JOHANNESBURG, February 18 (IslamOnline.net) - "The wall must fall" read a poster at the Wits University hall entrance, where eleven Palestinian academics expounded on Monday, February 16, their daily struggle for education under the Israeli occupation.

Their audience was silenced by video clips of university students walking to classes, at Israeli soldiers’ gunpoint.

It is the selfsame wall that the poster at the door refers to.

"The wall eats more than half the agricultural land of Palestine. It passes through schools and houses, separating people," lamented Arouri.

"It only has one gate that opens only twice a day, at 6am and 6pm and for 15 minutes only. It's going to be 750km long when its done. Israel also wants a buffer zone on either side of the wall that requires us to live 250-metres away from it."

The rest of the delegation comprises students, graduates and lecturers from different Palestinian universities who are staying in South Africa until February 24.

Arouri, who says he knows what it feels like to be beaten by Israeli soldiers, added that their campaign is vital "because we do not have the Israeli media propaganda. We have to tell people personally about our struggle".

"We do not have faith left in the governments of the international community. All we have is faith in solidarity groups around the world," he said.

Like many other Palestinian university students he has had to walk for kilometers to get to class so many times.

"For three years I had to go through humiliating Israeli checkpoints. There are more than 200 checkpoints that we have to go through," explained Arouri.

The Right To Education video, filmed in 2003, shows students being provoked by Israeli soldiers on daily basis.

The students remain undeterred though and confront the soldiers.

Another group of foreigners are also shown confronting Israeli soldiers, carrying placards and speaking to them in American accents.

They too are threatened with guns and dispersed with teargas.

One lecturer interviewed also talks about the annual drop in student population, saying that every year they have 200 fewer students at Birzeit University which now has just over 5 000 students enrolled.

Some interviewees also complain how they haven't seen their families for up to five years, despite living a few hours drive.

Israeli roadblocks seems to make travel difficult and keeps families separated.

Palestinians also need travel permits if they want to move between cities and Arouri says he feels like "a fifth class citizen".

"Our struggle in Palestine is neither national nor religious. All we are asking is our own state where we are first class, not fifth class citizens.

"We want the bloodshed to stop and we want a common understanding. That is why we are talking about our struggle. Our student movement in Palestine is one of the main catalysts in our struggle," he adds.

The Wits University student representative council welcomed the Palestinian counterparts, and its president Philemon Lukhele underlined he was "moved by what one woman said in the video".

"She said the silence of the world is more painful than the bullet that hits a Palestinian," recalled Lukhele, who is studying law and international relations.

"We support the fight of the Palestinian people to live and be treated as human beings. We know it's understood by some people that if you support Palestine that you are anti-Semitic, but that's not true. We love Israeli people and they should love Palestinians as much as they love themselves.

"It's unfortunate that Israel defies the United Nations and nothing is being done about it. Your visit to us is a calling to end suffering in the world, not just in Palestine."

Lukhele expressed hope to "develop a long-term strategy beyond the marches and protests" with the Right To Education campaign.

A political studies lecturer at Wits, Naeem Jeenah, said they have also arranged for the delegation to meet with various anti-privatization and globalization groups to build solidarity with their campaign.

Arouri reiterated keenness on meeting "real activists from South Africa" after studying "so much about the country".

"We have read many books about it. We are all struggling for the same thing, the right to be human," he remarked.

Another Palestinian delegate, Lina My'ari who lives in an Israeli territory and says she has a keen interest in gender activism, asserted that their struggle is more than just cultural, it is rather against colonization.

Taking the floor, Nadim Natour stressed that the "international community should engage in our struggle. Spread the news, contact the media and come to Palestine."

Wits students Khatija Haneef, 19, and Riyadh Ebrahim, 18, said they are more aware now than before about the Palestinian struggle.

Commenting on the delegation's presentation, Haneef said: "I came to learn about what their daily lives are like. We're not faced with these obstacles, and them coming here makes us more aware of things."

While Ebrahim noted that "watching their video made me feel that there's a lot more that we need to be doing. We need to pressurize our government to take a harder stand against the Israeli occupation and the wall that they are building."

For now the Palestinian delegation hopes that they get home safely, following a tough journey out of their troubled land.

It took us ten hours to get to Jordan by road, which is usually a one-and-a-half hour drive, says Arouri.

One of their members was also refused exit by Israeli soldiers and had to stay home.