Among the students and faculty swarming the falafel, henna artist, and posters showcasing Palestinian culture, Amarah Alghadban surveys her event “Welcome to Palestine,” held on Wednesday, March 21 at SXU.
Alghadban is the President of the registered student organization Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).
According to their constitution, the group members advocate for “international law, human rights, and basic standards of justice…that will be fundamental to a fair and lasting resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict.”
Although the group was on hiatus for a year due to internal board problems, Alghadban says she spoke with the group’s faculty sponsor, Dr. Iman Saca of the Sociology & Anthropology Department, to get the group back up and running.
Wednesday’s event served mainly to expose and educate members of the SXU community to the culture of Palestine.
“I realized we can’t keep doing political stuff to get people involved,” Alghadban said, “I really wanted to show people the culture of Palestine because, in order to understand the politics of what’s going on, you have to learn about our culture and history first.”
The “politics of what’s going on” refers to the conflict between Palestine and Israel.
“In 1948,” Alghadban explained, “the United Nations, along with the backing of the United Kingdom, wanted to create an Israel state due to support from zionists in Europe. They wanted to create two states: a Palestinian state and an Israeli state. Of course, that did not work because the Zionists actually forced a lot of Palestinians out of their homes.”
“It was an unequal state to begin with,” Alghadban continued, “Israelis would have gotten more land from the start. Many Palestinians, including my grandfather, who became a refugee at 16, were forced from their homes, leading to the Arab-Israeli War of 1948.”
“Many Palestinians descend from those refugees of 1948, who are in exile across the Arab world and in America. It affects many Palestinians because many of us are from the West Bank and the West Bank is under occupation as well.”
“All of this is really just the aftermath of what happened 70 years ago; we’re still here and we’re still suffering.”
Part of the suffering comes from the Apartheid Wall on the border of the West Bank. The wall separates Palestine and Israel. Although the Israeli state claims it serves as a barrier for terrorism, many Palestinians claim it is just one more way the occupiers are controlling Palestinians.
“If anyone is familiar with the Berlin Wall, this is similar,” Alghadban said, “The Apartheid Wall goes all around the West Bank and is supposed to keep Palestinians out of what is 1948 territory, A.K.A modern day Israel, as well as keep them from leaving. The wall is actually taller than the Berlin Wall; it’s 25 feet tall, 403 miles long.”
SJP has actually created their own replica of the Apartheid Wall which they showcased at their Welcome to Palestine event.
The students’ wall is three tall panels painted grey with different quotes, drawings, and statistics written on the wall.
“As you can see on our wall,” Alghadban said, “16 people have been killed, 500 injured, and almost 3,000 people have been isolated from their families…and Palestinian women are not allowed past the wall.”
The issue of Palestinian women not being allowed past the wall has resulted in alarming statistics.
Alghadban explains that a majority of better hospitals are on the other side of the Wall.
The result is that pregnant women find themselves unable to give healthy births. Between September of 2000 and December of 2010, 19 women were killed at checkpoints at the Wall and 26 had stillborns.
“Really, it’s problematic because Palestinian women aren’t getting the help they need,” Alghadban said.
However, in spite of the war between the two states, Alghadban explains that many Israelis and individuals across the world are demanding an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
As Palestinians continue to fight for their freedom from Israeli occupiers, citizens around the globe are demanding their own governments take action to help.
“South Africa supports the Free Palestine movement; people in eastern Europe support it,” Alghadban said.
“You don’t have to be Palestinian to support anything that says Free Palestine. There are many Israelis who support the end of occupation as well, but it’s the zionists many Palestinians have an issue with.”
“I myself have an issue with zionsists, not Israelis,” Alghadban says, “The zionist movement is a colonial, imperial, ethnic cleansing state. A lot of people tend to forget there were Palestinian Jews and Christians who were forced out of their homes.”
“There was a time when Palestinian Jews, Christians, and Muslims lived in peace under a secular state,” Alghadban continued, “So really, zionism happens when imperialism was introduced.”
For those who wish to call an end to zionism and who support the Free Palestine movement, they are helping Palestinians perserve their culture in the larger gloabal culture.
Moreover, through hosting events such as Welcome to Palestine, Alghadban says Palestinians are able to keep their culture alive and shared with others.
“Really, to keep the Palestinian culture alive, we create the Palestinian dress here. We have henna. We host traditional parties, but we’ll also incorporate American culture.”
“So, for instance, we may have an American wedding but then a few days before we’ll have a traditional Palestinian party called the henna party.”
“We also keep following our villages culture,” Alghadban added, “My village does a camel dance, so we do that at weddings. So, just preserving the culture in exile and finding a way to incorporate it with an American culture; instead of assimilating, acculturating. That way we are American and Palestinian.”
Alghadban says she hopes to see Palestine freed in her lifetime, but that it will take a lot of work.
“In order to end occupation, [we] need to reinstate the Palestinians, find a way to get the refugees back to their home, and really disbanding the Israeli government,” Alghadban says.
For more information on SJP, email sjpsaintxavier@gmail.com.
Cheyanne Daniels
News Editor