A group at the University hosted a series of events this week to draw awareness to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as part of Palestine Awareness Week.
The events, which included a talk, documentary, coffee hour and graffiti wall, were sponsored by Students for Justice in Palestine, a registered student organization.
On Thursday, students stopped by the Quad side of the Illini Union to write on the graffiti wall to show their support for peace in Palestine.
Dan Panzone, senior in LAS, said he stopped to write on the wall because he has been an advocate for Palestine for many years. He said he hopes his fellow students will take away a greater realization of what’s going on in Israel and Palestine through the week’s events.
“The wall’s a cool project,” he said. “Hopefully, it will inspire them to do more research on the situation.”
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Political science instructor Farhad Malekafzali, who gave a talk on the history of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict Wednesday, said the core of the conflict lies in the issue of territory. He said Zionist Jews began moving into Palestine at the turn of the 20th century. Since then, Palestinians have lost a large portion of land, including the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip territories, partially due to the formation of an Israeli state in Palestine.
Malekafzali said the U.S. needs to take a stand against Israel’s actions before there can be a resolution.
“The conflict will not be resolved as long as the U.S. is unwilling to enforce on Israel its own policy,” he said. “The official stand is that Israel must withdraw from occupied areas.”
Shadia Salem, junior in Education, said she is hoping that people will at least gain knowledge of the issue through this week’s events.
Salem said she felt the week was great.
“Why not join a peaceful organization to become more aware of it?” she said. “It’s wonderful that people are coming together for this.”
Hussam Sehwail, junior in Engineering and member of Students for Justice in Palestine, also participated in the activities this week.
“If people become more aware of it, they change their views,” Sehwail said. “They change the views of people close to them, and they stop supporting policies that impede a resolution to the conflict.”
Salem said people come to college to get an education, and this week is one way of doing that.
“We have students coming with open minds to learn about things. We learn from all organizations,” she said. “It’s a beautiful, beautiful opportunity.”
