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Pro-palestinian group at Case hosts 1st event
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BY: MARILYN H. KARFELD Senior Staff Reporter
Just before the Thanksgiving break, about 500 people gathered at Case Western Reserve University to hear speakers discuss human rights abuses in the West Bank and Gaza.
Two Arab-American hip-hop bands, The Philistines and The N.O.M.A.D.S., also entertained the crowd.
The large turnout surprised even Rami Mikati and Zeyad Schwen, 20-year-old Case students who organized the event. It was the first big gathering hosted by the recently founded Case chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). The duo started the group last spring to combat what they call media bias against Palestinians and to increase awareness of what they describe as the humanitarian crisis in the West Bank and Gaza.
Among the speakers were journalist Alison Weir and author Anna Baltzer, the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, and the author of Witness in Palestine: A Jewish American Woman in the Occupied Territories.
The Case juniors, both Muslims, launched the organization so students could have “an alternate source of accurate information regarding the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Palestinian politics, and the Palestinian humanitarian crisis,” says Mikati, the group’s president. “We’re not advocating violence. I hope to see peace in my lifetime.”
Palestinians are living “without power, food and water,” says Schwen, a varsity soccer player and class of 2009 president. “The economy (in West Bank and Gaza) is practically gone. (Palestinians) need medical treatment. Before we can move on to more complex issues, how to find a peaceful solution to this, we have to first recognize the most urgent thing they need now.”
SJP began with only 15 members, but now 85 students have asked to be on the mailing list, adds Mikati, a Lebanese-American from Kent. Students who are Arab, Palestinian or Muslim make up about half the membership. The remainder is “just American kids,” Mikati says. An Israeli student is very active, as are other Jews.
“Our goal is not to just preach to the choir,” adds Mikati, an economics major.
Mikati and Schwen, SJP vice president and a biomedical engineering major from Cincinnati, raised about $11,000 to put on the pre-Thanksgiving event. They received a small amount of funding from Case student government, donations from other student organizations on campus, and contributions from students and members of the larger community.
Up to a half dozen Jewish students protested outside Adelbert Gym, where the event was held, says Caleb Posner, a Case freshman who organized the demonstration. He and his comrades objected to the fact that SJP gave the proceeds from the sale of T-shirts to the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF), a charity that arranges medical treatment for Arab children from the Middle East.
PCRF has ties to organizations that support terrorism, says Posner, noting that many Jewish groups have labeled Weir and Baltzer as anti-Israel. “They are known to ignore facts and questions that challenge their presupposed notions. They present biased information.”
Posner expressed disappointment that so few Jews turned out to demonstrate, despite the fact that he tried to contact as many as he could. He estimates that 1,000 Jewish undergraduate and graduate students attend Case.
A secular Jew from Grand Rapids, Mich., who was Orthodox for several years, Posner criticizes the Case community as one “where anti-Semitism is standard and acceptable if you have the foresight to cloak it in anti-Israel rhetoric more than Nazi rhetoric.”
Author Anna Baltzer, 28, grew up in Austin, Texas, but now spends several months a year in the Middle East and much of the rest of her time in the U.S. speaking at colleges, churches and libraries about Palestinian conditions. She first went to Israel on a free birthright trip in January 2000, where she saw “a beautiful picture of Israel” but nothing of what was happening to the Palestinians.
When she returned to Israel three years later, she went to the West Bank to see the Palestinian situation. Separate roads for Israelis and Palestinians and checkpoints preventing Palestinians from accessing hospitals, schools and jobs distressed her.
The separation barrier, she learned, wove into Palestinian areas throughout much of its length, cutting off Palestinians from their land. Israeli settlers lived in nice houses with irrigated lawns, while Palestinians in the West Bank didn’t have enough water to drink, she claims.
“I was really shocked by these things,” says Baltzer, a secular Jew. “I see gross violations of human rights, and the majority of Israelis are extremely critical of these occupation policies.”
America’s mainstream media ignores the Palestinian crisis, she says. “The impression one gets is that it’s an endless war of violence.” Instead, she insists, the majority of Palestinian resistance is non-violent. “Our responsibility as human beings and as Jews (is to learn) what Israel is doing in our name,” she says. “The U.S. government is also providing lots of financial support to enable these Israeli policies.”
People on campus only know what they hear from the mainstream media, which does not present a positive picture of the Palestinian cause, notes Schwen, whose Egyptian-born mother is Palestinian and whose father is from Minnesota. “I think people do care about this issue. They want peace, but most do not know much about the Middle East. Just that there is a big mess.”
Ricky Marcus, Jewish student-life coordinator at Hillel, called the SJP event very well organized and well attended. “It seemed very non-threatening and very non-violent. (Speaker) Baltzer made an extra special point that just because she was anti Israel policy, it doesn’t mean she is anti-Jewish. Her speech was more anti-Bush and anti-American involvement.
“I got the feeling most people were there for the hip-hop acts. It didn’t strike me that people there were politically charged.”
For the most part, Case is very “apolitical,” Marcus adds. Hillel is now working with students to plan a pro-Israel, pro-peace event, “a peaceful response to Students for Justice” in Palestine.
Hillel has hosted events in the past with the Muslim Student Association, although Marcus has had no contact with SJP. He sees little anti-Semitism at Case and says Hillel co-sponsored an event, “Give Peace a Chance,” to head off “anti-Israel or anti-Jewish sentiment.”
