The tension in the Gaza strip was recreated on campus yesterday, as members from the UC Davis chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine set up a mock “apartheid wall” on the Quad.
The purpose of the demonstration was to raise awareness about the impact of a separation wall in Palestine. The event was part of SJP’s Palestine Awareness Week.
The wall consisted of three signs displaying information about the West Bank and Gaza Strip and was set up at the edge of the grass. Members of SJP handed out fliers and spoke to those curious about or opposed to the exhibit.
Dina Wahbe, secretary of SJP, said the exhibit represented the 400-mile wall that was built in 2007 to separate Israel and Palestine.
“The wall separates villages from villages, families from families, and farmers from their olive tree homelands,” said Wahbe, a sophomore nutritional biochemistry major. “We’re comparing it to South Africa creating ghettos. This is a Palestinian barricade.”
The signs were labeled “Apartheid: The Facts,” “Justice for Palestine,” and “Gaza Deaths.” Facts and figures, such as the history of the wall and number of Israeli and Palestinian deaths, were painted with red, green, and black paint.
Students from Hillel, the Jewish campus organization, staged a counter demonstration to represent an alternative view of the Palestine/Israel conflict. Several wore Israeli flags around their shoulders and passed out their own fliers.
“They’re arguing that the wall is a symbol of racism and apartheid,” said Morgan Anderson, a sophomore anthropology major. “But it is a security measure. Since it has been built there have been no terrorist attacks, no gunmen and no violence; it is there for peace.”
Matan Shelomi, a first-year graduate student in entomology, said that comparing the Palestinian wall to apartheid was an insult to South Africa.
“A lot of South Africans are pissed off right now, because what they went through was so much worse,” Shelomi said.
Palestine Awareness Week will culminate this Thursday with a Cultural Banquet in the ARC Ballroom at 7:30 p.m.
ERIN MIGDOL can be reached at features@theaggie.org.
Not one sided- A few student demonstrations is no comparison to the control that AIPAC has at the national level. I don’t agree with certain aspects of Monday’s demonstration, but I still believe it’s an issue that needs to be brought to attention. To say that the victimhood of the Palestinian people is being marketed is ignoring the tremendous suffering that these people have experienced. Statements like that only trivialize the situation.
I respect how you argue with facts that the Wall has reduced the amount of attacks on Israeli citizens and I must admit that this is great. BUT, I would like to raise a few concerns.
1. If the wall was built to protect israeli citizens, then dont you think that a wall in a different location would have done the purpose? to clarify, the wall does not only separate palestinians from Israelis, but also separates Palestinians from Palestinians. So to say the wall was built as security fence only is wrong and thats the arguement that we must consider. (A Different Wall in a different location would have done the claimed purpose)
2. If the wall protects Israeli citizens, then who is to protect Palestinians from Settler Violence. Visit B’tselem.org, an israeli human rights organization, to read more about Settler Violence.
3. It would have been great if SJP actually brought up the Settlements issue. There are 500,000 settlers inside the west bank living in many different Jewish-only settlements. they have their own roads, most of them are armed, they enjoy 87% of the water in the west bank while the Palestinians get 13% of the water, and they attack Palestinians all of the time.
Israel claims that Settlements are built because the cities are starting to fill out, but what about the Negev? it is empty, there is so much land to build there. Anyways, everyone knows why the settlements are built as settlers have always stated it “to prevent the creation of a Palestinian state”. hence a two state solution, which then makes me wonder why Israel keeps talking about a two state solution when they act to prevent one. This is similar to the wall situation. Israel says that the wall serves to protect its citizens (great!!every country has the right to do so), but then the wall is built inside the Palestinian land to engluf palestinians in big open air prisons.
We seem bombarded with daily doses of tales of Palestinians, their plight, their demands, their situation etc. However, these tales are often accompanied by terribly inaccurate, and distorted accounts of well documented historic events. The Palestinians would be far better served by dealing with real issues of state building, diplomacy,etc.,than by repeating tall tales of distorted history and exagerated victim hood in order to have Western apologists feeling sorry for them.
And in response to the girl from SJP who claimed that gaza was starving, I say:
Weekly summary of the Gaza crossings: 17-24 Apr 2010
– 439 truckloads (10,983 tons) of goods were transferred to the Gaza Strip.
– 1,046,214 liters of heavy-duty diesel for the Gaza power station and 99,500 liters for transportation, as well as 19,980 liters of gasoline and 502 tons of cooking gas were delivered.
– 228 Gaza residents entered Israel for medical reasons and 50 entered Israel for other humanitarian reasons via the Erez Crossing.
Weekly summary of the Gaza crossings: 11-17 Apr 2010
– 700 truckloads (17,412 tons) of goods were transferred to the Gaza Strip.
– 4 truckloads of carnations and medical equipment were exported from the Gaza Strip.
