Library Mall echoed with the sounds of Palestine supporters Friday who waved signs saying “Stop the killing in Gaza” to protest U.S. financial aid to Israel.
Amidst the recent controversial events in the Gaza Strip area, tensions have been running high between people of Palestinian and Israeli descent, and tension was evident Friday when a group of Israel supporters arrived at the protest.
Pro-Palestine protesters organized the rally to raise awareness about the “plight” of the Palestinian people in the Middle Eastern conflicts and get students more involved in the issue, according to University of Wisconsin-Madison Junior Zeyad El Omari, who helped coordinate the event.
“We want to make sure that our visibility is bolstered and that as many people as possible can see us and understand the actual conflict,” El Omari said.
The Israel supporters who joined the rally were organized by MadPAC, a pro-Israel student group on campus, and showed up to demonstrate there are “two sides to every story” and that Israel wants peace, according to MadPAC President Natanya Russek.
“We represent the voice that Israel wants peace, wants conversation and wants people’s lives to be saved,” Russek said. “It’s on both sides that people’s lives are being sacrificed for a conflict that everybody wishes could be over.”
Despite acknowledging each side had a right to express their opinion, debate between the two groups became heated as each side argued their position. The pro-Israel protesters left the site after finding debate to be unproductive, as neither side would budge on their stance.
Additionally, the Palestine supporters protested against the U.S. media’s “biased” coverage of the events in the Middle East, according to native Palestinian Leila Nijim.
UW-Madison sophomore Tomer Stein, who rallied with the pro-Israel group, said he came to the event to talk with the Palestine supporters and share his side of the story, not to protest.
“Israel is coming to say please, lets sit and talk, but for example, the people who control Palestine, they don’t want to have any resolutions for the [problems] in the Middle East,” Stein said.
