He drew parallels from the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

Ali also said it is an obligation for Muslims to be informed about the plight of not only the Palestinians, but also of all those oppressed around the world.

Other speakers included Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Greater Los Angeles-Area Chapter of the Council on American- Islamic Relations, Anna Baltzer, a Jewish-American Columbia and Fulbright scholar who works with the International Women’s peace service to document human rights abuses in the West Bank, and Reverend Dr. Naim Ateek, a Palestinian who was forced to flee from his home in Beishan, Palestine in 1948.