A mock checkpoint at Columbia

NEW YORK--A group of about 30 students marched in silence through Columbia University's main campus to Low Plaza, its center point, at Noon on November 18. There, the students, many wearing keffiyehs, lined up, before being gagged, blindfolded and forced to the ground by fellow students dressed in military uniforms and armed with cardboard guns, representing Israeli soldiers.

The mock checkpoint, organized by Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), lasted two hours, gathering dissident voices to protest Israel's illegal occupation of Palestine by drawing attention to the countless humiliations, injustices and human rights violations that Palestinians encounter daily at Israeli military checkpoints.

SJP decided to organize the demonstration as a part of "Right to Education Week" (R2E), an international call to action by Palestinian students seeking solidarity.

The mock checkpoint was a symbolic staging of a brutal reality. SJP members came armed with hard facts--57 percent of Palestinian students cross one or more checkpoints during their daily commute to and from school, and 64 percent of these students report being physically abused by an Israeli soldier. Aside from the physical abuse, there is verbal harassment, violence and long delays, severely compromising their educational performance.

During the march, no less than five pro-Zionist student groups protested the mock checkpoint, waving Israeli flags and distributing an array of fliers. Many wore t-shirts with slogans such as "Checkpoints: Unfortunate but necessary!"

But the reality faced by Palestinian students tells a different story. "At one of the checkpoints on my way home to Nablus, an Israeli soldier asked me to open my bag, which had nothing in it but my books," recalled Saa'ad, a third-year student at Birzeit University in the West Bank. "They detained me at the checkpoint for over an hour just because I am a student, and before they let me go, they tore up my books."

Now, let us ask: Is this "necessary"? Similarly, was it "necessary" for the Israeli state to bomb 32 United Nations-run schools in Gaza during the 2008-09 attack?

The restrictions Israel places on Palestinians' access to education are a disgrace, but not an anomaly. From daily humiliations at checkpoints to deadly military attacks, from the seizing of Palestinian homes and land to the repression of international aid flotillas, Israel maintains an occupation that can only be described as apartheid.

COLUMBIA SJP was started this past spring in order to work with the growing international movement calling on institutions and individuals to boycott and divest from Israel. American corporations, universities and the U.S. government itself provide billions of dollars in investment and military equipment that makes the Israeli occupation of Palestine possible.

The call for a boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement originated in Palestine and is based on the successful global campaign during the 1970s and 1980s to support the struggle of Black South Africans against apartheid. Because of student protest, Columbia was actually the first Ivy League school to divest from apartheid South Africa.

Students in SJP are embracing that legacy. Columbia SJP is currently collaborating with activists across North America, by pressuring the financial conglomerate TIAA-CREF to divest from five companies that help to maintain the occupation of Palestine. TIAA-CREF manages the pension plans of many companies, non-profits, public employees and universities.

At Columbia, TIAA-CREF is one of three pension plans that faculty and staff can choose to enroll in. They claim to be a socially responsible pension plan, but they invest in weapons manufacturers like Elbit Systems Ltd. and Northrop Grumman, which furnish Israel with the means to kill Palestinians. TIAA-CREF is also invested in Caterpillar, a company that provides custom-made bulldozers used in the demolition of Palestinian homes and agricultural land.

Among students in the New York area, Palestine solidarity organizing has been thriving. Along with Columbia SJP, active groups now exist at New York University, the New School, Hunter College, City College, Brooklyn College and Rutgers University. On campus, SJP has recently collaborated with organizations such as Lucha, Turath (the undergraduate Arab student group), the International Socialist Organization, the Muslim Student Association, and the Black and Latino Student Caucus.

Amid the highly publicized rhetoric supporting the "necessity" of immoral action by the Israeli state--including on our own campuses--it is necessary to publicly challenge such rhetoric, bring attention to the crimes perpetrated by the Israeli state and suffered by Palestinians, and organize action around this issue.

"Doing this work is difficult, being in the belly of the beast," said Paco del Campo, a Columbia student activist and member of SJP. "But it makes it all the more important. Our presence shows that this can't stand, even in a university as conservative as Columbia. We are building on something, and we won't stop until we see changes!"