APARTHEID WALL CONSTRUCTED AT RUTGERS UNIVERSITY

November 17, 2003

NEW BRUNSWICK - (November 17, 2003) - On Monday, November 17, 2003, in solidarity with the Palestinian and international campaign against the apartheid wall ravaging Palestinian land and Palestinian lives, a mock apartheid wall was constructed at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The wall, made of silver-toned drywall that reflected the "Iron Wall" that is the Apartheid Wall, was constructed at Brower Commons, a central area at Rutgers' College Avenue campus. Adorned with graffiti and information about Zionist apartheid, the wall stood in the shadow of a large Palestinian flag emblazoned with the slogan "Free Palestine!" A mock coffin draped in the Palestinian flag symbolized all of those who have been lost to the brutal crimes of ethnic cleansing and apartheid.

To the tunes of classic and contemporary Palestinian and Arab nationalist and protest music, student and community activists handed out over a thousand flyers to students at the campus, collected numerous signatures for the Rutgers Campaign for Divestment from Israeli Apartheid (http://www.rutgersdivest.org) and educated numerous others about apartheid in Palestine, the Wall, the right of return of Palestinian refugees, the role of US funding to the state of Israel and the relationship between US and Zionist military domination in the Arab world.

Throughout the day, passers-by wrote messages of solidarity with the Palestinian people, calls to tear down the wall, and demands upon the US government to stop funding occupation and oppression on white sheets strung along the stairs of Brower Commons. The wall stood at Rutgers from morning until night, when it was torn down by the activists and fellow students at the university, as we will one day see the apartheid wall - and the apartheid system that creates, builds and maintains it - torn down in Palestine.

For more information about the Rutgers protest against the wall, or to become involved, please contact New Jersey Solidarity - Activists for the Liberation of Palestine. Click here to see pictures of the wall at Rutgers.