Ethnic cleansing. Demolition of homes. Erasure of a people and culture. A humanitarian crisis. These are all descriptions of the history of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

Sarah Abunada and Tamara Mabrouk, Palestinian student-leaders of the Students for Justice in Palestine Oakland University Chapter (SJP), hope to raise awareness among students about the conflict.

“Our main mission is to, firstly, raise awareness,” Abunada said. “This is a humanitarian issue and students have the right to know and should know about it.”

The conflict, with origins dating back over 100 years, has been an international talking point for over 60 years. In 1967’s Six-Day War, Israel illegally annexed the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights.

Since then, the United Nations and much of the world have consistently condemned the takeovers, while Israel has maintained its viewpoint that the land was won from the war and that many settlements are military necessities.

In recent years, Israel, the occupying power, has continued to attack Palestinian settlements at a disproportionate rate leaving thousands dead. Peace talks between the groups have mostly failed while US military aid to Israel has increased.

“Oakland is a growing university and the students needs to be educated on this issue,” Tamara Mabrouk said. “Lots of students don’t know anything about it or they have just blindly followed what the mainstream news says.”

The first step for the group is to educate and raise awareness on campus.

“You can’t fight something that you do not know about,” Mabrouk said. 

The new org is hosting a “Palestine 101 Panel” on Mar. 7 at 12 p.m. in the Fireside Lounge. Representatives from the group will be providing an introduction to the history of the humanitarian crisis and taking questions from the audience. The event will be catered.

Later this fall, SJP will be hosting “Dabke (dab-kih) Cultural Night” in the Oakland Center.

“This event will be about taking a step back from conflict and exploring the fact that Palestinians are real humans with an interesting and complex culture,” Mabrouk said about the event.

The group stresses that they are a humanitarian organization and aim to educate students in being politically and socially aware.

“As a college student, you cannot be ignorant,” Mabrouk said.

For more information on the conflict, visit YouTube and search “5 minute history of Israel Palestine conflict.” Keep up to date with future SJP meetings and news by following their Facebook page.