Since his freshman year, LSA senior Sol Adelsky has wanted to start a journal to evoke intellectual discussions on campus about Israel. His dream came true last week when the Michigan Israel Observer, a journal founded last semester, published its maiden issue.

Adelsky said the journal, which has drawn fire from some Palestinian students, aims to provide a public forum for discussion on the Jewish state.

"There is always an avoidance of the discussion of Israel," Adelsky said.

She said the lack of dialogue has previously prevented students from developing meaningful discourse about the Jewish state.

He said the journal aims to fix this problem by publishing longer and more in-depth articles on issues such as Israeli politics, culture, music and art.

"The journal emphasizes research and substance, rather than rhetoric. Long articles give people the opportunities for deeper analysis," he said.

Although the journal's focus is Israel, Adelsley said he does not does not want the campus to think the journal will focus solely on the Arab-Israeli conflict.

"'Multi-dimensional' is a good way to characterize the journal; it involves issues more than the conflict. We have articles about the history, the culture, women's issues," Adelsky said.

The first issue, published last Thursday, included an article about LGBT issues in Israel by Stephanie Persin, an LSA senior.

Persin said that although it does not directly relate to the political conflict, her article fulfills the goal of the journal - to intellectually examine the State of Israel and its people.

She wanted to examine what it means to be a Zionist as well as gay or lesbian.

Some Palestinian students were invited to contribute to the journal but refused because she said the title of the journal betrays its bias.

LSA senior Rama Salhi, president of Students Allied for Freedom and Equality, a pro-Palestinian group, said she and other Palestinian students declined the journal's invitation to contribute articles after meeting with the editors.

"Its ownership has a problem," Salhi said, adding that she didn't think the word "Michigan" should be part of the journal's title because the publication does not represent the views of all Michigan students.

Salhi said by using the word "Israel" in the title, the journal acknowledges Israel's rights to exist, a key contention in the Arab-Israeli conflict.

"It lacks a sense of legitimacy," she said. "It's hard to claim to be neutral, if it's already dismissing a particular perspective."

In addition, Salhi said she declined to contribute for fear that her articles would be tokenized as the Arab perspective.

"I didn't feel my views would be respected," she said. "I wasn't very trustworthy of the undertone that would be assigned with my perspective."

Salhi said that she agrees the journal focuses on the society of Israel as a whole rather than magnifying the conflict. But she said the journal won't be the forum of discussion what the editors hope for.

"I would not submit anything that I have written, (but) I'm not particularly offended by this," she said.

The Michigan Israel Observer will hold a mass meeting in the Perlman Honors Commons in Mason Hall on March 9 at 8 p.m. to let students meet the staff and discuss the journal.

The event is intended to allow students to meet the staff and discuss the journal.