BYU-Jerusalem students say they feel safe there

PROVO — Highland's Bryan Bozung wanted to spend a semester at Brigham Young University's Jerusalem Center, but when he enrolled at BYU, the center had been closed due to violence in the region.

When the Jerusalem Center reopened in 2007, Bozung was serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in California. He finally learned last year he had landed a spot at the center this semester, but then Palestinian rockets began to fly into the Gaza Strip in late December — about a week before he and 79 other students were scheduled to leave for Israel.

"We were pretty sure they wouldn't go," said Bill Bozung, Bryan's father, "but BYU was very confident in sending them. If anything, they're overcautious of the students there, which he appreciates. My son is very comfortable over there."

Bryan Bozung and other students who have studied at the center in the past two years say BYU's security and the location of the center make them feel completely safe while they learn invaluable lessons about both the Holy Land and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

BYU students were hardly aware of the Gaza war, he said, though they once were surprised by a test of air-raid sirens in Jerusalem. Center officials don't allow students within range of the rockets, which can't reach the Mount of Olives, where the center is located, some 40 miles from the Gaza Strip. Even if the rockets had the range, all agree they wouldn't be aimed toward the center.

"The Jerusalem Center is surrounded by Palestinian neighborhoods," Bill Bozung said, "and the Dome of the Rock is one of the holiest sites to Muslims."

Parents also feel at ease because each student has a cell phone equipped with a GPS device so they can be located, Bill Bozung said. The cell phones also help Jerusalem Center officials instantly communicate warnings.

Brian Bozung was with a group of BYU students in East Jerusalem last month when a demonstration erupted. Almost immediately, the students received a mass text message telling them to leave the area.

Returned students said they felt 100 percent safe at the Jerusalem Center.

Scott Nibley, 27, is a senior from Centerville studying English and Hebrew. "I felt as far from Gaza as I do now," Nibley said Wednesday after attending a lecture by Israeli attorney Daniel Seidemann on the BYU campus. "BYU's security staff is incredible, and the center is in an isolated area. If the situation got 20 times more extreme, students would still be safe."

Nibley and 19-year-old sophomore Maurine Westover said the Jerusalem experience greatly enhanced their understanding of the region's complexities.