Pro-Palestinian students go forward, cautiously MICHELLE LOCKE, Associated Press Writer Friday, September 14, 2001 (09-14) 10:16 PDT BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) -- On Monday at the University of California at Berkeley, graduate student Abdul-Rahman Zahzah was busily planning "intifada week," a series of actions marking the anniversary of the Palestinian uprising. On Tuesday, he stood in a daze on the university's Sproul Plaza -- birthplace of the Free Speech Movement -- and watched as his fellow members of Students for Justice in Palestine packed up their information table, worn down by questions about the terrorist attacks on the East Coast. "People look at me in a way like they're expecting me not to be sad," said Zahzah, a Lebanese studying for mechanical engineering. "As if possibly I'm not sad or I'm not moved or I'm not touched by the thousands of people dead, injured." On Thursday, Zahzah and fellow group members had reached a cautious consensus -- postpone a conference urging the university to divest from companies doing business with Israel and go forward with Intifada Week, but revise the agenda to focus on education, not confrontation. Now, their message is more basic: "We are human beings," Zahzah said. The students had planned a Sept. 19 mock trial of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for the 1982 massacre by Lebanese Christian militia of 800 Palestinians at two refugee camps. Survivors hold Sharon responsible. Now Zahzah said it is unlikely they will go ahead with the mock trial, or repeat their mock checkpoint, in which they dress as Israeli soldiers, block a main campus entrance, and designate "Palestinians" whose backpacks are searched. Instead, they hope to provide a forum to answer questions about the Palestinian uprising. Meanwhile, the group issued a statement condemning Tuesday's terror attacks and expressing condolences to the families and friends of those who died. Around the country, Arab Americans and Muslims have been attacked, threatened and harassed over the terrorist bloodbath. Zahzah's parents, who live in Lebanon, have urged him to be careful. There is been no violence at Berkeley so far, but some members of Students for Justice in Palestine have been on the receiving end of profane gestures and nasty phone calls. "I understand the reaction of laying low, but at the same time, we need to spread the word that stereotyping or racial profiling is wrong and it's happened before and it happens every time and it's wrong," he said. "Targeting an entire population or group, it's wrong." The group at Berkeley, long a springboard for activism, had hoped to build a national network of supporters with a conference this October urging the university to divest from companies that do business with Israel. That conference has been postponed to at least next semester. "We still believe that this is possible. We just think that it will take a different type of strategy," said Snehal Shingavi, a Berkeley student who had helped organize the conference. <http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2001/09/14/national1316EDT0688.DTL> _______________________________________________ Leninist-International mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international
