Senator Martinez Speaks About Her Voyage to Israel

Senator Iris Martinez of the 20th district, a Northeastern Illinois University alum, came to NEIU on March 16 to speak to students and the community about her voyage to Israel. Before speaking about Israel Martinez talked to the audience about the looming recession that has begun to affect people everywhere. Martinez has many ideas on ways to help lessen the pain of taxes such as finding out some feasible tax ideas. Although she is a strong opponent of tax increases with many programs barely hanging on Martinez points out that in order to save these programs and get other programs going we must work on a solution that we can all live with. Martinez hopes people will be understanding and suggest helpful ideas. After quickly addressing the recession issue that have had been weighing on the minds of many college students and residents she then went on to talk about Israel.

Martinez was one of fifteen people nationwide that was selected to go on this trip. She learned about the issues and controversies that are plaguing not only the Israelis, but the Palestinians as well. She spent nine months preparing for the journey which included reading and learning about the country and its people spending twelve hours each day in research. During her seminar Martinez shared a slide show of photos with the audience, which showed the country and its people.

Martinez explained how all citizens of Israel are obligated to serve in the Israeli military after graduating from high school, and commented on how proud they were to do so. Then she told a story of an Israeli woman named Aman, a mother and psychologist who had two children, one of which was autistic. The woman struggled everyday to cope with the situation in Israel and the difficulties she dealt with on a daily basis with an autistic son. On one particular day while driving through a park in Israel a bomb siren went off and there were no bomb shelters around to escape. All that Aman could do was pull the car over and shield her children with her body.

Many Israelis must live with constant fear and many have had to deal with persistent relocation. However, Martinez said that the people were proud of their country and clung onto their belief that one day this will all end and they can live in peace again. Martinez also described a trip to a college that had been canceled because eleven rockets had fired into it, but luckily they kept the group safe. However, it serves as a reminder of how Israelis live every day with the threat that they may be caught in gunfire. However, she points out that most people who live in Israel and Palestine wish for peace, but there are groups on both sides who fight against the peace efforts.

Martinez talked about how people should go over to Israel and see for themselves and find ways to help, and she also expressed how happy a person feels when they see a country that is fighting so hard to have peace it seems strange to Americans. The experience alone she described as surreal that it makes you realize "Oh my God thank God we live in a country like the United States." Martinez was amazed by the people who lived in Israel and along the Gaza Strip and their resilience, strength, faith and love for their country and it was an experience that she said she never will forget and one from which she has learned much.

The Senator also took questions and comments after the seminar from the audience. She then went on to see the booths set up in the student union and reminisced with the Ensemble Espanol studying under Libby Komaiko when she was a student at NEIU. She also went to go see President Hahs and received an award from the school.