Groups react to Gaza raids
By Sherese Tong
March 6, 2008 11:07 p.m.
Students from Palestinian and Israeli communities put up banners and bulletin boards on Bruin Walk on Thursday in response to the recent Israeli raid in the Gaza Strip, expressing their opinions from both sides.
These student efforts followed the assault launched by Israeli forces into northern Gaza last week, in which more than 120 Palestinians, about half of them civilians, were killed.
In response to the raid, Students For Justice in Palestine and the Muslim Student Association worked together to launch the Stand Up For Gaza Campaign on Thursday.
In the campaign, students displayed banners and bulletin boards meant to exhibit the suffering of civilians in Gaza.
Randa Wahbe, president of Students for Justice in Palestine, said that the campaign was aimed at informing UCLA students of the incident, because the Israeli government’s actions were “collective punishment.”
“Millions of our tax dollars are being given to Israel, and this is often for military purposes, (which are) often inhumane and unjust,” Wahbe said.
In response to the campaign, students from Bruins For Israel also put up banners and called for a stop to rocket attacks on Israeli civilians by militants in Gaza.
Jasmin Niku, president of Bruins For Israel, said that the group felt the need to show UCLA another side of the incident, in which rockets are often fired from Gaza to Israeli cities, despite the fact that Israel gave up its control over Gaza in 2005.
“Israel has the responsibility to protect its citizens,” Niku said.
No matter what, civilians on both sides have suffered. Ibrahim Ghanem, a third-year mechanical engineering student who helped organize Stand Up For Gaza, said that civilians in Gaza are facing terrible situations such as shortages of food and power, sewage spills, and restricted medical services. Ghanem said he wanted the Palestinian students’ opinions to be expressed through the campaign.
“Usually our side of the Palestinian story is never expressed as much as the other side,” he said.
Sheila Solymani, secretary of Bruins For Israel, said that because of the frequent rocket attacks from Gaza, Israeli people are living in constant fear.
“We’re letting people know it’s not like Israel wants to kill innocent people, but they’re defending their own citizens,” Solymani said.
Dennis Chen, a third-year psychobiology student who talked to the Palestinian students on Bruin Walk, said he was interested to see what UCLA students think about the incident.
“(I see) both sides have good and reasonable points, and both sides have their wrongs too,” Chen said. “And ultimately, the only way out of this is when there is forgiveness on both sides.”
