Statement of Goals and Choices

The photograph of the woman was taken by photographer Max Herman at a demonstration in Chicago seeking justice for Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh’s murder by an Israeli military officer while she was reporting on an army raid of a refugee camp in the West Bank city of Jenin. I would have preferred to use a photo of a Palestinian student activist or even one specifically of CCNY pro-Palestine activists but I couldn’t find images high-quality enough for my poster. The woman was the focal point of the image, standing amongst swaths of activists holding signs and chanting, but she held up her hands in the shape of a heart. I found it powerful because it demonstrates that activism comes out of love, passion, concern for human life, rather than anger or hatred towards another group of people, especially in the case of Palestine.

While doing my research for the piece, I noticed that a lot of pro-Palestine political posters heavily featured the color orange. I’m not entirely sure why but I think it might have to do with the fact that the orange fruit is considered one of the national symbols of Palestine, as they are a staple crop produced primarily in the port city of Jaffa. Palestinian author and activist Ghassan Kanafani wrote a short story titled “The Land of Sad Oranges,” in which a young narrator recalls his memory of fleeing Palestine and watching grown men and women alike cry at the sight of a basket of oranges on the border with Lebanon. I used the colors red, white, black, and green, because they are the colors of the Palestinian flag, as well as the pan-Arab colors. There are multiple possible sources for the meanings of these colors, but it is generally accepted that white represents the acts of people, black represents their struggles, green represents the fields upon which the struggles are fought, and red represents the sword (the strength of those who suffer).

I chose to leave the text very short and to-the-point. “Even our voices are occupied” refers to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the foremost issue that the conflict is centered around. I didn’t want to use what are considered “combative” words like “intifada,” “nakba,” or even “apartheid” (many scholars consider Israeli treatment of Palestinians to be reminiscent of the apartheid regime in South Africa) which were all words I mentioned in my feature article as grounds for complaint against SJP, even though they were found to be protected by the First Amendment. The First Amendment is the main motif of my feature article. All events involving CCNY censorship of SJP events or conduct have the same conclusion: their opinions, their events, their choices, their speech, their existence, their behavior, are all protected by the Constitution. Ultimately, I used the word “occupied,” because that is the most factual word to describe the circumstances in Palestine. It is under a military occupation by Israel.

I chose to use the subtitle “the fight for free speech at ccny” because I felt my main slogan wasn’t eye-catching enough. I do believe––or at least, I hope––that the colors and the model used make it clear that the poster is about Palestine/Palestinian activism, but I didn’t think the phrase, “EVEN OUR VOICES ARE OCCUPIED,” implied enough of what was actually happening. It could relate to pro-Palestine activism in Israel and/or Palestine, it could even refer to the Palestinian struggle itself, rather than the struggle to demonstrate peacefully on CCNY’s campus. I wanted to be clear that this is about activism at CCNY, not nationwide, not worldwide, not even at CUNY as a whole, so I could zero in on my audience. This is for current or prospective CCNY students.

Finally, I knew I wanted my audience to see my poster and ask themselves some questions. I wanted them to think, just whose free speech is affected at CCNY? Why is their free speech threatened at CCNY? What does this mean for me? I provided a link to where they could access my feature article for further information. Then they can go further and research on their own about the conflict, or Palestinian activism at other campuses, or even learn more about Palestinian activism at CCNY. Or they’ll wonder where else the administration has silenced and suppressed student voices, and look for places where they see this happening and try to help because they’re now armed with the knowledge of what has passed.