Student group looks to bring awareness to issues in Middle East
by Dean Russell
News Correspondent
Human rights coalition Free Gaza, in conjunction with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), will hold a fundraiser Oct. 16 at the Palestinian Cultural Center for Peace supporting a US-flagged ship traveling to the Gaza Strip. The ship would be the first to break the blockade since the Israeli attacks in international waters last May, which resulted in the death of nine pro-Palestinian activists, one of whom was a 19-year-old American.
Immediately following the attacks, a group of activists from different organizations in the U.S. came together to fund an American ship called The Audacity of Hope, to join the next international Freedom Flotilla on its mission to break the Israeli-Egyptian blockade of the Gaza Strip by delivering humanitarian aid and resources.
“We want to highlight how destructive [US policies] are,” said Jane Hirschmann, a member of Jews Say No!, in reference to the US funding of Israel.
Hirschmann said she will be one of 40 crew members sailing across the Persian Gulf, attempting to port in Gaza and break the Israeli-Egyptian blockade on the Strip. Hirschmann said the group remains short $100,000 but they are hoping the Boston fundraiser will give them the boost they need. A small new student group at NU is confident aid will come along.
Amir Hamdoun is a middler physical therapy major and the Vice President of Northeastern’s SJP, a first-year organization on campus whose goal is to spread the voice of Palestinian peoples thousands of miles away, locked in a 62-year-old struggle. His mother is from Lebanon and father from Egypt. He has never been to Palestine. But for Hamdoun, physical separation is no reason not to care, he said.
“People didn’t want to hear about [Palestine],” Hamdoun said about his high school years; and now, with the SJP, he said he hopes to change this mindset.
The SJP is an inter-collegiate organization first established in 1996 at UC Berkeley, and though its mission is to promote the justice and liberation of the Palestinian people, it members range religious, racial, and ethnic spectrums.
In fact, unlike the majority of pro-Palestinian groups, the SJP does not agree with the Israeli boarders as they currently exsist, Hamdoun said.
“Policy makers, that’s who we’re fighting against.”
This attitude brought the SJP to the policy for Israeli lockdown on Gazan trade, spurring third-world conditions. Disagreements persist over when exactly the blockade began, however the strictest version came in 2007, shortly after the complete seizure of Gaza Strip by Hamas, a socio-political party often described as Islamic militants.
Over the past three years, in an effort to punish Hamas and curb weapon trade, the average monthly imports dropped to 22 percent of sufficient goods, illegalizing even basic needs such as margarine and raw textiles. The major boarder pass at Karni Crossing, which allowed 70 trucks per day to exit, has been cut to nearly 260 truckloads total in the past three years, according to a July report by Gaza Gateway.
Since they began this year, the SJP has been holding events around campus promoting awareness of peace movements that aim to stop the violence on both sides in Palestine. They have even tried, though unsuccessfully, to plan events with NU’s Students for Israel (SFI).
“Obviously we won’t see eye-to-eye on every issue,” said Ruth Wyshogrod, spokesperson for SFI. “But in the future, we hope to schedule something.”
For right now, the SJP is focusing on bringing awareness to campus. On their Facebook page, they post news articles and discuss ideas and peace movements.
“Jews and Muslims are brothers,” Hamdoun said, maintaining the SJP just want to “bring awareness to the plight.”
Correction
Due to a reporting error, “Fundraiser for Freedom Flotilla” on page 4 of Oct. 14’s edition of The News incorrectly attributed a quote to a member of the Students for Justice in Palestine, saying the SJP is completely for the Israeli state as its borders currently exist. SJP does not agree with the current boarders of Israel and believes that Palestinian land was confiscated illegally in 1948 and again in 1967, violating international law, and that injustice is still happening to this day.
