Charles Nailen/The Hoya YALA and MSA members protest violence in the Middle East in Red Square on Wednesday.

Approximately 50 members of the Georgetown community protested against terrorism and suicide bombings in the Palestinian West Bank and Israel Wednesday by waving Palestinian flags and calling for an end to Israeli occupation.

“One, two, three, four, we don’t want your racist war. Five, six, seven, eight, Israel is a terrorist state,” demonstrators chanted as they stood holding hands in a circle in Red Square. “Occupation is a shame, no more killing in our name.”

The two-hour-long protest commemorated the anniversary of the 1948 Deir Yassin massacre, during which approximately 200 Arab villagers were killed by the Israeli military, according to the Young Arab Leadership Alliance and the Muslim Student Association, which organized the event.

“Our message was intended to show others that there is more to the situation than what is portrayed in the media and that the fundamental elements of the Palestinian struggle are regarding human rights – something that each one of us is obligated to support,” YALA Vice President Samer Oweida (SFS ’04) said.

For the most part students and administrators were receptive to the demonstration, supporting the protestors’ stance on the Palestinian people and their opposition to what they called the violation of their human rights, Oweida said.

“Many people encouraged us to keep fighting the misconceptions regarding the situation,” he said.

YALA President Jumana Salem (SFS ’03) said the intended meaning of the protest’s slogan – “We are all Palestinians” – was to show that we are all victims of an unjust occupation.

“We feel that having this demonstration was crucial at this point in time because we wanted to et the rest of the GU community know that the Palestinians are not just what we see on TV,” Salem said. “They are your friends and your classmates.”

Professor of Arab Studies Michael Hudson said he was passing by Red Square and decided to join the demonstration with Arab Studies Professor Samer Shehata.

“[The Middle East crisis] will probably have negative effects on the world economy and American economic recovery, so it is important for the Georgetown community to become interested in this situation,” Ghobash said. “Above all it is important that at this university in particular, we contemplate the moral dimension of the Palestinian tragedy.”

According to Oweida, the sensitive nature of the issue did prompt some negative feedback to the demonstration.

Georgetown Israeli Alliance President Salomon Kalach (COL ’03) said that while GIA recognizes the freedom of speech accorded to campus organizations, it disagrees with what he called the abuse of this freedom.

“Our only concern is when this freedom is abused by presenting distorted facts and exploiting popular slogans like apartheid, U.S. aid to Israel, or [Israeli Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon’s image, while obviously leaving out facts like U.S. aid to other countries with gross violations or [Palestinian Leader Yasser] Arafat’s image.”

Kalach called protests like the one Wednesday “far from educational.”

“They just serve to mobilize people through chants and slogans and therefore fail to address the context, background, reasons and solutions of the whole situation,” Kalach said.

Wednesday’s demonstration promoted a talk organized by YALA later that evening by Israeli activist and Women in Black movement member Ruth El Raz. In her speech, El Raz represented the Israeli left and the attempts of Women in Black members to end Palestinian occupation within Israel.

“The talk was very enlightening and was followed by some penetrating questions by an audience that was attentive,” Salem said.