Hate in the Tunnel at the University of Rochester
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Last Friday a peaceful sit-in occured at the University of Rochester in Goergen Hall. Students were raising awareness about the situation in Gaza as well as making a few specific demands from the University administration. According to Rochester Indymedia, the demands of the students included:
1. Divestment: We demand the University of Rochester to adopt
the “UR-Peaceful Investing Initiative” which institutes a peaceful
investment policy to the university’s endowment which includes
divestment from corporations that manufacturer weapons and profit from
war. (For example, the U of R invests in General Dynamics which
manufactures weapons to maintain a 41-year occupation of the
Palestinian territories and wars which slaughter Palestinian civilians
by the 100s)
2. Humanitarian aid: We demand that the
University of Rochester commit to a day of fundraising for humanitarian
aid in Gaza within the next two weeks, as part of an ongoing commitment
to provide financial support for the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
3. Academic aid:
We demand that the University of Rochester twin with the devastated
Gaza University and provide the necessary academic aid (e.g., recycled
computers, books, etc.).
4. Scholarships: We demand that the University of Rochester grant a minimum of five scholarships to Palestinian students every year.
Some members of the administration met with a delegation of the students and a resolution was reached before midnight. All of the demands were met, which was seen as a great victory for student activism. The event was reported on by other websites and bloggers from around the world. Unfortunately, this event has been marred by a cowardly act of hate.
As I walked through the tunnel of the academic quad on Monday I noticed that some of the advertisements for the event had been defaced. It is a custom for student groups to paint the tunnel to advertise for upcoming events or make various political statements. In preparation for the protest, students had used black paint and stencils to write “NO WAR IN GAZA” and peace symbols, as well as details about the place and time of the event.
I was shocked, however, to notice that someone else had defaced these statements with white paint, covering the words “WAR IN” so that the statement would read “NO GAZA.” There were also white Stars of David painted in various positions and even a giant “X” through one of the peace symbols. I took some pictures and walked away shaking my head.
Whether or not one agrees with Isreal’s position it is obvious that such an act is supportive of military aggression. This person has not attempted to defend Israel’s actions as self-defense. Rather, the statement is that Gaza should not exist and that the deaths of all of the Palestinians has been justified. Also, the use of the Star of David comes off as hateful when displayed in this fashion.
It is a shame that this person has chosen to express their views in such a cowardly way. It pains me to imagine how some of the Islamic, Arab or Middle-Eastern students must feel when they see this kind of statement. I have shared these pictures here so that this negative reaction to last week’s event would not go unnoticed.
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You can't give someone a scholarship just because they are Palestinian. That's called RACISM but it's ok when you do it right hypocrite? I guess that one whites only scholarship of a $100 was too much but 5 full rides just because you are Palestinian is ok. Right? Also have you ever lived in Israel? have you ever wondered if you were gonna get killed by some random missile? Do they drop leaflets before they send a missile. No. So shut up about things you are so hopelessly ignorant about. scum.
First of all, I never said I agreed with my fellow student's demands, their methods for achieving them, OR the practice of giving preferential scholarships based on race, nationality, etc. I thought it was a non-issue for this article.
Also, I'm not sure why not living in Israel would preclude me from having an opinion on the matter.
Thirdly, most of the Katyusha rockets don't even kill anyone. Do a Google search for “Katyusha rocket” and one of the top hits is about 30 chickens that were killed in 2006. It definitely sucks to get hit by one, but you're more likely to die driving to work. I don't care which side you're rooting for, or better yet if you just want peace, it's best to put this in perspective. Hundreds have died in single days of the recent assault by Israel. These rockets are a leftover from WWII and they have little to no payload.
Lastly, I'm not sure how you could judge me as “hopelessly ignorant” without even knowing my exact views on the topic. Oh well.
Wow. I can't believe the above poster totally missed the point of your article. At no point did you give any views on the crisis itself.
A question to smilidon: although you seem to be siding with Israel, don't you see how it was offensive to paint over peaceful tunnel graffiti? The people of Israel aren't the only ones afraid for their lives — have you been paying attention to the deaths in Gaza?
I don't see how this article is ignorant at all. Andrew simply discussed the issue and re-posted what the protesters asked for. The subject of this article is clearly the tunnel graffiti. If you don't have anything to say about the subject, I see your points as counter-productive.
Hey Andrew,
Ted with Rochester Indymedia here! Thanks for the link to Indymedia in your article. I would like to use this article (above) as a link in a recap story about the occupation. Is this ok? Also, this story (Hate in the Tunnel at the University of Rochester) might be interesting for us (indymedia) to feature as well. Would you have a problem with that?
Cheers!
Ted Forsyth, Rochester Indymedia
Sure, no problem Ted. I'm glad you enjoyed this story and i think it adds an important dimension to this series of events. Let me know if you need my help with anything.
This just proves that idiots can be of any religion, nationality or… screen name.
messed up
have you heard of the similar hate response at Cornell?
http://tompkinsagainstwar.org/2009/02/10/gaza-d...
Wow! That was a really powerful display they had there. I'm sorry to see that similar actions were taken against those signs as well. This is how I look at it: if you really want to be prideful of Israel (we're talking a country with a government and politicians here) wouldn't you want to hold the country accountable? That way there would be something to be proud of, not just some cesspool of crimes internally and externally.
Youre right on. I think the time is now to really question Zionism. This 100 year old projeect has only proven to perpetuate the idea of ethnic superiority and to make legitimate the massacre of civilians in the name of security. Throughout time and across lands, this 'need' for security has been the reason for ethnic cleansing.
Hm, the keen observer might notice the giant word PEACE written in Hebrew by the by the oh-so-terrible defacer, next to the less offensive graffiti put up by SDS. The impartial observer might discover that it is a blatany lie that any peace signs were crossed out. The neutral onlooker might see the words Sderot and Ashkelon listed next to the lists of other places recently damaged. An unbiased observer might see that it is rather funny that any organization that had stencils showing Israelis as baby killers would be so offended by the attempted equalizing of the tone of the hateful tunnel message the SDS left.
Then again, this organization has shown several times that it is not afraid of openly embracing a campaign of anti-Semitism, intolerance, and hate-mongering.
I'm not sure how this article could be interpreted as anti-Semetic. Does anyone understand the difference between an ethnic group and the actions of a government? Surely all Americans aren't to blame for the war-crimes perpetrated under Bush (and now under Obama) so why would all Jews be to blame for the shameful actions of the government of Israel? The anti-Semitsm card is pulled when no other defense available, used to divert attention into some irrelevant side-argument that ignores the facts at hand.
Also, I'm sorry that I did not take pictures of EVERY single defacement so everyone could see the crossed out peace symbol. Even without this picture I have a hard time understanding how anyone could believe that this was an attempt to “equalize the tone” of the message. I'm sure the people of Gaza would not consider “No Gaza” to be fair and peaceful.
Thank you for posting this. I don't see how any thinking human being could call SDS out for anti-semitism of all things. “NO GAZA” is racism. I found the defacement to be disgusting and embarrassing. This ignorance and bias needs to stop. Stop letting yourselves be brainwashed by American Pro-Israel media. Innocent people are dying in both sides of the conflict. Lets do something to stop it. Let's make the U.S. government stop giving weapons to Israel and start promoting a peaceful, nonviolent solution. Let's end this racist occupation.
Apartheid was damn wrong in South African & it's damn wrong in Israel too!!!
If you see that five full ride scholarship are too much for Palestinians , come to Gaza and share the Palestinians their life then decide if these scholarships are enough or too much
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