By Sarah Stortz
Chilly winds and rain weren’t enough to stop some University of Iowa students from standing up for their origins Wednesday night.
Outside the Main Library Wednesday, a group of Israeli-American students protested against featured speaker Remi Kanazi because of his notable pro-Palestine poetry and spoken performances.
Kanazi is also known for his line of shirts that advocates boycotting Israeli goods through the “Boycott, Divest, and Sanction Movement,” — a global movement attempting to increase economic and political pressure on Israel. UI freshman Heelah Nadler, one of the protesters standing outside, said this T-shirt line could be viewed as detrimental for Israel.
“The organization does this so the economy would go down and Israel perishes. We stand against that,” she said.
A few of the students showed their disapproval of his visit by displaying the flag of Israel outside.
One of the protester’s signs displayed statistics about Israel’s technology use, stating that “Israel is a Technological Powerhouse.” The sign said in 2012, the country invested $1.5 billion in technology and in 2016, it invested $6.5 billion.
“They want to boycott Israel, but as you see, many people invest in Israeli innovation. Israel has so much innovation and technology,” Neelah said. “Without Israel, there’d be many things abiding. Phones that people carry has inventions inside that are made in Israel.”
However, many students inside the building did not share similar feelings about Kanazi’s work.
Kanazi’s lecture was brought to the UI in part by the Arab Student Association. Association member Adel Elessais said people should not stick strictly to one side of the argument.
“Emotions can get heated, people can say things they don’t mean,” Elessais said. “When it comes down to it, everyone should have a look at both sides of the spectrum and both sides of the conflict.”
Despite the controversy arising, Elessais said that he sees some positive aspects coming out of the event.
“I’m just super excited ASA is getting an event with this much magnitude and generating this much attention,” he said
UI Students for Human Rights member Liana Suleiman said she felt great excitement about Kanazi’s visit.
“There happens to be a lot of misconceptions in Palestinian-Israeli conflict, be it from statistics to personal recollections,” she said. “It’s very important to get all sides of the story, and Remi does a wonderful job of projecting that to a wide range of communities.”
Suleiman said she believes Kanazi accurately portrays everybody in his work.
“Hopefully, with him here, he’ll shed much light on a lot of the misconceptions and stereotypes associated with the Palestinian issue in a fair and nonpartisan manner,” she said.
[Correction: In the March 30 article “UI divided on Palestinian Speaker,” The Daily Iowan had incorrectly referred to the “Boycott, Divest, and Sanction Movement,” a global campaign, as an organization called “Boycott the Investment Sanction.” The article additionally referred to the Arab Students Association as the ACA rather than the ASA. The DI regrets this error.]
