April 10, 2002

The Daily Star

Samar Kanafani
Daily Star staff

University students in Beirut observed a minute of silence Tuesday to remember the victims of the 1948 Deir Yassin massacre, as fund-raising efforts to support the ongoing intifada gained momentum around
the country.
Synchronizing their solidarity campaign with universities around the country and in most Arab states, Europe and the United States, the students interrupted classes to mark the 54th anniversary of one of the most devastating atrocities in the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
On April 9, 1948, while Palestine was under British Mandate, Jewish paramilitaries massacred 107 Palestinians in the village of Deir Yassin near Jerusalem.
According to Hoda Shaker, Palestinian Cultural Club member at the American University of Beirut, the massacre is a reminder that Palestinian resistance against Israeli occupation was not born in a vacuum.
“Unlike what the West names it, the intifada is not terrorism. The intifada is against all that Palestinians have endured since Deir Yassin,” said Shaker, who helped organize AUB’s Palestine solidarity campaign, Students for Palestine.
According to historian Matthew Hogan, the Deir Yassin massacre “greatly stimulated (the) Palestinian Arab refugee flight and (was) critical in the final decision of the Arab states to intervene directly in Palestine in 1948 to thwart the creation of the state of Israel.”
Hogan added in an article published last year that the incident “defined” the Arab armed response and the Palestinian refugee issue as it is known today.
The solidarity campaign, which will continue through Friday at AUB, the Lebanese American University’s (LAU) Beirut campus and the Beirut Arab University, included photo exhibitions, video screenings, poster and pamphlet distribution, fund-raising and a call to boycott Israeli and US products.
Meanwhile, the Lebanese Nongovernmental Organizations Forum raised funds for Palestinians last week, depositing the money in three Arab Bank accounts.
AUB’s various political parties decided earlier this week to refrain from politicizing their support for Palestinians and resolved to fund-raise discretely and hand the money, which will not be counted until Friday, to the Palestinian Cultural Club.
The campaign was joined by universities in Hamra and Ras Beirut, where hundreds of students also agreed to disseminate a chain e-mail addressed
to the US government, which asks Washington to rethink its “biased” position toward the Palestinians.
“It is our opinion that American foreign policy in the region has drifted to become impregnated with a total bias for Israel and Israeli interests, disregarding the Arab viewpoint to the extent of becoming another spokesman for the Israeli government,” said LAU student Ali Sayed, reading aloud the e-mail to a crowd of strikers.
A nearby stand bore a photo of a rabbi carrying a poster that read: “End of Zionism = Peace.”
“The Palestinian cause is sacred to me. I feel it is my duty to take a position on this issue,” said Laudia Awad, a member of LAU’s Demanders of Palestine Committee, which joined the university’s several political parties and student committees in a noon rally in support of Palestinians.
The letter also demanded an end to Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories and the Shebaa Farms and the establishment of a Palestinian state, and backed Palestinian refugees’ right of return.
LAU’s campaign, Palestine is Calling for You, urged students to join a silent moment in solidarity with Palestine and contribute funds to support Palestinian families under Israeli siege.
“With time passing, more and more people are being killed and still the world is without any real reaction or protection,” read one pamphlet distributed at campus entrances.
LAU students have staged several short fund-raising campaigns in the past two months since Israel intensified its offensive in Palestinian towns, collecting over $5,000 in four separate days and sending it either through the Arab Bank or to welfare organizations in the Occupied Territories.
Haigazian University’s Spiritual Life Committee and Student Life Committee organized a candle-lit prayer hour in the campus courtyard Wednesday, dedicated to “awareness and solidarity with the Palestinian people,” according to a statement from the university’s public relations officer, Loucia Isaac.
Elsewhere, thousands of people, including school children, university students and MPs, marched in Nabatieh in support of Palestinian rights and in condemnation of Israel’s military offensive.
The demonstration, which was joined by Nabatieh MPs Mohammed Raad, Yassin Jaber and Abdel-Latif Zein as well as members of various national, leftist and religious parties, was heavily guarded by Internal Security Forces personnel.
Meanwhile, schools in Sidon collected contributions from their students, which were later handed to Sheikh Mohammed Salim Jalaleddine, Mufti of Sidon and South Lebanon, who will forward them to Palestinian organizations and bank accounts.
Placing his LL1,000 daily allowance in a contributions box, five-year-old student Abdel-Rahman Soussi said: “I won’t buy sweets today. I’ll buy some tomorrow.”

Additional reporting by Samer Wehbi and Mohammed Zaatari

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