Tearing Down Walls

My favorite place on Chapman University's campus is a piece of the Berlin Wall which represents peace and hope to those who pass by. If something like the Berlin Wall can be torn down, then there must be hope for tearing down other walls of injustice in the world. I'm passionate about human rights. Activism is my ministry, and I want to commit my life to tearing down those walls of injustice. This has taken a much more literal connotation this semester as I led a group of seven students to plan a teach-in to protest the wall in Palestine.

The wall in Palestine zigzags through the fertile farmland of the occupied territories, often cutting families off from one another and separating Palestinians from schools, jobs, and sources of safe drinking water. Countless homes have been bulldozed to make room for this wall, which the International Court of Justice and the United Nations General Assembly have called a violation of human rights.

During the last three months I led weekly meetings to plan a teach-in about this wall. This past week we built a ten-foot high replica of the wall that blocked off a path on campus near the piece of the Berlin Wall. Signs there explain the wall in Palestine is twice as high and three times as long as the Berlin Wall. Our wall was covered with maps, facts, pictures, quotations, and the same graffiti messages that can be found on the wall in Palestine. Later in the week we had a panel discussion about the wall in Palestine and finally a rally when we symbolically tear it down.

I knew that this teach-in was going to be controversial and hoped that if nothing else it would stimulate dialogue about this important issue. But within hours of its completion, our wall was knocked down and the teach-in information ripped off. In the next two days it was repeatedly knocked over and defaced. Again and again we have picked up the wall, put it back together, stood watch by it all night, and continued to teach about a cause in which we believe strongly. It has been a defining learning experience for me. It has been painful to see a project that I have poured myself into over the last three months so abused and disrespected. However, I do not think that this in any way undermined the importance or success of the teach-in. Every day of the teach-in I watched as crowds of people stood around the wall, reading its facts and debating the issue. This affirmed that all the hard work has paid off!

I believe that the epitome of true intellectualism is found where academics and action intersect. I can not simply learn about injustice, such as the wall in Palestine, and sit back and do nothing. My faith calls me to take action. As the students of Chapman saw us rebuilding the wall over and over they were reminded of the Palestinians rebuilding their bulldozed homes. As students were inconvenienced and needed to take another pathway to class, they were challenged to think about how the wall affects Palestinians every day.

Krista Johnson is in her fourth year as a HELM Leadership Fellow and is a member of Southport Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Greenwood, Indiana.