– 1,784,561 liters of heavy-duty diesel for the Gaza power station and 956 tons of cooking gas were delivered.
– 488 Gaza residents entered Israel for medical reasons and 115 entered Israel for other humanitarian reasons via the Erez Crossing.
Weekly summary of the Gaza crossings: 4-10 Apr 2010
(The crossings were closed on 5 April due to the Passover holiday.)
– 479 truckloads (11,882 tons) of goods were transferred to the Gaza Strip.
– 3 truckloads of carnations were exported from the Gaza Strip to Europe.
– 730,000 liters of heavy-duty diesel for the Gaza power station and 699 tons of cooking gas were delivered.
– 257 Gaza residents entered Israel for medical reasons and 68 entered Israel for other humanitarian reasons via the Erez Crossing.
Weekly summary of the Gaza crossings: 28 Mar – 3 Apr 2010
(The crossings were closed on March 29-30 due to the Passover holiday.)
– 477 truckloads (12,772 tons) of goods were transferred to the Gaza Strip.
– 2 truckloads of carnations were exported from the Gaza Strip to Europe.
– 720,823 liters of heavy-duty diesel for the Gaza power station and 583 tons of cooking gas were delivered.
– 72 Gaza residents entered Israel for medical reasons and 24 entered Israel for other humanitarian reasons via the Erez Crossing.
Weekly summary of the Gaza crossings: 21-27 Mar 2010
– 607 truckloads (15,382 tons) of goods were transferred to the Gaza Strip.
– 4 truckloads of carnations were exported from the Gaza Strip to Europe.
– 1,459,496 liters of heavy-duty diesel for the Gaza power station and 986 tons of cooking gas were delivered.
– 726 Gaza residents entered Israel for medical reasons and 84 entered Israel for other humanitarian reasons via the Erez Crossing.
Weekly summary of the Gaza crossings: 14-20 Mar 2010
– 519 truckloads (12,422 tons) of goods were transferred to the Gaza Strip.
– 8 truckloads of carnations were exported from the Gaza Strip to Europe.
– 1,079,310 liters of heavy-duty diesel for the Gaza power station and 837 tons of cooking gas were delivered.
– 483 Gaza residents entered Israel for medical reasons and 67 entered Israel for other humanitarian reasons via the Erez Crossing.
Essential food products including wheat and flour, meat, chicken, fish and legumes in addition to agricultural produce, animal feed, hygiene products and medicals supplies were among the goods that crossed into Gaza.
SE- on campuses across America, the only side of the story that is heard is the palestinian side. Aren’t you paying attention?
The victimhood of the Palestinian people has been carefully marketed and sold to American students.
At the Al Awda convention (An extremist anti-Israel group) a few months back, they outlined their plan for accomplishing the demonization and deligitimaztion of Israel through the Boycott, Divestment movement- we had a taste of it with our co-op a few months ago.
The problem is that something like the Palestinian-Israeli conflict really can’t be simplified. There’s too much history there to definitively place all the blame on one side or just talk about one aspect of the problem. Even so, the impact the current situation has on Palestinians is not as widely addressed as the Israeli plight. To completely ignore the suffering of half of those involved is not going to encourage dialogues for lasting peace.
SJP never addressed the security concerns of the security barrier- they presented just one side. I think the comments here are trying to present a different perspective, since the SJP one was so slanted.
I think its ok to simplify the issue briefly. Before the barrier was built, Israelis died every week as a result of suicide bombings. Now, there are hardly any attacks on Israeli civilians (except for the Qassam rocket attacks from Gaza) The barrier works. It saves lives, and that should be everyones priority until there is a lasting peace.
I think the comments above are ignoring a major part of the issue here; the history behind the conflict. A better understanding of what’s taken place in the area would help tremendously in seeing this from the perspective of the Palestinians. To write the wall off as just a security barrier is simplifying the issue to an extent that’s almost insulting. There are, of course, legitimate Israeli concerns, but to let them overshadow the Palestinian side of the argument is a grave mistake. The demonstration yesterday did not present all of the facts, but ignoring the entire event and placing all of the blames with the Palestinians is completely ill informed.
1. There is no “border” between Israel and palestine. The palestinians have never sat down with the Israelis to negotiate a final border
2. Most of the wall (90% ++++) is a chanin link fence.
3. Since the security barrier was built, there has been a reduction in casulties by 95%. The barrier saves lives.
The Palestinians seem to have mastered only one word in Yiddish word, the word, “chutzpah.” The Security Barrier was built in reponse to the Palestinians’ choice of intifada over statehood, violence over peace,and killing Israeli civilians over prosperity. Among the statistics that ARE NOT being shown, are the number of Palestinian terrorist attacks and suicide bombings prevented by the Security Barrier. Had the Palestinians honored their committment to the Oslo Accords, their state could have been well established by now. They chose other wise. Choices have consequences, even for Palestinians.