The Princeton DREAM Team, a student organization focused on immigrant rights advocacy, partnered with the Princeton Committee on Palestine to create a two-sided Apartheid wall between McCosh Walk and Frist Campus Center on Monday.
One side of the wall represents the US-Mexico Border Fence and the other the Israel Apartheid wall that runs along the West Bank of Palestine. The wall will remain standing until Feb. 12th, according to the Facebook page for the project.
The Lewis Center for the Arts, the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, the Davis International Center and the American Studies Program provided funding and materials for the wall according toPCP member Mohamed El-Dirany ’18.
PCP member Robia Amjad ’18 explained that planning for the creation of the wall began in earnest when PCP contacted DREAM Team around a month and a half ago.
Amjad said she felt that PCP’s choice to collaborate with DREAM Team came out of comments made by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump about the US-Mexico Border Fence when he referenced the wall in Israel as a positive example.
“We’ve worked with DREAM before, we’ve cosponsored a lot of events together, so we have a working relationship with them,” El-Dirany explained.
Alejandra Rincon ’18, member of DREAM Team, added that most notable of these events was the vigil held earlier this year to honor deaths along politically-drawn borders.
El-Dirany said that the two student groups were in constant communication throughout the construction of the wall, which took one night to erect and three days to paint.
“We were both trying [to] show something disturbing that is happening. There are lives being lost. And we were both trying to show that,” Rincon said.
The wall is covered with facts such as "there currently exists roads in the West Bank where only Israelis are allowed to drive." Amjad noted that these facts are of great importance as many people did not know that these walls exist.
Rincon said that she hopes for there to be more awareness on campus about issues regarding the Apartheid wall, a subject which DREAM Team feels is often overlooked or forgotten.
“The most important thing about building an actual mock wall is to show people around campus that a wall actually exists that separates Palestinians and Israelis… Some of the biggest issues surrounding the wall are that it cripples the Palestinian economy,” El-Dirany added.
He explained how he regards the wall as one which hinders Palestinian lives by restricting freedom and economic opportunity without any increased security for Israelis.
“I think the wall is the perfect representation of undemocratic structure and processes… The fact that we had a wall, and also we had facts to go along with it, and also two personal short stories from Bethlehem residents, I think was very informative. I hope people learn something out of it,” Amjad added.
Justin Vogel '17,a leader of University's chapter of J Street U, a pro-Israel, pro-Peace student organization, expressed in a statement thathe believes that PCP missed an important opportunity to illuminate the real consequences of the occupation for both Palestinians and Israelis, given that there have been no accompanying teach-ins or discussions to provide the necessary context for their installation of “The Wall.”
"Still, J Street U Princeton looks forward to engaging in a conversation with the Princeton community about the injustices of the occupation and our shared responsibility to end it," hewrote.
Rincon said that DREAM Team has received positive feedback for the project via the Facebook page for the wall.
El-Dirany said that he had not heard much of a response yet, since the wall was only recently erected. He added that he and members of PCP hope for increased dialogue on these issues.
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