A wall detailing the struggles Palestinians face was placed at the central quad of campus on Monday and Tuesday, attracting curious students and faculty to stop and learn about life in Palestine. 

The Apartheid Wall was displayed by the Students for Justice in Palestine with help from the Palestininan Youth Movement, an organization that advocates for the liberation of Palestine. The wall is a representation the 420-mile long barrier in between the West Bank and Israel.

The display built more than a decade ago travels through more than 10 universities — some UCs and California State Universities. Students for Justice in Palestine chapters that borrowed the wall contributed to building it, said Joshua Fatahi, Cal State Fullerton president of the Students for Justice in Palestine.

Fatahi said having the wall on campus has importance in helping Palestinian students find a place of camaraderie, which is an opportunity to showcase the problems in Palestine to the community.

“Then there is another side of that where people that may have certain sentiments about Palestinians or the rights of Palestinians — those folks can come here and we can have constructive conversations. We can kind of disrupt some misconceptions they have about Palestinians,” Fatahi said

He added that one common misconception from the people who approached the wall was that the situation in Israel and Palestine is characterized as a conflict.

“A lot of people think it’s an equal battle, but when you weigh one of the world’s top military forces versus a population of people who don’t even have an army, it is not equal. That’s why we don’t refer to it as a conflict,” said Lulu Halisi, a public relations officer for Students for Justice in Palestine.

Gurjot Gill, a finance major, said he did not know about the Palestinian struggle until he visited the wall. Gill related the situation in Palestine to Operation Blue Star, a military action in India in 1984 that targeted Sikh separatists, in which nearly 400 people died.

“I feel their pain from my own experience from my dad. In 1984, when Operation Blue Star happened, he had to cut off his turban basically to live. He had to hide his religion during that time,” Gill said. “It’s disheartening.”

The wall was erected on campus the same day U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced reversal of U.S. policy toward the establishment of Israeli civilian settlements in the West Bank, saying that it is not inconsistent with international law.

International law states that an occupying power cannot establish settlements in occupied territory, an idea the European Union has reiterated since Pompeo’s announcement. International law portrays Israel as an occupying power, even though Israel disputes this view, according to CNN.

Even though the Israeli government is in disagreement with these views, the occupation is on the minds of many Palestinians in the West Bank and at CSUF.

“The most frustrating thing about the occupation is that not many people know about it. There is the ethnic cleansing going on, a full erasure of our history, of our knowledge, of our ancestors, of our people,” Halisi said.

Halisi said the wall being displayed on campus is her favorite part of the semester.

“It is loud. As students are walking by, they get to ask questions. It’s filled with information and knowledge that is usually not presented to students,” Halisi said. “It’s our opportunity as Palestinians to showcase what is occurring in our homeland, as well as answer any questions.”

For proud Palestinians like Halisi, it can feel like a burden to educate people on the occupation in Palestine.

“For me, to be Palestinian means to wake up every day and to recognize I live in a society that doesn’t recognize my existence,” Halisi said.