Swarthmore SPJP Simulates West Bank Checkpoint
This week, Swarthmore’s Students for Peace and Justice in Palestine (SPJP) erected a temporary wall in front of Parrish Hall, the College’s main administrative building, to simulate a checkpoint along the wall that separates Israel from the West Bank.
SPJP members acting as Israeli Defense Force (IDF) guards have manned the checkpoint at appointed times. Their hope, members said, is to give students a taste of what Palestinians face by interrupting students’ movement, questioning them, and doing random backpack searches.
SPJP member Razi Shaban said the wall simulation is “a tool for Swarthmore students to learn about the [Palestinian] humanitarian crisis.” Shaban, whose father moved to the United States as a Palestinian refugee, added that punitive measures at Israeli checkpoints “breed militarism, radicalizing more than they pacify.”
The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories counts approximately 70 checkpoints both within and bordering the West Bank.
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