Speech • Muslim
Student Association-sponsored Amir Abdel
Malik Ali from the Masjid Al-Islam in
Oakland, Calif., spoke to an audience
in front of the University Bookstore
about the role of the media in the Palestinian/Israeli
conflict as members of Beach Hillel protested
behind him. Katie Plourd / Online Forty-Niner
Beach
Hillel protests MSA speaker
Mellani Lubuag
Online Forty-Niner
Assistant News Editor
Some students stopped and listened, with their attention focused on the black-cloaked
figure before them. They took seats on the ground or on chairs and bore signs
that read, “The truth is on the side of the oppressed.” Some students
protested, holding the Israeli flag and signs that read, “Teach Love,
Not Hate” and “Your student fees at work.” Whatever the response,
last Thursday’s Muslim Student Association (MSA)-sponsored speaker Amir
Abdel Malik Ali, provoked students, angering some and interesting others.
Ali’s speech, titled “Resisting Occupation by Any Means Necessary,” hit
the event’s purpose “right on the nose,” according to Naadiya
Patel, events coordinator and MSA member. Ali, who is from the Masjid Al-Islam
in Oakland, spoke to students outside the University Bookstore at the Speaker’s
Platform about the Palestinian people’s plight, controlled media, foreign
policy and American consciousness.
“
It is an event with the objective of bringing further awareness to the issue
of the Palestinian struggle,” said Zahra Billoo, a MSA member.
“
We are here to speak the truth about what is going on in ‘The Apartheid
State of Israel.’ As a matter of fact we shall never use the word ‘Israel’ without
saying ‘The Apartheid State,’” Ali said, after holding a
prayer in both Arabic and English.
Ali acknowledged that Beach Hillel, Cal State Long Beach’s Jewish student
organization, was celebrating Israel’s independence, and then drew parallels
to the South African apartheid and the mistreatment of America’s indigenous
peoples to the treatment of Palestinians today.
“
The bottom line is that the Palestinian people are living in an apartheid system,
but the press, the Zionist controlled media is giving the impression that this
system, this apartheid state, is actually a democracy,” Ali said.
He said while the media calls Israel the “only democracy in the middle
east,” people are suffering under Israeli rule, and living in refuge
camps and Bantustans. Bantustan, or “homeland” in Bantu, are reminiscent
of a South African apartheid policy that allowed black Africans to live only
in a certain area with limited self-government.
“
They feed you Popsicles and cake because it’s a lie,” Ali said. “We
are here to feed you the truth.”
Ali’s reference to cake and refreshments are from Wednesday’s Beach
Hillel celebration of Israel’s independence day in the central quad where
they offered passers-by cake and Popsicles.
As Ali spoke, students from Beach Hillel silently protested, holding signs
and the Israeli flag directly behind the speaker, at which point other students
stood in front of Beach Hillel students and held their own, “Free Palestine” flag.
Ali contrasted the weapons available to Israel and Palestine and explained
to students what he meant “by any means necessary.”
“
By any means necessary? Yes, by any means necessary. We’ll do it peacefully
if we have to; we’ll fight if we have to; we’ll strap bombs if
we have to. We will. Why? Because we are fighting against occupation and we
don’t have the weapons that they have.”
He said while detractors may call Thursday’s speaking, “hate speech,” he
said it is not.
“
We are teaching love, we’re not teaching hate,” Ali said, “The
only hate we’re teaching is to hate the imperialism, hate oppression,
hate racism. Hate any type of oppression that you see, no matter what color
the oppressor is.”
“
I don’t see the point of bringing a speaker to campus who is going to
incite hate speech and promote terrorism and suicide bombing,” said Jordan
Antonoft, a silent protester and member of Beach Hillel. “By any means
necessary alludes to the idea of strapping bombs onto 15 year olds and sending
them to kill innocent people, and this is what [Ali] is up there promoting
on a college campus. I don’t see any benefit coming out of [Ali’s]
speaking.”
Patel, said that the event was meant to educate students about a side that
is rarely heard in mainstream media.
“
In the media you only hear one view point, this event was meant to educate
people about the Palestinian side,” Patel said.
Remarking about the Beach Hillel and other student protesters, Ali said that
students were civil and had the right.
“
It’s obvious that we disagree with each other. It’s obvious that
we’re enemies, but it’s civil. And that is the way it should be,” Ali
said.
He said he hoped the day’s event encouraged students to think for themselves
instead of agreeing with everything they see in the media about Palestine.
He said he hoped student would “develop the courage to think outside
of the box.”
Anel Angon, who sat with others listening to Ali’s speech, said while
Thursday’s speech seemed a little radical, there was a lot of truth to
what he said.
“
I believe that any social injustice that happens is part of one fight,” Angon
said, “It’s all one fight.”
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