The Daily Free Press

Issue date: 4/3/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Andrew McFarland David Mynott II and Donnell Graves protested against the AIPAC on High Street.

Nichole Szembrot said she is trying to give the 21st century a very 1960s twist.

Szembrot, a College of Arts and Sciences junior, organized an anti-Iran war protest outside the American Israel Public Affairs Committee office in Boston yesterday in hopes of developing a "series of escalating actions," she said. Four other protesters held signs reading "Love the World Without Shame," "Love Iran" and "Stop the (Next) War" while distributing fliers describing their actions.

AIPAC is a pro-Israel lobby group that has been supporting sanctions against Iran, Szembrot said.

"They were encouraging the U.S. to impose sanctions on Iran despite the fact that there haven't been any illicit activities documented since 2003," Szembrot said. "They're still trying to spread this idea that Iran is a danger and it's not true. They're trying to stir up fear."

"We're generally just trying to raise awareness of what the administration is telling people," she said. "They're using very war-mongering-type language and trying to create conflict."

Szembrot said Iran is not an enemy, and while its government may be hostile to the United States, "the people are not."

She said her fervor for activism came after her Spring Break activism trip to Washington, D.C., where she and about 40 other participants from other schools sanctioned a "stop loss" against Congress.

"We went around to every Congressman delivering them stop loss orders, basically telling them that they couldn't go on their breaks until all the troops came home," she said.

The students went on to stop Congress from leaving by blocking entrances to parking garages and major intersections, she said.

Szembrot said about 30 students were arrested at this demonstration and said activism is not just important, but fun.

"Our government doesn't know what we want unless we tell them," she said. "People aren't making demands, so our government can't respond to them because they don't know what we want."

Protester Donnell Graves, a local artist, said because Congress is not "doing anything" about the Iraq war, activism is important.

"We can't get discouraged," he said. "People are afraid of doing things out of the ordinary. America is so selfish."

"A lot of people are making serious money off the war," he said. "That's why they don't want to leave. Israel is in bed with the United States."

David Mynott Jr., a protester from Cambridge, said the protest was necessary to "set the record straight."

"AIPAC is a very effective propaganda machine for both the Israeli and U.S. governments," he said. "They've been lying to the American people for years."

AIPAC representatives were not available for comment despite repeated phone calls and messages left yesterday.

Mynott said activism is "energizing," but is effective only in "combining our energy" and "gathering in groups."

"Sometimes it's like throwing paper airplanes at a bulldozer," Ashley Green, a Simmons College senior, said. "It's really difficult to penetrate this system we call a democracy."

After glancing at the small gathering around her, she said, "I guess this is what a democracy looks like."

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