3-6-2014 'Apartheid on the Hill': Students transform Tufts campus to highlight Israeli occupation - Tufts University Students for Justice in Palestine Mondoweiss

http://mondoweiss.net/2014/03/apartheid-highlight-occupation.html#comments

 

Tufts University Students for Justice in Palestine organized a very creative campus-wide action to introduce the concept of occupation...

As the central action during Tufts SJP’s Israeli Apartheid Week 2014, the campus awoke to a mock “Uphill” settlement constructed on the patio of the campus center situated “Downhill” between dorms and classrooms. Uphill versus Downhill: this meaningless geographic distinction and rivalry on Tufts University’s campus was transformed into a metaphor for the violent asymmetry of occupation and colonization in Israel/Palestine….

We erected a border wall, covered with graffiti slogans—“This Wall Will Fall!”—and evicted  downhill residents from the lower patio, blind-folding and detaining them on the steps. The previous night, mock demolition notices were slipped under each downhill dorm door informing students that their dorm was scheduled for demolition. Unlike downhill residents, uphill residents awoke to flyers advertising a free trip to Uphill for those eligible (“Uphill with Uphill residents”) that promised rides on Jumbo the elephant (the popular Tufts mascot) and a connection to this “Uphill homeland”.

Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member