So today I helped run a display at York University in the main student area Vari Hall called “Free Palestinians from Hamas”. We set up a board with different newspaper and media quotes of people and human rights organizations condemning Hamas’ exploitation of regular Palestinian citizens, and bringing light to the facts on the ground there that the media completely ignores.
For the most part, it went very well. But the intellectual dishonesty on the other side is astounding. As soon as we set up, one of the guys from the “Apartheid Wall” display a few meters away came over to us and said “You should be ashamed of yourselves” and walked away. I’m not really sure what that meant. We should be ashamed at ourselves for sticking for average Palestinians, and making a distinction between Hamas militants and regular people who are victims of Hamas aggression?
I met some people that really surprised me, including a girl who claims she was a Jordanian Muslim. She was very honest and completely condemned Hamas and put all the blame on them, acknowledging that Israel has no partner for peace. She told me that in Jordan they are taught to hate Jews. An Iranian I was talking with also told me the same thing. Not that this is news to me, but it was shocking to hear them admit it. They need to become more vocal and let the world know.
We had an Arab on our side who spoke with a lot of the opposition in arabic. He told me that there are lots of people who claim to be Palestinian when they come and argue, but he recognizes their accents and when he calls them out on it they eventually admit that they’re lying. You think that’s the only they tell?
Sorry to report that at the end of the day, nothing too juicy happened! We don’t have thugs wearing bullet proof vests yanking people who disagree with us, so things remained pretty civil except for the occasional yelling matches.
If anyone is interested in running the display or needs information on setting up a similar one on their campus then e-mail me! mikecg@thentherewaslight.com
Here are a few pictures.
Related posts:
- Today’s Israeli Apartheid Week Event at York: Khaled Mouammar Q+A Today’s event was supposed to start at 12:30 and I had a meeting at...
- Canadian Senator actually being useful: attacks Israeli Apartheid Week Hon. Yoine Goldstein said some things that needed to be said yesterday: Honourable senators,...
- Almost 50% of Palestinians favour Hamas, says new poll We would like to believe that most Palestinians and Arabs are ‘moderate’, but poll...
- Back to school right in time for Israeli Apartheid week! Back to school right in time for Israel Apartheid week @ York! Israeli Apartheid...
- Waterloo Prof Cancels talk at Ryerson in protest of Israeli Apartheid Week Another one bites the dust… I received this from a friend at Ryerson. It...
Israel is a western-style democracy being pressured to make peace with a neighbor that has attacked it over and over and over.
Furthermore, people forget that the entire reason that the Palestinian people are displaced is that the entire Arab world declared war on Israel long before it was a nation.
How would we react if a large aboriginal group started launching frequent attacks? Would we react by peacefully letting them form their own nation where they would be free to continue to launch attacks?
It would go a long way if people stopped seeing Israelis as so different from themselves. Regardless of their religion, Israel is a nation of modern Western-style life, and until people (like the other commenters here) see them as such, it will continue to be an ignorance dump for the masses.
Think about this. If you were born into a different family in a different place then would you be of that religion? ie. India-Hindu?,
Afganistan-Muslim?, America-Morman?, Europe-Catholic?
I’m sorry man but when you take anything out of religious scriptures as literal like something being “biblically promised”, that is where the root of the problem lies. Why people take anything out of their religious books and follow it blindly baffles me. My opinion is that no book in any religion should be followed. It’s the same as picking up any book of fiction. The Harry Potter books? Why not? In a few thousand years the books could get mixed up. If I told you I whole-heartedly believed in the tooth-fairy and she was my God would you laugh at me and call me crazy? Probably. But why is it different with other God’s and religions? Why do you not believe in the tooth fairy or Zeus? Which one’s are right? The one you hold onto but like I said if you born elsewhere into a different family….
Well done!
I really appreciate the work you’re doing to combat IAW. Your blog is very good!
Lets start a student protest movement.
This is the start
viva le revolucion!
soas!