Mock Israeli checkpoint constructed in protest

“Armed” with plastic weapons, PCP members Theo Beers ’09 and Yael Berda GS played the parts of Israeli soldiers, blocking the central entrance to simulate the checkpoints on many roads essential to everyday travel in the region.

All students who tried to enter the building during the demonstrations were asked to show their proxes to pass. Occasionally, Beers and Berda refused passage through the center entryway altogether, instructing students to use alternate entrances.

PCP members Fadi Abdeljawad GS, Nicole Rafidi ’12 and Sahin Naqvi ’12, as well as non-member Saud Al-Thani ’11, played the role of Palestinians.

They were in some cases required by Beers and Berda to give up their belongings to be searched. Some were asked to lift up their clothing to ensure that they were not carrying a bomb.

Meanwhile, Issa Ashwash ’09, Adrienne Clermont ’09, Clare Herceg ’11 and Mika Devonshire ’12 distributed flyers and answered questions about the demonstrations.

“The main goal [of the protest] is to bring awareness to the Princeton campus about what’s going on in Palestine,” Abdeljawad said, adding that the Israeli occupation of the West Bank was a “violation of freedom.”

Naqvi said the Princeton community needed to observe the demonstration.

“Many students don’t even know that any wall has been built in the region and are not aware of the human rights and international law that it violates,” Naqvi said in an e-mail, referring to the fortified barrier around portions of the border of the West Bank. He added that PCP hoped the protest would “foster some sort of dialogue, however informal.”

“I feel that many students just simply don’t care enough about the issue to discuss it in any detail,” Naqvi said. “Perhaps this protest will inspire or provoke them to do so.”

Tigers for Israel president Jacob Loewenstein ’11 said that “the process of passing through Israeli checkpoints is by no means easy,” but he added that “it is irresponsible to reinforce the perception of Israeli soldiers as the brutes they are portrayed as.”

Loewenstein said that though there may be problems with the implementation of the checkpoints, they are necessary for Israeli defense.

“Tigers for Israel acknowledges that conditions at the checkpoints are not ideal, but their full removal is impossible,” he said. “Unfortunately, their effectiveness is proved all too often.”

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Abdeljawad said, however, that because “most of the checkpoints are between Palestinian villages” and not on the boundary between the West Bank and Israel, the Israeli checkpoints in Palestinian areas are “part of [the] occupation” and not the security infrastructure.

PCP’s demonstration aimed specifically to address the effect of the checkpoints on Palestinian youth, Abdeljawad explained.

“The whole scene wants to show a typical young-aged Palestinian trying to get to school or to a job in the morning or to visit family members in another town. This is what they go through every day,” he said. “In a typical scenario, you might [want] to travel between two places that are really only 15 minutes apart, and [because of the checkpoints] it might take you four to six hours.”

For Abdeljawad, this issue is personal. A native Palestinian, he recently traveled to see the West Bank barrier in person.

“It’s shocking when you go to really see [the wall],” he said. “I tried to travel between towns, and it’s close to impossible.”