Mideast issues divide students

It was near the beginning of spring semester at Kansas University when Israeli tanks rolled through Rajaa Abujabr’s hometown of Deir El-Balah in the Gaza Strip.

There’s a refugee camp in the town that Israeli military officials said was the source of rocket attacks. They responded with force.

Abujabr, a KU graduate student, said her name, Rajaa, means “hope.” But she doesn’t have much of that anymore.

Her sister won’t leave her house, Abujabr said, because she fears Israeli soldiers will bulldoze it before she returns. And the recent conflict has made it impossible for her father, a farmer, to earn a living.

Israelis, Abujabr said, “refuse to admit the Palestinians are equal human beings.”

Abujabr on Thursday was on the lawn in front of Stauffer-Flint Hall protesting Israel’s continued occupation of Palestinian Authority land.

About 100 yards away, counter-protesters defended Israel’s actions. Though the demonstrations were peaceable, they showed that the deep divides in the Middle East also cleave Lawrence.

Neil Shanberg, president of the Lawrence Jewish Community Center, did not attend the demonstration but said that Israel is once again fighting to survive  this time against terrorism.

“Israel has always had to fight for its existence,” he said. “What’s going on now is an exclamation point to the problem. I’m not one for military action, but in this case it’s necessary. It’s the only way for Israel to protect itself.”

Groups demonstrate apart

The two groups of students and friends  one mostly Arab, the other mostly Jewish  rallied at opposite ends of KU’s Wescoe Hall.

Some had hoped the two groups would join in a common cry for peace in the troubled region. But that didn’t happen.

The two groups largely avoided each other. But a small group of pro-Palestinian protesters took a $20 donation for Magen David, the Israeli equivalent of the Red Cross, to an information booth set up by KU Hillel Foundation, a Jewish student organization.

“With hopes for a just and lasting peace in Israel and Palestine,” they wrote in a card the accompanied the donation.

Hillel members raised $130 for Magen David, a group members said helps victims on both sides of the conflict. They also passed out blue-and-white ribbons and flyers calling Israel “America’s democratic ally in the Middle East.” They didn’t carry signs or pictures, however.

“We didn’t want things to get heated, but we wanted a way for students express themselves,” said Lisa Raschke, Hillel’s assistant director. “Our mission here is peace.”

Raschke did attend the demonstration.

The five KU groups that sponsored the pro-Palestinian protests had invited Hillel to join them in an inclusive peace demonstration, members on both sides said.

Irreconcilable differences

But the two sides couldn’t overcome their disagreements.

“There’s a difference on what the problem is that doesn’t seem reconcilable,” said Almas Sayeed, a Wichita senior and spokesperson for the anti-occupation protest.

“I wish we could’ve planned something together,” Raschke said.

Pro-Palestinian protesters held signs with messages such as “Occupation is immoral and illegal!” and urging the United States government to withdraw its support for Israel. Another sign compared the Israeli occupation to the Holocaust. Several people held Palestinian flags, while others held pictures of Palestinian children killed and threatened by Israeli soldiers.

“Americans are a people concerned about human rights. When they see an injustice, they’re often likely to respond,” said Deborah Gerner, a KU political science professor who has lived in the Middle East and who joined the anti-occupation protesters.

But many in America and Lawrence support Israel  a backing that is often steeped in a religious belief that sees Israel as place where faith began and the world will end.

“The Bible says that land was given to the Jews 4,000 years ago,” the Rev. Paul Gray of Heartland Community Church said in telephone interview. “We’re Christians who take that heritage seriously, so we’re going to line up more on the Israeli side of the conflict.”

The two sides on campus each claimed to have drawn hundreds of supporters, rolling through in shifts between classes.

“I’ve never seen a demonstration of KU students this big for anything,” said Gerner, who arrived on campus in 1988.

Both sides said they were trying to educate KU students about the issue.

“We feel like you don’t have the whole picture, that’s why we’re here,” said an anti-occupation protester who wouldn’t identify herself. “We can argue till the sun comes down.”