Sounds of celebration could barely be heard over the flying accusations from an anti Israeli protest.

"Free, free Palestine..." and "Long live the intifada.. intifada, intifada" were chanted as combination of desperate plea and taunting.

The protesters were just outside of a small ring of tents where Jewish students were listening to a live band performing traditional Jewish music and dancing. The Israeli group did there best to ignore the Palestinian group although some shouting back and forth did occur

This has not been the first time Israeli and Palestinian students on the University of Washington campus have faced each other. This however has been the most confrontational. Police were out in force and blocked the entire crowd of protesters from attempting to enter the circle of tents around the Israeli celebration.

This amounted to chants of, "let is in..." from the Palestinian supporters and "Swine flu..." from the Israeli supporters.

The most disappointing thing I observed was the lack of follow through on a tent marked with "DIALOGUE". Four plastic chairs sat facing one another empty. This tent could have been a driving force for the beginning of a conversation.

There was no attempt at any understanding between the groups.

My blog