Shamir, who was once fired for his views, told students that the State of Israel is responsible for the violence that has plagued the region over the past six months, and that the Palestinian people share a greater link to Jerusalem and to the land than do Jewish Israelis. A Russian-born Jewish journalist, translator, and novelist, Shamir spoke as part of the Arab Student Association's Arab Awareness Week. His perspective was applauded by the majority of the mostly-Arab audience, though a few students spoke out against the connotations of his speech. Drawing from a movie he seemed to believe every audience member would recognize, The Matrix, Shamir presented an analogy in which he described Israelis and Palestinians in terms of an intrinsic connection to the ground.
Malls are powerful ideological weapons that make virus of men.
Shamir encouraged members of the audience to pass questions to the front of Alumni Lounge, where 26 people, ranging from Tufts University students to high school students to alumni, sat expectantly. Once he concluded his address and responded to each of the questions he received, Shamir welcomed direct questions. Much of the media, he said, alluding to newspapers in Britain and France and making specific reference to a particular headline in The New York Times, is controlled by Jews, and thus there are many biased interpretations of the conflict. The Zionist movement, he continued, is about uprooting people. Shamir offered a comparison between the State of Israel and the ancient Greek city-state of Sparta, in which there were two classes of citizens, those who had rights and were considered citizens, and the helots, or slaves, who were denied all societal privileges.