“We at Hillel try to give a pro-Israel message but also a pro-peace message,” says Marcus. “We don’t necessarily agree or disagree with them (SJP), but we are trying to show as much truth, what really goes on over there (in Israel and West Bank).”
mkarfeld@cjn.org
Two Arab-American hip-hop bands, The Philistines and The N.O.M.A.D.S., also entertained the crowd.
The large turnout surprised even Rami Mikati and Zeyad Schwen, 20-year-old Case students who organized the event. It was the first big gathering hosted by the recently founded Case chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). The duo started the group last spring to combat what they call media bias against Palestinians and to increase awareness of what they describe as the humanitarian crisis in the West Bank and Gaza.
Among the speakers were journalist Alison Weir and author Anna Baltzer, the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, and the author of Witness in Palestine: A Jewish American Woman in the Occupied Territories.
The Case juniors, both Muslims, launched the organization so students could have “an alternate source of accurate information regarding the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Palestinian politics, and the Palestinian humanitarian crisis,” says Mikati, the group’s president. “We’re not advocating violence. I hope to see peace in my lifetime.”
Palestinians are living “without power, food and water,” says Schwen, a varsity soccer player and class of 2009 president. “The economy (in West Bank and Gaza) is practically gone. (Palestinians) need medical treatment. Before we can move on to more complex issues, how to find a peaceful solution to this, we have to first recognize the most urgent thing they need now.”
SJP began with only 15 members, but now 85 students have asked to be on the mailing list, adds Mikati, a Lebanese-American from Kent. Students who are Arab, Palestinian or Muslim make up about half the membership. The remainder is “just American kids,” Mikati says. An Israeli student is very active, as are other Jews.
“Our goal is not to just preach to the choir,” adds Mikati, an economics major.
Mikati and Schwen, SJP vice president and a biomedical engineering major from Cincinnati, raised about $11,000 to put on the pre-Thanksgiving event. They received a small amount of funding from Case student government, donations from other student organizations on campus, and contributions from students and members of the larger community.
Up to a half dozen Jewish students protested outside Adelbert Gym, where the event was held, says Caleb Posner, a Case freshman who organized the demonstration. He and his comrades objected to the fact that SJP gave the proceeds from the sale of T-shirts to the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF), a charity that arranges medical treatment for Arab children from the Middle East.
PCRF has ties to organizations that support terrorism, says Posner, noting that many Jewish groups have labeled Weir and Baltzer as anti-Israel. “They are known to ignore facts and questions that challenge their presupposed notions. They present biased information.”
Posner expressed disappointment that so few Jews turned out to demonstrate, despite the fact that he tried to contact as many as he could. He estimates that 1,000 Jewish undergraduate and graduate students attend Case.
A secular Jew from Grand Rapids, Mich., who was Orthodox for several years, Posner criticizes the Case community as one “where anti-Semitism is standard and acceptable if you have the foresight to cloak it in anti-Israel rhetoric more than Nazi rhetoric.”
Author Anna Baltzer, 28, grew up in Austin, Texas, but now spends several months a year in the Middle East and much of the rest of her time in the U.S. speaking at colleges, churches and libraries about Palestinian conditions. She first went to Israel on a free birthright trip in January 2000, where she saw “a beautiful picture of Israel” but nothing of what was happening to the Palestinians.
When she returned to Israel three years later, she went to the West Bank to see the Palestinian situation. Separate roads for Israelis and Palestinians and checkpoints preventing Palestinians from accessing hospitals, schools and jobs distressed her.
The separation barrier, she learned, wove into Palestinian areas throughout much of its length, cutting off Palestinians from their land. Israeli settlers lived in nice houses with irrigated lawns, while Palestinians in the West Bank didn’t have enough water to drink, she claims.
“I was really shocked by these things,” says Baltzer, a secular Jew. “I see gross violations of human rights, and the majority of Israelis are extremely critical of these occupation policies.”
America’s mainstream media ignores the Palestinian crisis, she says. “The impression one gets is that it’s an endless war of violence.” Instead, she insists, the majority of Palestinian resistance is non-violent. “Our responsibility as human beings and as Jews (is to learn) what Israel is doing in our name,” she says. “The U.S. government is also providing lots of financial support to enable these Israeli policies.”
People on campus only know what they hear from the mainstream media, which does not present a positive picture of the Palestinian cause, notes Schwen, whose Egyptian-born mother is Palestinian and whose father is from Minnesota. “I think people do care about this issue. They want peace, but most do not know much about the Middle East. Just that there is a big mess.”
Ricky Marcus, Jewish student-life coordinator at Hillel, called the SJP event very well organized and well attended. “It seemed very non-threatening and very non-violent. (Speaker) Baltzer made an extra special point that just because she was anti Israel policy, it doesn’t mean she is anti-Jewish. Her speech was more anti-Bush and anti-American involvement.
“I got the feeling most people were there for the hip-hop acts. It didn’t strike me that people there were politically charged.”
For the most part, Case is very “apolitical,” Marcus adds. Hillel is now working with students to plan a pro-Israel, pro-peace event, “a peaceful response to Students for Justice” in Palestine.
Hillel has hosted events in the past with the Muslim Student Association, although Marcus has had no contact with SJP. He sees little anti-Semitism at Case and says Hillel co-sponsored an event, “Give Peace a Chance,” to head off “anti-Israel or anti-Jewish sentiment.”
“We at Hillel try to give a pro-Israel message but also a pro-peace message,” says Marcus. “We don’t necessarily agree or disagree with them (SJP), but we are trying to show as much truth, what really goes on over there (in Israel and West Bank).”
mkarfeld@cjn.org
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