They stood at the Scramble Light with baskets of candy in hand as students and faculty stopped by on their way to classes and meetings anticipating something sweet. After getting their sweet treat, they read a message attached to it.
"More than a third of Palestinian refugee camp residents are under the age of 16," one of them read.
The students passing out the flyers and candy were members of Students for Justice in Palestine, a new group to Ball State's campus. Its purpose is to get the word out about the issues and conflict in Israel and Palestine.
The conflict refers to the issues of border control, military occupation and violence in Palestine. These issues were primarily presented by the Israeli government when Palestinians were first separated from Israelis by land territories in 1948. In 1967, the conflict gained more coverage by getting more attention from the media.
Although the organization is new to Ball State, it joins more than 40 other chapters of SJP in the United States.
Sophomore Bobby Moran, SJP president, said he thought it would be a good idea to inform the campus.
"I just thought that it would be really neat to kind of be on the forefront of people understanding a little bit more about what's going on [with] the refugees of Palestine," Moran said.
Moran became involved with the organization after taking Honors 189 last year. The course focused on Israel and Palestine and the ongoing conflict between the Middle Eastern countries. He said after taking the class, he and other classmates were inspired to start the organization this school year.
"At first the class was really fact based and really kind of hard," Moran said, "and then we started talking about ways that the conflict could be resolved, and we were asked to draft a 20-page paper with two other group members, and I just really, really enjoyed doing that and got motivated behind the cause and behind spreading awareness."
Kalyn Sprague, SJP vice president, said the organization would like to increase on-campus awareness and education of the conflict.
"It is difficult to find information that accurately illustrates both sides of this issue," Sprague said. "It is our hope to become a resource for students here on campus that are interested in learning more about the conflict."
Sprague said she believes that SJP will help people understand the conflict from both sides, informing of the human rights violations occurring during the conflict.
Brent Blackwell, assistant professor of English and Jewish studies, serves as the group's adviser. He said the goals of SJP can be summed up in four words.
"Knowledge, safety, compassion and community," he said. "They want international law and human rights upheld in the region by both parties."
Blackwell said it is important to have an organization like SJP at Ball State because the American media is biased with respect to the conflict. He said the group can help people understand the conflict as a whole.
"Any organization that puts human rights [issues] before political [issues] is vitally important in this day and age, given the amount of dehumanization many people experience on a daily basis in the 21st century," Blackwell said.
Sprague said the organization's biggest challenge will be to overcome the initial bias some people may have.
Moran said the group focuses on an issue not a lot of people know about. He said he hopes the organization will encourage people to talk about the issue rather than create controversy around it.
"I think it definitely is a controversial and political subject, but I think everyone in the group knows a lot about [the conflict]," he said. "And I think that they would be prepared to have intellectual conversations with someone. I don't think anyone joined the group to start something that's going to get people riled up."
Blackwell will speak tonight for the group's first event in the Schwartz Digital Complex at Bracken Library. He will speak about the difficulties of having an open and honest academic discussion about human rights in relation to the Israel-Palestine conflict.
SJP is working on finalizing more events to create awareness. The organization's next event will be a viewing of "Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People," a film that looks deeper into stereotypes of Arabs and how they are portrayed in Hollywood.
Moran said if there are people who are motivated by the group or if anyone has ideas for the group, SJP is open for input and willing to work with others.
For more information on SJP, e-mail ramoran@bsu.edu.
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