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Guilford students take work trip to West Bank
WWW.GUILFORDIAN.COM
Brice Tarleton | Senior Writer
Entering the Founders Hall gal
lery on Aug. 29, the first things I
noticed were the posters.
One displayed a bleeding hand
pierced wiih barbed wire, above the
words "Free Palestine." Another
proclaimed "Forty years of occupa
tion ... we still resist," under a pic
ture of a fluttering Palestinian flag.
Everywhere I looked, I saw the slo
gan, "The wall will fall - Collective
punishment is a war crime."
A handful of Guilford students
were gathered to give a presenta
tion on a work trip to Israel and
Palestine they had taken this sum
mer, the tenth year Guilford has
done so. The group consisted of
seven students, led by Campus
Ministry Coordinator Max Carter
and his wife Jane, Professor of eco
nomics Robert G. Williams, and a
resident of the local Friends Homes,
Marietta Wright.
"I was gratified to travel with an
intergenerational, interfaith, inter
national group," said Carter. "It
gives us so many different lenses to
look through."
The main purpose of the trip
was to do volunteer work at the
Ramallah Friends' Schools, a deriv
ative of the international Quaker
group Friends United Meeting.
Additionally, the group wanted to
learn from the Middle Eastern cul
ture and religious views, spend
ing 10 days in both Israel and
Palestine.
"We also wanted to reassure the
folk in Ramallah that Guilford is
still a safe place," said Carter. "The
Bryan incident shook a lot of our
Palestinian community to the core.
They know that post-9/11 America
is a scary place to be."
The presentation moved chrono
logically through the group's itiner
ary. On June 27, the group began
their trip, traveling to Israel to
explore famous religious and his
torical sites, including the Western
Wall, the Sea of Galilee, and Tel
Aviv.
"It's amazing how many legend
ary religious and historical sites
you can travel to in half a day," said
Carter. "The whole area is smaller
than the state of Delaware."
One emotional location was the
Yad Vashem, Jerusalem's Holocaust
museum. The architecture of the
building begins spacious and grad
ually becomes more confining as
a reflection of the pressures felt
throughout the progression of the
Max Carter
Campus Ministry Coordinator
“Ai intemutioiiiil travtlen, we m (omMciite on
both sides of the wnll to tell people thot someone
on the other side is worhinp jor the some th'mg.
Their reoction is olteit My! We didn’t hnow’”
Holocaust.
On June 7, the group crossed
into Palestine, where they first saw
the wall that separates the two
nations.
At 26 feet tall, made of solid
concrete, the wall stretches longer
than the Great Wall of China and
towers over the surroxmding area.
Israel refers to it as a security fence
or separation barrier. Palestinians
refer to it as the apartheid wall, an
annexation fence, or simply "al-
Daddar," Arabic for "The Wall."
On the eastern side of the wall,
the group stayed at Quaker schools
in Ramallah, doing volunteer work
such as landscaping, painting, and
window washing. They visited
nearby areas, sudi as Bethlehem
and Hebron, a village in which 250
Israeli settlers have built houses
Drought
on top of pre-existing Palestinian
homes in violation of international
law. Christian peacemaking teams,
invited by the Palestinian commu
nities, help defuse possible cases of
violence there.
"Another reason we went was to
learn from and support the work of
Israeli and Palestinian peacekeep
ing efforts," said Carter. "We really
wanted to encourage those doing
the really hard work over there, as
well as educate ourselves on what
we can do back here."
Williams concluded the pre
sentation with an analysis of the
wall's economic effects on Palestine.
It annexes 10 percent of prime
Palestinian territory into Israel and,
since 2000, half of the decline of
the Palestinian economy has been
due to limited movement of goods
through the wall.
"The wall enacts a complete
matrix of control over Palestine,"
said Carter. "It strangles it economi
cally, socially and politically."
I looked again to the posters
and at examples of graffiti on the
wall itself protesting its existence.
Members in the audience then told
their own stories about the extreme
difficulty inherent in trying to cross
the wall.
"As international travelers, we
can communicate on both sides of
the wall to tell people that someone
on the other side is working for the
same thing," said Carter. "Their
reaction is often: 'Really? We didn't
know.'"
The experience of the work trip,
while at times emotionally wrench
ing, seemed to be an overwhelming
ly positive one for those involved.
"I've always wanted to go to the
Holy Land," Wright said. "Now
that I'm 80,1 finally did it."
"In Palestine, I heard one of
the best things," said senior Nikki
Mosuro. "A woman who helped
establish a Palestinian university
told us, 'I know we suffer, but I
don't ever want our suffering to get
so high that we can't see the suffer
ing of those around us.'"
Continued from page I Binford and some people in my dorm van
dalized the signs about water conservation
Restrictions were put into effect on Aug. as if the drought is some sort of joke. But
27 that are concurrent with conditions of we all need to be aware."
severe drought and water shortages. The Despite the water restrictions and
restrictions include eliminating unneces- signs on campus, some students still seem
sary use of water and reducing necessary unaware of the drought conditions and
water usage. needlessly waste water. One example is in
Just as the City of Greensboro has react- Bryan Hall where some residents engage
ed to the drought, students have taken in water fights, chasing one another with
notice and been active too, posting signs large buckets filled to the brim with
around campus, from Mary Hobbs Hall to water.
Junior Laura Houpt, a Bryan Hall resi
dent, found the water fights inconsider
ate.
"It seemed like these people had no
regard for the environment," said Houpt.
"1 realize people want to have fun and cool
off, but go swim
ming. Or better yet,
instead of throwing
buckets of water,
throw buckets of
cheap beer. There's
certainly not a
cheap beer drought
on campus."
It seems hard to
be unaware of the
drought given the
scorching tempera-
Founders Hall, suggesting effective ways
to conserve water.
Junior Kat Siladi, a member of
Forevergreen, is behind the movement to
increase awareness on campus.
"People cojne from all over the United
States and (they)
aren't always
aware , of local
conditions in
G r e e ris b o r o
regarding the
drought," Siladi
said.
Siladi also
took action
because she felt
the administra
tion fell short in
getting informa
tion out.
lust onlie GtroIMoro lifls Md to
the drought, students hove tohen notice ond
been active tooi posting signs oronnd compns,
Ironi Mary Hobbs Holl to founders Hall,
suggesting efjective ways to conserve woter.
tures and dry after
noons on record since school resumed, and
"The administration put a message on the 10-day forecast is predicting another
the Buzz which said students should e- week of moisture-free 90-degree days that
mail Facilities if they wanted information will only exacerbate the drought condi-
regarding the drought and water restric- tions.
Jeremy Bante/Guilfordian
During the summer drought, the college lake's waterline fell nearly two feet, exposing the former
shoreline to evaporation and non-aquatic vegetation.
tions," Siladi said. "But not everyone reads
the Buzz, and it's not the most reliable
place to get a message out."
First-year Marcus Edghill feels that
some people, despite seeing information
about the drought, don't realize the grav
ity of the situation.
Though the hot and dry days of sum
mer are lingering, the U.S. Seasonal
Drought Outlook predicts the conditions
will improve throughout the months of
autumn.
Meanwhile, North Carolinians will
have to forego manicuring their lawns and
'I'm really concerned that some people washing their cars. And Bryan Hall will
seem not to careA Edghill said."T live in .have.to stop,the’w^ter fight?.*'
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