TUESDAY,APRIL 2,2002
MIDDLE EAST CONFLICT
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 5A
Students pass on free Holy Land trip offered through campus group
Mid-East violence hurts Jewish program offered through campus group
By Leah Shaffer Kansan staff reporter
As violence escalates in Israel, the offer of a free trip to the country still stands for any student takers. However, no students at the University of Kansas have applied for summer programs offered through birthright Israel and KU Hillel.
The birthright israel program offers all-expense paid, 10-day trips throughout the year to Jewish people, age 18 to 26. The only fee is a $250 deposit.
In the past, KU Hillel, a tripcossponsor, has been involved in only the December trips. This spring, however, students have the option of going on summer trips. However, Susan Shaffer-Landau, executive director of Hillel, said no students had applied through Hillel for the summer programs. Before increased safety concerns in Israel, about 25 students usually went on each trip, she said.
Shaffer-Landau said that because of the violence between Israelis and Palestinians, Hillel
had not been promoting the summer programs. She said she was concerned about student safety.
"I haven't been comfortable pushing it," she said. "Personally, I think the risk is too great."
The birthright israel Web site states that the point of the trip is to "strengthen the sense of solidarity between Israeli youth and Jewish communities around the world." The program, offered through KU Hillel for three years, allows students to visit sites in Israel and learn about Jewish culture.
The program paid for Naomi Smith, Columbia, Mo., sophomore, to go to Israel last December.
Smith, one of only two students who did not drop out of the December trip, said she did not feel endangered at any point while abroad. The security for participants in the program was very tight.
VENUS SUNG/KANSAN
"Every bus that went on the trip had their own armed guard," she said.
Smith said that all the group's destinations were scouted ahead of time and that participants were not taken to dangerous areas in the Gaza strip. She said birthright would not offer the trip
Shaffer-Landau said it was typical for students who had previously gone on the trip to feel no trepidation about returning to Israel. However, as the situation in Israel has worsened, she has seen less and less interest in the trip. Landau said as many as 80 students usually applied for each December trip. After Sep.11, most of last year's applicants dropped out.
if they could not guarantee safety. Even with the current situation, Smith said she would recommend that students take the opportunity before they graduated.
Eve Katz, Birmingham, Ala. senior, went to Israel two years ago through the program.
"It was an amazing experience.
Words can't express how much impact it had on me," she said.
Katz said she felt safe during her trip, adding that Americans had difficulty understanding that constant threat of terrorist attack was a way of life for the Israeli people. Israeli guards surrounded every public place and did not allow any random bags to be left alone, she said. However, she said the area was becoming too unsafe to visit.
"Due to the fact they did declare war, I won't recommend it right now. Hopefully, next winter break, it will settle down," she said.
The Office of Study Abroad offered programs at Tel Aviv University during the summers of 1999 and 2000. However, the office discontinued the program in January 2001 because of conflict in the area, said Beau Pritchett, senior program coordinator for the office.
"We're not actively encouraging people to go until the situation becomes more stable," he said.
Contact Shaffer at ishaffer @ kansan.com. This story was edited by Sarah Smarsh.
Israeli troops step up offensive in West Bank
The Associated Press
WEST BANK, Ramallah - Israeli troops backed by armor intensified an offensive across the West Bank yesterday, pounding a Ramallah building with anti-aircraft guns, briefly pushing into Bethelhem and sending the deafening echo of tank shells through Palestinian streets.
Spurred by a wave of suicide attacks that claimed more than 40 lives in five days, Israeli leaders said the military drive was meant to smash a Palestinian terrorist infrastructure. Palestinians, for their part, said Israel's tactics amounted to a campaign of state terror against the civilian population.
Troops searching for Palestinian militants and weapons caches carried out house-to-house searches and engaged in running battles with gunmen. In the center of Ramallah, soldiers used vehicle-mounted antiaircraft guns to palverize the facade of a building where Palestinian gunmen were holed up, sending chunks of masonry plunging into the street.
Israeli forces also moved into the northern Palestinian towns of Qalqilya and Tulkarem Sunday night and yesterday.
In the sixth Palestinian attack in six days, a car bomb exploded near downtown Jerusalem. Police said a policeman stopped the car and the driver, a Palestinian, set off the bomb. The Palestinian was killed and the policeman seriously injured. The Al Aqsa Brigades, a militia linked to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, claimed responsibility.
Sporadic gunfire rang out after dark in Ramallah, a few miles to the north, where a tight curfew and continued fighting have turned a busy commercial center into a ghost town. The boom of tank shells was heard after night fell. Eight Israeli soldiers were injured two seriously in Ramallah and another in Qalqilya, a military source said. The bodies of two Palestinian police were found in a park in the city's center, Palestinian military intelligence said.
Among the fugitives being hotly pursued by Israeli forces in Ramallah was Palestinian militia leader Marwan Barghouti, a senior Israeli security source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Israeli officials have said Barghouti was involved in numerous deadly attacks on civilians.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, whom Israel blames for one of the worst waves of suicide bombings since the start of the conflict 18 months ago, was trapped in Ramallah headquarters for a fourth straight day, pinned down by Israeli troops and tanks within the walls of his compound.
Israeli soldiers set up more barricades in Ramallah's streets, turning cars already smashed by tanks onto their sides to form roadblocks. Pressingahead with searches, Israeli soldiers broke down the doors of homes in Ramallah and Qalqilya, Palestinians said.
President Bush called on Arafat to put a stop to anti-Israeli attacks. "There will never be peace so long as there is terror, and all of us must fight terror," Bush said.
Protests erupt at Israeli Embassy
The Associated Press
CAIRO, Egypt — Arab protests against Israel escalated yesterday, with demonstrators clashing with police in the Jordanian and Egyptian capitals, as their leaders searched for ways to defuse the crisis.
After a group of artists, intellectuals and opposition politicians called for a march from Cairo University to the nearby Israeli Embassy, hundreds of marchers ran toward the embassy and broke through a line of riot police.
The Egyptian demonstration was the most violent protest here since Israel seized control of Yasser Arafat's compound Friday.
Police responded with tear gas and water cannons and whipped demonstrators with their batons. The protest lasted for seven hours.
Thirty protesters were arrested and nine police officers were struck by stones. Sixteen protesters most suffering the effects of tear gas — were hospitalized after the clashes.
the Egyptian protesters called on their government to close the Israeli Embassy and accused the United States of giving Israel the green light for its offensive and called for the boycott of American products.
But calls to boycott U.S. products have been heard before in Egypt and gone largely unheeded. Egyptian officials say their ties with Israel give them an opportunity to influence Israeli policy.
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi led a march in his capital, Tripoli, and called on Arab countries to open their borders to let Arab volunteer fighters in to help the Palestinians.
Some 20,000 Sudanese marched through their capital, Khartoum, carrying banners declaring: "No peace with the Zionists," "No bargaining when it comes to Jerusalem."
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