The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not so complicated and the fundamental resolution is in the hands of Americans, Norman Finkelstein said.

Finkelstein, an American political scientist and prominent scholar on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, spoke to students last night as part of the Palestine Awareness Week.

"Nothing has changed for 40 years. The fundamental obstacle to resolving the conflict is Israel's refusal to comply with international law and accept its legal borders," Finkelstein said.

Students for Justice in Palestine President Manal Khalil said the main point of Palestine Awareness Week was to encourage students to think about the situation in Palestine.

"I'm not trying to force anyone to have the same opinion as me, but I want people to formulate their own opinions. As long as they have an opinion, that's what I want," Khalil said.

Finkelstein spoke about the history of Israel and Palestine and explained how the conflict came to today's situation.

He said, at one time, the history was debated, but now, there is a large number of scholars who agree that in 1948, the Zionist movement attempted to conduct an ethnic cleansing of the indigenous population of Palestine.

This ethnic cleansing is the cause of the current Palestinian refugees' situation, he said.

In order to explain Israel's illegal occupation of Palestine, Finkelstein said the 450,00 Israeli Jews who have settled in the West Bank territory are breaching international laws of the International Court of Justice.

"The World Court has said the settlements and the settlers are a flagrant violation of international law," he said.

One of the major problems in Palestine today is the hundreds of roadblocks, which Finkelstein said Israel most likely constructed throughout the occupied territory to inconvenience the daily lives of civilians.

Finkelstein said that Israel has claimed the roadblocks stop Palestinian terrorists from coming into the area.

However, he said since September 2000, 4,700 Palestinians have been killed. A little more than 1,000 Israelis have been killed.

"Israeli terrorism is about three to four times as deadly -- as lethal -- as Palestinian terrorism, looking at the numbers," Finkelstein said.

Amnesty International, which Finkelstein said has been monitoring the conflict for years, has said on many occasions that Israel deliberately targeted Palestinian demonstrators.

The overwhelming majority of these targets have been children, the group has said.

Khalil said she anticipated controversy and disagreement, but the purpose of bringing Finkelstein to speak was to encourage an open discussion.

"Most people in that room only know of the conflict, or they only know what comes through the TV -- only what the media wants to portray. Most of what he is saying is fact," Khalil said.

"A lot of people will say, 'Well, doesn't every country violate international law?' and everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not every country has been consistently doing it for this long."