LOS ANGELES (Press Release)– “Israel Apartheid Week” (IAW) campaigners will be in for a surprise when they mount their seventh annual hate fest this spring. Pro-Israel students on campuses are ready for them.
Over the past year, StandWithUs campus coordinators have worked closely with students to brainstorm about the responses that would be most effective on their campuses.
“Each campus climate is different,” explained StandWithUs co-founder and CEO Roz Rothstein. “A hard-hitting, aggressive response might work at one school but alienate students at another school. At some schools, students feel that materials highlighting Israel’s democracy and remarkable achievements would most influence the student body. Our philosophy is that the students usually know best about their campus climate, and they have many great ideas. Our mission on campuses is to empower students to educate their campus communities. We help them develop strategies, programs, and slogans for flyers and signs that we then produce, and we help with funding for speakers and other events. If they request a certain custom flyer or booklet, our graphics team designs and produces it.”
StandWithUs has a big arsenal of materials for students on any type of campus. There are hard-hitting educational flyers that cover topics ranging from terrorism to the life-saving purpose of the security fence, the facts about water, checkpoints, Hamas, and Israel’s peace efforts. Other materials underscore, in detail, why equating Israel with apartheid makes no sense. From the StandWithUs Web site, students can download signs with slogans such as “Israel We Stand With You,” “Israel Wants Peace,” and “The Fence Saves Lives.”
“We are especially proud of our three colorful booklets designed specifically for Apartheid Weeks. One graphically contrasts democratic Israel and apartheid South Africa. Another calls for ending the real apartheid that does exist in the Middle East: gender, religious, sexual, political, and racial apartheid. Anyone who reads this booklet would not be surprised by the eruptions occurring in the Middle East today,” said Rothstein. All may be found on the right-hand side of the homepage at www.standwithus.com.
The IAW’s campaigners’ goal is to marshal support for BDS—the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel. In response, StandWithUs produced a new video, “Say No to BDS” (www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifZLk6Ei9-U&feature=player_embedded), a brilliant exposé of the true purpose of BDS. The film has garnered thousands of views, and students will be able to make excellent use of it.
Addtionally, StandWithUs created a Web site specific to BDS: www.standwithus.com/BDS and a password-protected site filled with resources just for students: www.standwithus.com/divestment.
StandWithUs is also countering IAW with speaking tours. Last spring, SWU brought Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers to speak on campuses. They discussed their personal experiences with the moral code of the IDF. This spring, SWU is bringing to college campuses veteran Israeli diplomat Shahar Azani, who will address the changing tides in the Middle East and the hopes for democracy, and investigative journalist Joel Mowbray, who will review the impediments to peace in the Middle East, such as the radical ideology that exists there. Moreover, StandWithUs recently sponsored a campus tour of the documentary “U.N. ME” along with its director. The film exposes the broken promises and corruption rampant in the United Nations, and students had a chance to meet the director.
“All the tours are meant to pull the camera back and address timely issues that impact all those who dream of peace. We are visiting dozens of campuses and communities with these presentations,” affirmed Rothstein.
Anti-Israel speakers visit college campuses during IAW as well, so StandWithUs educates student leaders about the backgrounds of these numerous speakers, including Amir Abdel Malik-Ali, Hatem Bazian, and Alison Weir. “We are providing them with pointed questions to ask the speakers,” said Rothstein. Additionally, SWU has prepared flyers about the speakers for students to hand out.
Also on tour during IAW is the “Apartheid Wall,” an anti-Israel display that moves from campus to campus. At campuses where the wall will be on display, SWU is working with students to table near the wall, handing out specific flyers and StandWithUs materials that respond to the misinformation promoted on the wall.
StandWithUs’ seven campus coordinators provide support for students in their region, and they work closely with the StandWithUs Emerson Fellows. (In its fourth year, the StandWithUs Emerson Fellowship selects and trains 40 student leaders on 40 campuses in the U.S. and Canada to run Israel education events and combat anti-Israel rhetoric.) During IAW, the coordinators and Fellows help students counter the anti-Israel activities.
On campuses where there are few or no IAW events planned, students are taking the opportunity to put on proactive “Israel Peace Week” educational and cultural programming.
Some examples:
- UCLA students contacted StandWithUs to help develop flyers, signs, programming, and a full-page ad to run in the school newspaper on Thursday, Feb. 17, as IAW commenced, and again on Feb. 24. The ad read, “I Support the U.S.-Israel Relations” and was signed by 120 prominent student leaders. A contact e-mail was provided so interested students could follow-up. The students also countered the Apartheid Wall with materials and filmed the anti-Israel speakers.
- San Diego State University and UC San Diego’s SWU Emerson Fellows will utilize the same flyers developed specifically for UCLA to counter the Apartheid Wall. They will table and confront the IAW speakers, including Huwaida Arraf.
- Boston University’s StandWithUs Emerson Fellow will host an Israeli soldier the night before Noam Chomsky’s lecture in March. Additionally, two huge posters will be erected: a StandWithUs-produced one that advocates, “Teach Peace to Kids,” featuring an image of a bombed bus juxtaposed with an image of two kids with their arms around each other. Another poster focuses on the fact that 66 percent of Palestinians have a positive view of Israel’s democracy. The students will table at the Student Union, distributing different information every day about topics such as Hamas, coexistence, and the security barrier (on the day the Apartheid Wall is displayed). They will also hand out a “Piece of cake for peace” on Friday.
- At the University of Texas in Austin, the pro-Israel group is planning an Israeli Block Party with booths where StandWithUs materials about Israel’s technology, environmental innovations, and diversity will be available. The group is planning to cap the week with a film entitled “Faces of Israel.”
- At the University of Winnipeg, the StandWithUs Emerson Fellow is partnering with other campus groups for “In the Name of Democracy,” a week-long event beginning March 14 that focuses on democracy in the Middle East.
- At Case Western Reserve, pro-Israel students are bringing in Ivry Lider, a gay Israeli musician, to highlight Israel’s hip and vibrant arts scene.
- At UC Riverside, StandWithUs worked closely with Hillel to create a new pro-Israel group that will be guided by the StandWithUs West Coast campus coordinator as it works to counter the anti-Israel groups.
“One of the most heartening experiences we’ve had is what happened at UC Riverside,” recalled Rothstein. “We got a frantic call that IAW was starting there but that there was no pro-Israel student group. The Hillel director was trying to handle several campuses. So we sent four of our committed young staff members to visit the campus for three days. They set up a table opposite the IAW table. They distributed materials and trained students about how to respond to the lies. By the end of the three days, they had attracted over 40 students who want to start a pro-Israel group, including a Sri Lankan who said he personally knew about the horrors of terrorism. In this case, because we energetically responded, IAW ended up giving birth to a big and committed pro-Israel group. That certainly is not what they intended,” said Rothstein.
“The responses are as varied as the schools,” she added. “It is a pleasure to work with these pro-Israel students, whose energy, idealism, savvy, and belief in the justice of their cause prove that Israel can win hearts and minds on campuses. Our work helps them proactively educate and counter the lies and misinformation about Israel on campuses, underscoring why idealistic young people should support Israel. And we will continue to do everything we can to help empower those students.”
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Preceding provided by StandWithUs