Model of West Bank wall divides student groups
By Wafiqah Basrai
May 1, 2008 10:15 p.m.
This post was updated on June 26, 2016, at 11:15 p.m.
Editor’s note: Sarsour was not an organizer of the event; rather, she attended the public exhibit.
During a week in which people were commemorating the Holocaust worldwide, several student groups were in Bruin Plaza trying to educate students about Palestinian suffering on Thursday through a representation of the security fence that currently borders Israeli and Palestine territories.
Norah Sarsour, a third-year English student, and Yasmin Santis, a second-year art student who is Jewish, were among several students in heated discussions about the implications of the exhibited wall, displaying anti-Israel material during a time of Holocaust remembrance.
The exhibit garnered much controversy between those who thought it was inappropriate to display the wall during this time and others who saw the wall as simply educating others about Palestine.
The display, which was put up with the help of the Muslim Student Association, Students for Justice in Palestine and the United Arab Society, was a representation of the 436-mile-long concrete barrier located mainly within the West Bank. It displayed posters depicting the hardships and injustices the groups feel are being imposed on Palestinians by Israelis.
Upon hearing about the overlap of the Holocaust commemoration and when they were displaying the wall, the groups involved in this event drafted letters to organizations who would be affected by this situation to tell them in advance about the wall being put up, and decided to support the events of Holocaust remembrance on Thursday night and today. Part of the Holocaust remembrance activities fell at the same time the wall was put up.
Santis was upset that the groups chose to put the wall up during such a sensitive time for the Jewish community.
“It’s not tactful, not on a day we’re commemorating 6 million of our people dying,” she said. “It’s completely inappropriate to do this during the week we are mourning.”
Sarsour said the groups may not have been aware of the fact that it fell at a time of Holocaust remembrance until late last week.
Upon hearing this, the groups talked to one another and decided to go ahead with the event because they said they had been planning it for a while and didn’t think it had anything to do with the Holocaust.
Not only was the timing of the event controversial: The erected wall itself also means different things for each side. One side says the wall helps prevent Palestinian terrorists from suicide bombing Israeli citizens, and the other says it creates inhumane situations for Palestinians.
Randa Wahbe, president of Students for Justice in Palestine, said the wall in Bruin Plaza was put up to educate others about the effects of the wall in Palestinian territories.
“It is a hindrance to peace; creating walls between people creates separation,” she said. “No wall has been conducive to peace.”
Faisal Attrache, publicity chair of United Arab Society, wanted the wall to educate about the more humanitarian implications, including the wall impeding people from doing everyday activities and separating people and preventing them from necessities, such as proper health care.
He described the situation in Palestine after the wall was erected as chaotic and harsh for the citizens. He said that the checkpoints where they can cross from one side to the other are often unreliable and that people who are trying to get to the hospital on the other side have died waiting while others have given birth in line.
For other students, such as Santis, the wall representation disregarded the benefits that comes from the wall, such as the drop in numbers of suicide bombings.
Others, such as Jason Youdeem, a first-year global studies student, was upset that the display showed only one side of the ongoing argument.
“I believe everyone has the right to free speech, but there’s a way to do it,” Youdeem said. “(The wall’s contents) are one-sided, misleading and just propaganda – they should show the whole truth, not the partial truth.”
For Santis, posters such as one that showed the U.S. helping Israel by portraying a flag with a Star of David replacing the 50 stars were offensive.
