I’ll never forget meeting Raja Abu-Rahmeh, a young medical student my age, in Bil’in, a small Palestinian village in the West Bank. The West Bank has been under Israeli military occupation since 1967. Since 1991, Bil’in village land has been confiscated to build illegal Jewish-only settlements. In 2005, construction of the Separation Barrier (or ‘Apartheid Wall’) began. The Wall cuts off Bil’in from over 50 per cent of its village land, separating farmers from their fields, denying them their source of economic revenue and vital sustenance.
The Wall, deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice in 2004, snakes through the West Bank, preventing students like Raja from easily accessing their schools. In order to get to her school, she has to pass through military checkpoints that can delay her for hours, arbitrarily refuse her passage, and subject her to harassment.
When I met Raja, the worry on her mind was not her studies, but her father, Adeeb Abu Rahmeh, whose taxi job was the family’s primary source of income. Adeeb spent 519 days in jail for participation in weekly non-violent protests against the Wall and settlements on their village land. I participated in the demonstrations during my stay. Every week, Israeli military fired rubber bullets, tear gas, sound grenades, and water cannons at protesters—tactics which kill civilians like Bassem Abu Rahma, who was shot in the chest by a tear gas canister in 2009.
It took a day to get the sting of tear gas out of my lungs and days to get the smell out of my clothes. The images, however, have not left my mind.
I wonder if students in Canada could know what it’s like to go to school under an apartheid regime. I’m too young to have taken part in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, but I continue to be amazed when prominent South African leaders like Fatima Hassan, human rights lawyer, Mondli Makhanya, Editor-in-Chief of the Sunday Times of South Africa, and Willie Madisha, former head of the Congress of South African Trade Unions, say that not only is Israel an apartheid state, but that “…some of the atrocities committed by the apartheid regime in South Africa pale in comparison to those committed against the Palestinians.”
I personally can’t imagine it. But with events like Israeli Apartheid Week, taking place in March in 94 cities across the world, we, as students, are able to inform our peers and try to make a change.
The 7th Annual Israeli Apartheid Week is making an appearance at Dalhousie and Saint Mary’s Universities in Halifax. With events from March 14 to March 25, students will have a chance to engage with people from diverse walks of life, learn from them, discuss, and get motivated to make change, in a respectful, tolerant atmosphere. Israeli Apartheid Week educates about the ways in which Israel employs an apartheid system. The Week aims to build Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaigns as part of a growing global BDS movement.
The past year has been an inspiration for the BDS movement. Cultural heroes like the Pixies, Elvis Costello, and Pete Seeger have chosen not to perform their music in Israel.
In Halifax, there are boycott actions against Mountain Equipment Co-op. Despite being a member-run co-op that claims to sell ethically-sourced products, Mountain Equipment Co-op continues to stock hydration packs from an Israeli company, Source Vagabond, which designs products for military use. Source prides itself on selling products that are “combat proven.” Canadians are calling on MEC to honour the global BDS movement and discontinue carrying Source Vagabond products, until Israel abides by international law.
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