A member of UF’s Students for Justice in Palestine held a sign Tuesday that read, “IDF attacked Palestinian Christians in Beit Jala during Palm Sunday service — Do you care?”
About five members of the organization, which advocates for Palestinian liberation, spoke with students on Turlington Plaza about the discrimination Palestinian Christians face as their Easter celebration approaches this Sunday.
Amanda Bateh, treasurer of SJP, is an Orthodox Christian Palestinian. Both sets of grandparents were exiled in 1948.
“I feel like this is the least I can do, to be involved in this campus organization,” said the 19-year-old UF food science and human nutrition sophomore.
SJP secretary Amanda Nelson, a 21-year-old UF political science junior, spoke to Jeffrey Howell, a UF alumni, while passing out fliers. He felt the argument was one-sided.
“I think that both sides have committed wrong actions,” Howell said, “and I think that it would be better to present something a little more objective than just leave out everything that would oppose the statements that are put in here.”
SJP will show a documentary called “Enemy Alien” at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in Anderson Hall, Room 34.
[A version of this story ran on page 3 on 4/8/2015 under the headline “UF group educates students on discrimination in Palestine”]
From left: Amanda Bateh, 19, Eric Brown, 21, Tesneem Shraiteh, 21, Amanda Nelson, 21, and Farah Khan, 21, speak on Turlington Plaza on Tuesday about discrimination that Palestinian Christians face as their Easter celebration approaches Sunday. “I feel like this is the least I can do, to be involved in this campus organization,” Bateh said, “because injustice happens every day in Palestine.”
