Palestine on campus

By: Carla Mancebo

Posted: 4/26/07

Two engineering students were stopped in the Seventh Street Plaza and forced to kneel below the mock guns grasped by three students portraying Israeli soldiers, in an outdoor performance representing military checkpoints in the West Bank and Gaza.

Dressed in army fatigues, Hanny Zaki, a junior majoring in international business and a member of Students for Change, the campus organization that planned the event for Palestine Awareness Week, shouted at the two volunteering students for proof of identification, attracting the attention Zaki said they needed to bring awareness to the plight of Palestinians.

"This is a glimpse into the life of a Palestinian," Zaki said. "In Palestine there are kids who just want to go to school but are unable to because of walls and checkpoints.

"Palestinians are not able to sustain normal lives because of the policies Israel implements."

Raed Hassan, a junior majoring in electrical engineering, participated in enacting an event he has experienced first-hand. Hassan lived in Jerusalem and attended college in Abu Dees, a Palestinian village separated from Israel by the 25-foot-tall Apartheid Wall making his 5-mile commute to school two hours.

"I couldn't step out of my house without my ID," Hassan said. "Without my ID the Israelis would think I was sneaking into Jerusalem and take me to the police station to verify my identity."

Students for Change also created a depiction of the Apartheid Wall, which Director Sarah Morris said was to inform students of the oppressive nature of the Israeli government.

"We want people to see it and experience it," said Morris, a junior majoring in nursing. "For a lot of us in America occupation is foreign."

Morris said the Apartheid Wall was built under the guise of security for the Israeli people. She said this is an illegal barrier that confiscates land and separates families; justified because the media tells the public Israelis are acting in self-defense.

"Israel as a state wants to stay a Jewish state with as much land as possible," Morris said.

Crowds began to flock around the discussions held between two students wearing white shirts that read, "If you were a suicide bomber you would be DEAD by now" and the students running the event.

Michael Aurukin, a freshman majoring in engineering, said military check points and barriers are necessary to protect lives and prevent the entrance of unauthorized arms from Egypt and Syria.

"It is an unfortunate reality but one has to go through this inconvenience so that 20 truly innocent people can stay alive," Aurukin said.

Contributor Miles Murray, who is working toward a teaching credential, sat blindfolded on the benches beneath the palm trees in the plaza and later said the debate among the Palestinian supporters, Aurukin and others was a spar of emotions.

"They both have their own points and they grew up differently so it is hard for one to agree with the other," said Kristina Aristo, a freshman majoring in criminal justice.

Aristo was curious about the protest, which included a girl lying on the ground beneath a barrage of screaming actors threatening to shoot her if she tried to cross the imaginary border. She said the demonstration made her want to learn more about the Israel and Palestinian conflict.

"If they weren't here I wouldn't know that this goes on in Palestine," Aristo said.

Khalid Jakoush also participated in the protest by acting detained by Israeli soldiers. Jakoush, a senior majoring in electrical engineering, lived in Egypt and said he saw inhumane treatment from Israelis soldiers to Palestinians who wanted to cross borders.

"If you are claiming your country is peaceful like Israel does, then you don't have the right to occupy countries and claim it is yours," Jakoush said about the Israeli occupancy of Sinai, Egypt in 1967.

Billal Asghar, a junior majoring in health science and global studies, said everyone wants peace. He said there are Israelis who are against the work of their government but the few in power are working against co-existence between Israelis and Palestinians.

"Our goal here is not to educate the students, but to create a situation where they can go home and do some research on their own," Asghar said.

Karimah Al-Helew, a freshman majoring in sociology, said she hopes the event will get students to step outside of what is happening here and realize the world around them.

"We want people to question Israeli policies and why the U.S. is funding it," Al-Helew said.

Alumnus Haneen Hammad has family living in a Palestinian refugee camp in Jordon and said the living conditions are unbelievable. She said stairs to get into the camp are miles long. Houses the sizes of closets are stacked on top of each other with no access to clean water.

"We take our freedom for granted here," Hammad said. "We don't see the guns. The fear they live with each day you can't imagine."

Hanny Zaki led the demonstration until its end with his robust voice and passion for the cause.

"Maybe this can be the spark of some intellectual debate on campus," Zaki said. "Detrimental to peace are those people that are not trying to work together with both sides."