La Voz

Media Credit: Chris Marks Muslim Student Association member Hani Zaki holds a cardboard assault rifle to the head of another student last Tuesday in the Main Quad. The demonstration was said to be a simulation of an Israeli checkpoint, and was in support of Palestinian rights.

Media Credit: Chris Marks

Media Credit: Chris Marks

Men dressed in military uniforms, griping cardboard AK- 47's, forced students at point blank range to the ground, harassing and abusing them in front of students outside the De Anza College Learning Center.

Saying they were demonstrating the life of Palestinians in Israel, the Muslim Student Association sponsored a simulation of a checkpoint last Tuesday using volunteers dressed up as Israeli militants and Palestinian civilians.

Hanny Zaki, a graduate of De Anza who played an Israeli soldier, said although this was a simulation, the troops in Israel are holding real guns at women and children while depriving them of basic human needs such as water, medical attention and school.

Zaki said the conflict is like "David and Goliath" and a "minor scale of what Palestinians have to go through on a daily basis."

Hafif Mohebi, a De Anza student who played a soldier, said the Israelis receive weapons from the United States, but the Palestinians receive nothing, forcing them to resort to suicide bombings.

"Imagine somebody coming into your house, throwing you into the closet, and they rape your sister and kill your brother," said Mohebi.

Omer Friedman saw the same simulation and disagreed with the accuracy of the event. Friedman served in an airborne infantry unit with the Israeli army from 2002-2005, and spent years on the checkpoint road blocks the protestors simulated.

Although he was not personally offended by the demonstration, he said of his time in the Israeli army, "I did my best to respect human rights." He said he never used his gun to force people to the ground, as the demonstration portrayed Israelis as doing.

"That's like generalizing every Palestinian as a suicide bomber," said Friedman. "They misrepresented the situation. If they really wanted to promote peace, they could have done it in a better way."

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