Students angered by Israeli actions

PETER CORNUE/Daily

Ann Arbor residents Nezar Khatib and Brice Auten protest the recent violence that erupted in the Middle East, on East Liberty Street yesterday. By Rachel Green

Daily Staff Reporter

Demonstrators protesting the most recent wave of violence in the Middle East rallied yesterday against what they said was excessive Israeli soldier brutality toward Palestinian civilians.

About 150 students and Ann Arbor residents gathered at noon for a demonstration that began on the steps of the Michigan Union, marched past Angel Hall and culminated in the Diag.

Amer Zahr, a graduate student in Middle Eastern studies, said the rally was prompted by Thursday's visit of Israeli right-wing leader, Ariel Sharon, to the Dome of the Rock, the site of the first Arab Mosque and the third holiest site to Palestinians in Israel. "He visited Thursday with a band of soldiers to keep an underlying claim over Jerusalem's old city," said Zahr, a Palestine Committee member.

The rally had been scheduled since Thursday, although Saturday's killing of a Palestinian boy in the streets of Netzarim made the rally more urgent.

Rami Jamal Al-Durra, a 12-year-old Palestinian civilian, was pinned by gunfire against a cement wall, as his father vainly attempted to shield him.

Zaim Bengali, vice president of the Muslim Students Association, told the protesters of the most recent civilian victim in the fighting. Two-year-old Sara Abdelhaq was hit by a barrage of at least 10 bullets while riding in with her family in the car Sunday night, he said. "There is no excuse for this. None," Bengali, an LSA senior, said, implicating Israeli gunfire as the cause of Abdelhaq's death.

Norah Rabiah, a School of Natural Recourses junior and member of the ADC, said poor American media coverage is to blame for the lack of U.S. government support in the events of Netzarim during the last few days. "I want people here to look past what they're seeing on CNN and on the front page of whatever newspapers

to see what's going on out there," Rabiah said.

"People don't recognize this as a police brutality issue," she said. "If the Israeli soldiers left (Netzarim), Palestinians wouldn't be throwing rocks."

LSA junior Nadim Hallal, an ADC member said he believes if the tables were turned, if Israelis rather than Palestinians were inciting riots, the police interaction would be much different.

"The IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) would not use the same aggression against Israelis - against Palestinians it's justified," Hallal said. "That really goes with the double standard in Israel between Palestine and Jews."

The rally was organized by three student groups, the Palestine Committee, the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee, and the Muslim Students Association.

Muslim Students Association President Ahmad Massar said he believes the Israelis use of force to be unjust.

"I understand the need to control crowds, but the force that they used is unbelievable excessive," he said.