Shouts of “Free, free Palestine!”, and waving red, white, green and black Palestinian flags filled Red Square yesterday at noon. Simultaneously, a group of approximately 40 black-clad Arab-American students and supporters joined hands, creating an outward facing circle to show their unity in ending the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
“1-2-3-4, we don’t want your racist war! 5-6-7-8, Israel is a terrorist state,” supporters chanted. “Occupation is a shame, no more killing in our name!”
The Young Arab Leadership Alliance organized Wednesday’s demonstration in order to raise awareness of the suffering of the Palestinian people, according to YALA Vice President Samer Oweida (SFS ‘04).
“We want to show our support for the Palestinian people, and we want to bring to everyone’s attention that Arabs are people too and want freedom from the occupation, killing and bombing,” Oweida said.
He added that YALA decided to organize the demonstration for Wednesday in order to commemorate the anniversary of the Deir Yassin massacre of 1948, during which approximately 200 Arab villagers were killed by Israeli military units.
“Yesterday was the national day of action and the anniversary of Deir Yassin, so we planned the protest today to keep a continuous cycle of awareness to show that issue is not going to die,” Oweida said. “We formed to circle to show unity and solidarity for the [Palestinians] who are suffering.”
Oweida said that a few students had voiced their displeasure to the YALA demonstrators. One student was seen running around the circle, showing demonstrators the inside spread of a Newsweek article published following the Sept. 11 attacks. The inside spread displayed two side bars with photos of the terrorists involved in the World Trade Center attacks, as well as photos of the victims who died in these attacks. The student pointed to the photos of the Arab terrorists, yelling, “These are the real terrorists,” according to demonstration participants.
“I don’t think that’s the general sentiment on campus,” Oweida said. “I think the Georgetown community is very educated and very tolerant. Any opposition was because of ignorance.”
President of the Georgetown Israel Alliance Saloman Kalach Zaga (CAS ‘03), an organization which has often clashed with YALA in the past, said that he recognized YALA’s freedom to express themselves, but did not agree with all of their methods or messages.
“I respect their freedom of speech … It’s a completely legitimate form of protest,” Kalach Zaga said. “The problem is their simplification of facts … It becomes completely black and white and you forget that it’s a conflict in which two sides are doing bad things.”
“They play mind games and attract people with their chants and slogans,”he said.
