In response to criticisms of delivering anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli messages, the Day of Skills Workshop held at Wesleyan on Saturday evolved into an arts and crafts activity day.
The workshop had been surrounded with controversy after Jewish students and faculty complained about the potential for “an orgy of despicable diatribes against Israel and an orgy of anti-Semitic attacks in the guise of anti-Zionist propaganda.” (actual quote). The situation became even more tense after a small car bomb exploded inside the oven of the Bayit during services Friday. No groups claimed responsibility.
Workshop attendees arrived at PAC on Saturday morning to find a twenty foot chain link fence topped with razor wire surrounding the building. Kol Israeli forces manned a single checkpoint, letting activists in but not out.
The event was peaceful, though conflict nearly erupted when workshop participants discovered a group of Jewish settlers in PAC 001. The settlers claimed their right to the room, but an Israeli bulldozer soon arrived through the outside wall of PAC and reduced 001 to rubble.
“Things were just so crazy, what with soldiers, fences, and bulldozers,” said activist Matt Butterberg ’06. “The last thing we wanted to do was prove our detractors right. So we canned the radical program we had originally planned and adopted a new strategy for peace in the Middle East.”
Workshop leaders braved the Israeli barriers to get glue, construction paper, lace, markers, and glitter from the WSA. What resulted was an “orgy of Valentine’s Day card-making.”
The workshop was retitled “Dear Israel, Will You Be My Valentine? Love, Palestine.” In a powerfully symbolic move, participants covered the barrier fence with hand-made cards. The event was televised world wide, and a teary eyed Ariel Sharon is reported to have asked for “some pink origami and a couple of those little pipe cleaner thingies.”
“We are considering holding cease fire talks on Valentine’s Day, especially if we get a really cute Snoopy card,” said an anonymous source inside Hamas on Sunday. “If not, well, there’s precedent for Valentine’s Day massacres.”
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