More than 50 local attendees from all walks of life, including about 15 UCI students, divided into random subgroups sitting at round tables to discuss the alleged rift between Jewish and Muslim students at UCI.

Omar Zarka, president of the Muslim Student Union at UCI, sat with Isaac Yerushalmi, president of Anteaters for Israel, a pro-Zionist club, amongst community members to discuss campus politics at one of the tables.

"We see anti-Zionism as a way of hiding anti-Semitism," Yerushalmi told Zarka and the rest of their table.

Zarka kindly disagreed, explaining the difference between the Jewish faith and Zionism, a secular political movement initiated by Theodore Herzel in the late 19th century.

"I get angry when someone opposes the two-state solution," said Naz Farahdel, vice president of AFI, to Sheikh Sadullah Khan, imam at the Islamic Center of Irvine, and the others sitting at their table.

"Why can’t there be one state for Jews, Christians and Muslims?" replied Khan, who serves on the University Religious Conference Executive Board at UCLA.

Khan also discussed the discrimination he experiences as a Muslim American. "As Muslims, we are guilty by association," he said.

The MSU at UCI has been criticized on campus and in the media due to weeklong anti-Zionist event it hosts in May of every year. The week’s title changes annually, but one common thread remains: controversy.

Last year, the week was titled "Israel: Apartheid Resurrected" and featured a mock apartheid wall resembling the one Israel constructed imprisoning and infringing upon the occupied Palestinian territories.

Atop the wall flew an Israeli flag stained with blood, angering many pro-Zionist students as well as off-campus Zionist groups.

The Zionist Organization of America, among other pro-Zionist groups, filed charges that led to a federal investigation, which eventually acquitted UCI of any endangerment of Jewish students. The investigation concluded that the incidents in question were "based on opposition to the policies of Israel."

Despite some minor disagreements at the dialogue, each of the five tables unanimously deliberated that the conflict between students at UCI is solely based on political grievances, not religious or racial reasons.

After a short break designed for the Muslim students to perform Maghrib (sunset) prayers, Michelle Eshaghian, co-president of Hillel, the Jewish student union, elected to disagree.

"You can’t separate between Judaism and Israel. They are the same thing," Eshaghian said to the crowd. Some booed in disagreement.

"I am willing to die for Israel," she yelled in response.

Khan walked out in protest, but later returned after a woman said to him, "I am Jewish, but I disagree with her. I am anti-Zionist."

"It is comments like (Eshaghian’s) that show the reasons behind the conflict at UCI," Khan said. "Everybody decided today that it was a political conflict, but she made it religious. If a Muslim student said something deconstructive, I would have walked out as well."

Eshaghian, a political science major, also complained about the blood-stained Israeli flag from last year’s event, characterizing it as an act of anti-Semitism and saying her "blood boils when" she walks on campus during anti-Zionist week.

"That flag is a political representation of the state of Israel," Zarka replied, adding that it was Israel, not the MSU, that chose for the Star of David to be on the flag.

"It represented the blood on the figurative hands of the Israeli regime," he also said.

Another UCI student complained about the Islamophobic speakers the Jewish campus organizations invite, like Daniel Pipes, a supposed expert on Islam.

"We didn’t invite him this year," Yerushalmi replied. "We put ourselves in the shoes of Muslim students and decided not to."

Nida Chowdhry, the public relations organizer for MSU, said many Jewish students often protest at MSU-sponsored events in a fashion she finds offensive and insulting.

Some students have been known to be disruptive, dressing as terrorists and claiming to be from the MSU.

"The conflict is based on mutual ignorance," said Tareef Nashashibi, former president of the Arab-American Republican Committee.

Omar Hendler, a UCI graduate and former member of Hillel, said much of the conflict is based on the involvement of off-campus organizations. "I am very weary of outside interest groups pushing their agenda on the students," he said.

This was the second dialogue between UCI students hosted by Humanity Unites, a secular nonprofit organization dedicated to peace.

Sunny Zia, founder of Humanity Unites, characterized the dialogue as successful. "The fact that the two sides came together was a big accomplishment," she said.

Humanity Unites will be hosting the third congregation, titled "Lets Talk Unity for UCI Part III," later this month.