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.
Dear Readers,
I remember when this article first came out in 2008 and it has still been on my mind these past five years. It still makes me frustrated and angry to this day that my interview with Ms. Basrai was edited to her liking and does not reflect, in any way, what I did, thought, and said at the time. I was not involved in any heated discussion about the event, nor were my feelings toward the insensitivity of the timing one sided. I am very strongly against any human rights violations, including those perpetuated against the
Palestinians. I am also very against Hamas and terror attacks against Israel. Both are unacceptable and deplorable.
This comment is to displace Ms. Basrai’s insulting and incorrect representation of me. She took what she saw at the event, and what I told her, and changed it to suit her needs for a compelling article. It is a
shameful act what she did and I hope that in the future she will not misconstrue her sources’ opinions to fit her needs.
-Yasmin Santis
I also wish, after some time, to highlight the same grievance against this article. There were no “heated discussions.” In fact, I embraced someone on the “other side of the wall” who became a lifetime friend following this specific event. How was that possible? Because the event focused on humanizing all people rather than drawing walls between them. If a mock wall upsets people, then imagine how upsetting this must be to Palestinians who live behind these walls every day of their lives.
Instead of pointing out the significant strides in understanding, that I in particular had with several individuals who had questions and even those who defended this wall, Basrai focuses on a “misunderstanding.” That I would be characterized as apologetic of flippant is not only irresposible by Basrai, but of the Daily Bruin. She fails to mention the meetings held between different interests, fails to recognize Rabbi Chaim’s presence and our amicable discussions with him, and limits the scope of this article by pitting Palestinian suffering against the Holocaust in some crude comparison of tragedies.
Ms. Basrai’s writes that, “Sarsour, on the other hand, said the groups sincerely were not aware of the fact that it fell at a time of Holocaust remembrance until late last week” strategically confounds two separate events in history– 1. the tragedy of the holocaust and 2. the tragedy of ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. I specifically said to Ms. Basrai that in the remembrance of the Holocaust, dehumanization of all people must cease, and picking up on that point was not only ignorant on the behalf of Ms. Basrai, but totally confuses issues in prime Zionist fashion.
Every year Bruins for Israel dances and parades on the very day millions of Palestinians mourn their upheaval and ethnic cleansing from their indigenous lands. They bring Go-Go dancers, they shoved their flags in our faces. And if Basrai is interested, I still have the videos of us trying to offer flowers and facts of Palestinian suffering, only to be literally stomped on by even the senior attendees of that celebration. Where is that in the article? My very own grandfather was a Staff Sergeant General drafted out of Virginia on several tours in Europe to battle against Nazism–and he was injured in Germany fighting along side his fellow American heroes.
I formally request to the Daily Bruin, before this escalates, that the portion referencing my name be removed because it lacks a direct quote and is a summary of what Basrai perceived. That is not journalism. That is unethical, and I challenge the Daily Bruin to provide any proof of such a statement.