Macalester College Student Government voted Tuesday to allocate an additional $1,450 to pay for next week’s Israel-Palestine symposium after International Studies, Religious Studies and the President’s office all withdrew their funding for the conference.

Each citing different reasons, the three offices decided last week to stop supporting the conference. But by that time the scheduled speakers had already purchased their plane tickets, and it was too late cancel the event, according to Danny Schwartzman ’04, one of the organizers.

“The plane tickets were bought, and the people were coming no matter what,” Schwartzman said. “The conference was going to happen.”

While the three offices all said that they support the students and the conference, they stuck by their decisions not to provide the money they had pledged.

Ahmed Samatar, dean of International Studies and Programming, said that he decided to withdraw because he felt that the event was organized too hastily. He would have favored a conference in three parts over the next year.

“The idea of the event was brilliant and the initiative of the students was great,” Samatar said. “But the logistics and the planning could have been better. I have been planning conferences for 17 years, and you need to have time if you want to really get the best people. I think it is important that a conference like this is structured in a way that fits the brilliance of the original idea.”

Isra’ Muzaffar ’02 began planning the conference with the Macalester chapter of Amnesty International and the support of Sunday News just a month and a half ago, but she took issue with the criticism that the timeframe was too short.

“If we have to organize everything a year in advance like Samatar does, then how can we ever address current events?” Muzaffar asked.

Muzaffar claimed that the real reason the college is distancing itself from the event is because of pressure from Jewish alumni who are offended by the inclusion of Norman Finkelstein, a controversial political scientist who is sympathetic to the Palestinian position.

Dean of Students Laurie Hamre admitted that the college had received a letter from a local alumnus regarding Finkelstein, but said “President McPherson would never back down from a controversial speaker, because he believes in free speech and the liberal arts mission.”

President Michael McPherson was out of town on business and unavailable for comment.

“I think it’s great that alums care,” Hamre said. “Do we pay attention to them? Yes. Does it matter what they think? Of course, and when an alum raises a concern about something we are doing, it certainly gives us pause, but I can safely say that we would never cancel a speaker because of pressure from alumni.”

According to Federico Helfgott ’03, Finkelstein is controversial not because of his stance on Palestine, but because he has been falsely labeled a Holocaust denier because of “The Holocaust Industry,” a book Finkelstein wrote criticizing the commercialization of the Holocaust.

Hamre said that McPherson pulled his money from the symposium because initially Finkelstein was going to be speaking unchallenged on the first night of the conference.

As it stands now, Finkelstein will be speaking on Monday opposite Israeli sympathizer and editor of Middle East Insight magazine, Jonathan Kessler. But Hamre says that McPherson also shared Professor Samatar’s concerns about how quickly the event was planned.

The conference, titled “Mideast Violence: Multiple Understandings of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict,” will consist of eight speakers-academics, journalists, activists, and government analysts-and will be organized by topic over the course of four days.

Finkelstein and Kessler will be speaking about the history of the conflict. On Tuesday, Nigel Parry, a pro-Palestinian activist, will present on human rights in the area. Wednesday night three speakers will discuss international involvement in the conflict, and on Friday the topic will be “Visions for Peace.”

While he says he supports the students in their efforts, Rabbi Bernie Raskas said that he had personal reasons for withdrawing his office’s funding for the program.

“I was deeply pained by a Passover bombing,” Raskas said. “And I felt that a conference right now was inappropriate. I didn’t think that we should be talking about the history; I didn’t want to hear the same acrimony on both sides. How could I participate in a conference like this? I couldn’t be fair or disinterested. I just felt that I had to do something, instead of just talking.”

Raskas will be flying to Jerusalem in under a month and will be working at a hospital there, counseling patients, he says, and doing anything he can to help.

Schwarztman said he understood Raskas’ feelings, but he did not think that the conference was an inappropriate response to the violence.

“You can never stop talking,” Schwarztman said. “It’s important to look at the history. I hope people go to the conference. It will help them understand what’s happening, and maybe they will come away from it with a little hope.”

The symposium will be held in the John B. Davis Lecture Hall in the basement of the campus center Monday through Wednesday of this week, and on Friday in the Chapel. There are no speakers scheduled for Thursday night.