Increasing numbers of students report that demonization of Israel is intensifying on campuses. Bewildered, many students wonder why each time they douse anti-Israel fires, the flames reignite.
It’s simple. They face an organized movement undaunted by setbacks. The Muslim Student Union and Muslim Student Association, allied with extremist groups like Students for Justice in Palestine, focus single-mindedly on demonizing Israel and its supporters.
Roz Rothstein
This is not your normal student activism.
MSU and MSA members are methodical, well-funded, strictly organized and fervent. The leaders are usually devout and make hatred of Israel a religious as well as social justice cause.
These groups don’t spontaneously plan actions just for their own schools. SJP and the 600 MSU/MSA chapters across North America use the Internet to coordinate strategies. They share fliers, props and slogans, and analyze best practices to refine each year’s tactics.
They maintain continuity. New leaders are groomed to replace graduates. Incoming students are actively recruited, welcomed into their supportive fold and indoctrinated. Other methods also ensure continuity. A young man at an “Israeli apartheid wall” campus display last month said he is a Muslim missionary who volunteered to accompany the wall for three years, and “educate” students.
Roberta Seid
MSU/MSA and SJP launch slick campaigns, street theater and campus displays like the “apartheid wall.” They orchestrate demonstrations against pro-coexistence speakers and host pseudo-academic panels. They showcase speakers whose only credentials are a Jewish background and anti-Israel views. They seek academic credibility by asking professors to co-sponsor their events. They form coalitions with campus groups by supporting popular student causes and falsely claiming they promote human rights. They work to promote their agenda in student governments and newspapers.
With this groundwork laid, they recommend punishments for Israel such as divestment. Divestment resolutions, in turn, disseminate their anti-Israel message through campus debates and media coverage.
Most Israel supporters ignore this larger, organized offensive, hoping the fires will burn out. But they won’t.
MSU/MSA and SJP zeal is growing, fed partially by their successes and financial supporters. Even when they know they can’t win a campaign, they count it a victory because they created a platform for their propaganda. Posted by the “Cal divest team” on a blog supporting the
U.C. Berkeley divestment resolution: “We lost the vote but won the night … We made a statement recorded for posterity and forced everyone to listen and watch.”
They also expect a disorganized counter-response. Pro-Israel students’ attention is elsewhere — on their daily lives and futures, as it should be. They did not go to college to defend their identity or Israel. Most become involved out of necessity.
Consequently, pro-Israel students are often unprepared for anti-Israel ambushes. In April, the U.C. San Diego student senate suddenly proposed a divestment bill. Pro-Israel students had only a few days to mobilize while divestment proponents had spent a year recruiting allies and polishing their presentations.
Pro-Israel students are often concerned about unsupportive administrations. Most universities lack standards that protect the rights of students targeted by hostile campaigns. Pro-Israel students also believe that sympathy for the other side and information can defuse the situation. Unfortunately, this has rarely been the result.
Pro-Israel students are also disconcerted by the other side’s half-truths and anti-Semitic stereotypes, violation of conduct norms and, by some, fear.
Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, was verbally assaulted by MSU students (11 of whom were arrested) when he spoke at U.C. Irvine in February. In the U.K., constant harassment has made Israel’s supporters fearful of organizing events. At the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, a Jewish student was physically attacked by MSU students when he removed a Palestinian flag from a pro-Israel exhibit.
Israel’s supporters must recognize the arsonist, and meet fire with fire, not flowers.
Well-meaning students must absorb the fact that they face a serious problem.
They need a coordinated, long-term strategy that preempts the predictable anti-Israel actions. Coalitions must be built with pro-coexistence groups on all campuses. Best practices should be kept in place for incoming students.
The goal should not be changing the minds of anti-Israel ideologues, but educating the wider campus. Students must also challenge anti-Israel libels. Many fear a strong response will bring unwanted attention to the accusations, as some Jewish professionals claim. But ignoring them has allowed them to grow like a cancer.
Anti-Israel groups must be exposed for what they are: extremists who oppose coexistence and instill hate and divisiveness, not understanding. They are not pro-peace, pro-Palestinian or pro-human rights, but enemies of all three.
If often beleaguered pro-Israel students adopt proactive strategies more fully, there will be a positive change on campuses. Until then, the anti-Israel fires will continue and Israel will continue to be unjustly marginalized by extremist groups that themselves should have been exposed and marginalized long ago.
Roz Rothstein is the co-founder and CEO of L.A.-based StandWithUs, and Roberta Seid is the director of research and education for StandWithUs.
NOTE: In the print edition of j., this op-ed print includes the sentence: "At the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, a Jewish student was physically attacked by MSU students when he removed a Palestinian flag from a pro-Israel exhibit." According to Elana Kahn-Oren, editor of the Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle, "the truth is that the Jewish student was attacked when he went to throw a Palestinian flag in the trash. The flag had been hoisted to the top of a climbing wall Hillel Milwaukee rented for a Israel Independence Day celebration." For further information, read the Jewish Chronicle's news story (http://www.jewishchronicle.org/article.php?article_id=12163) or Kahn-Oren's opinion piece
(http://www.jewishchronicle.org/article.php?article_id=12176).
All
05/27/2010 at 05:20 PM
Good news all around. Apparently MSU/MSA has learned from the organizing techniques and tactics of the pro-Israel crowd. But, in any case, Israel rarely, if ever, receives criticism that is not richly deserved. More success to the campus critics of Israel!
Login to reply to this comment or post your own