Party in the park celebrates Israel

Blue and white balloons, streamers and banners reading, "Happy Birthday Israel!" greeted students as they walked through Washington Square Park yesterday - it was a celebration of Israel's 59th year as an independent nation. The party served as the grand finale to the Bronfman Center for Jewish Student Life's Israel Week festivities.

Activities at the Israeli Independence Day Party included face painting, backgammon tournaments and a booth for making bracelets out of beads inscribed with Hebrew letters. There was falafel and chocolate, too, but the Israeli cuisine went fast.

One of the more creative aspects of Israel's birthday bash at NYU was entitled "Get to Know Israel Twister." With five Twister boards reconfigured to resemble a map of Israel, each color was synonymous with a city - so participants in the game had to put their right foot on Haifa instead of the traditional primary colors. Thanks to the beautiful weather, a winner of one round of the Israeli Twister game, Tisch sophomore Erica Frankel, joked, "I feel like I'm back in the Holy Land!"

Stern freshman David Sharon, a student organizer, said their ultimate goal was "to portray the true Israel that is not portrayed in the media."

"And to have fun," said CAS freshman Angelica Murdukhayeva, also a student organizer.

The Israeli Independence Day Party was sponsored by the Bronfman Center, Gesher: Israel at NYU, Hillel, Stand with U.S. and Masa. Masa is an umbrella organization that helps students travel to Israel for prolonged visits. Megan Schiff, the Masa representative at the event, explained that her organization wants to help students feel "like they really belong" in Israel.

Murdukhayeva and Sharon said they chose the central location of Washington Square Park in order to informally invite the whole community to participate.

Not all students viewed the celebration in a positive light, however. As the party wound down, a group of students began shouting, "Long live Palestine! Free, free Palestine! Long live the Intifada!" along the outskirts of the area in the park where the Israeli Independence Day Party was taking place.

CAS junior Eihab Abdelfatah was strongly opposed to the celebration.

"My grandparents ... my parents were born in a refugee camp," he said. "This is a slap in the face to me."

Although many students who were in attendance at the Israeli Independence Day celebration seemed upset by the actions of the protesters, events did not become heated beyond a few minutes of shouting, and the small group of dissenters disbanded.

In response to the somewhat hostile actions of the protesters, Rabbi Yehuda Sarna said, "Obviously everybody has the right to express their opinion. ... Very often, he who shouts the loudest has to prove the most. We ought to credit the students who are friends across political lines for de-escalating."

Students on both sides managed to calm things down relatively quickly and the festivities resumed. Israeli DJ Boaz Nol blasted music throughout the festivities.

"People were dancing like crazy ... everybody loved the Israeli music," the DJ said. The party atmosphere created by the music certainly helped to ease tensions and calm those annoyed by the protesters.