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Students erect Israeli wall on US campus

Ma’an/Agencies – 10/04/2010

Bethlehem – For eight hours on Thursday, students at Princeton University in the US were greeted by a 16-foot wall, made of wood and Styrofoam, representing Israel’s separation wall, local media reported.

The Daily Princetonian, a college newspaper, reported Friday that the display was a protest by the Princeton Committee on Palestine and Amnesty International against the wall, which weaves in and out of the occupied West Bank.

PCP and AI members spent months planning, building, and painting the wall, which was marked with the words “peace not apartheid.”

PCP president Yoel Bitran told the publication that the group wanted to “give Princeton students the opportunity to imagine what it would be like to grow up or go to school in a place surrounded by a prison of concrete and metal.”

He said that while “most students understand that Israel’s policies in the occupied territories are fundamentally wrong,” the group aims to “help people understand the suffering of Palestinians and realize the urgency of doing something about it.”

“We hope to let people know that there is a strong and growing movement for Palestinian rights at Princeton … and that being part of this historic struggle is possible right here,” Bitran added.

Jeffrey Mensch, president of Tigers for Israel, a pro-Israel student group, dismissed the protesters’ claims, according to the report.

He told the Princetonian that the group was “concerned about the absurd claim that Israel’s security fence, instituted to prevent suicide terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians, constitutes an ‘Apartheid Wall.'”

April 10, 2010 - Posted by | Solidarity and Activism

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