By Lianza Reyes SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) – With just a few months to go before walking the stage, Syracuse University senior Dina Eldawy decided to start the first Palestine-focused campus organization after years of wanting to begin. The main reason why is to create a solid foundation for members to discuss and support Palestine, and to understand why dialogue cannot be the only solution, she said. Now, she is the co-founder of the Palestinian Solidarity Collective.
“You can’t just put Israelis and Palestinians and ask them to come together like they’re on the same level,” she said. She has witnessed and experienced some biased professors, and how the university tends to quickly censor any events or speeches that could be pro-Palestine.
Her first interaction with the PSC was from an off-campus organization of the same name. She had watched a documentary in an event and realized how important the issue is, and how it went unnoticed. The passion to start something from scratch comes from over four years of education and research. The Remembrance Scholar taught English for six weeks at a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon; she has also taught refugees at the local North Side Learning Center. Though herself an Egyptian-American woman, she’s motivated to help a community she believes is suffering greatly.
Much of her passion also comes from her belief and upbringing. She immigrated to the United States at the age of 2 and was raised Muslim. Like many immigrant parents, her parents worked hard to ensure her ability to pursue her love for the social sciences, and now she is unafraid to use her voice, she said. A member and former president of SU’s Muslim Student Association, she became exposed to strong Muslim women that taught her important lessons, one of them relating to her headscarf.
When she first came to SU, Eldawy had never considered wearing the headscarf. She slowly started wearing her hijab, alternating only between three scarves. Today, she owns many more, which she jokes is a “wide selection.”
“I’ve learned to have a lot of plain-colored scarves that can go with a lot of outfits,” she said with a laugh.
Eldawy’s force of nature never stops. After graduation, the Pensacola, Florida native is moving across the pond to obtain two master’s degrees in the United Kingdom. She is a recipient of the Marshall Scholarship, and is only the second one in SU history. While she may never completely experience the activities that the PSC will cover, the legacy lives on in many of the members bringing it into the upcoming fall.
