The Palestine Solidarity Movement at Ohio State University
Israel's friendship with the United States is key to Israel's ability to survive in an increasingly anti-Semitic, anti-Western world. Thus, anything that undermines the U.S.-Israel relationship should be taken seriously.
Anti-Israel rallies on American campuses can affect the opinions of young Americans who are not well informed about Israel and the situation in the Middle East. These college students have voting power and the potential to become leaders in the world's most powerful country.
Anti-Israel Offense
As a former Buckeye (born and raised in Ohio), articles about the upcoming (November 7-9, 2003) conference of the Palestine Solidarity Movement (PSM) at Ohio State University caught my attention.
PSM's first conference was held at the University of California at Berkeley and its second at the University of Michigan.
The main item on the group's conference agenda is to convince the university to divest from all investments in Israel. Divestment is among the most controversial steps in the arsenal of anti-Israel activism. Modeled on successful efforts in the 1980s to get universities to divest their holdings in apartheid South Africa, today's anti-Israel divestment campaigns compare Israel to South Africa.
Nahla Saleh, an O.S.U. graduate student and spokesperson for the PSM conference, says her group does not have an answer to the political crisis in Israel, but “ we think Israel is in violation of international law because they are running their country under an apartheid system. The apartheid that is a part of Zionism is inherently racist.”
Other guiding principles of the PSM — which do not include peace with Israel — are “the full decolonization of all Palestinian land”; the “recognition and implementation of the right of return” for Palestinian refugees and their descendants; and “an end to the Israeli system of apartheid and discrimination against the indigenous Palestinian population.”
Pro-Israel Defense
Jewish organizations call the PSM conference a hatefest.
At the second PSM Conference held at the University of Michigan, delegates chanted “Kill the Jews.” In addition, PSM fliers promoting past conferences featured Sami Al-Arian, a Palestinian professor at the University of South Florida who has been arrested for activity on behalf of groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Jewish leaders denounce the group's apartheid propoganda.
“Comparing Israel to South Africa is ridiculous. Israel is a democratic country where one million Israeli Arabs have the right to vote. Those rights are even unheard of anywhere in the Arab World,” said Scott Chait of Amcha, The Coalition for Jewish Concerns.
“Using the term apartheid is a lot of propaganda and plays off people’s emotions. It is not factually true to say that Israel is an apartheid state and using that language is a way to distort the fact,” said Rabbi Howard Zack, spiritual leader of the Main Street Synagogue in Columbus and president of the Columbus Board of Rabbis.
The Best Defense is a Good Offense
In researching this topic, reports of PSM's success in past conferences to influence public opinion on campus and mixed reviews of the success of pro-Israel groups on campus to counteract this damage concerned me.
Then I found a growing amount of material online to help pro-Israel groups on campus become better advocates for Israel.
Top Three Sources
of Material for Israel Advocacy on Campus
Hillel
- Take Action on Campus
Hillel
- On Campus Advocacy Tools
Israel on Campus
Coalition - Resources
One of the main
messages in the material was that pro-Israel groups need to proactively make
the case for Israel. Instead of defending Israel and arguing about specific
facts, advocates for Israel should reframe the debate to emphasize Israel’s
long history of democracy, peace and resistance to terror.
Israel advocacy
on campus is a difficult task - for Americans, who in general are not personally
touched on a day-to-day basis by events in Israel, and for American college
students, who are often focused on their own individual futures off-campus.
Only if we understand that Israel advocacy on campus can affect the opinions
of America's voters today and leaders tomorrow, which in turn can affect Israel's
ability to survive in an increasingly hostile world, will we have the motivation
to get this difficult job done.
Sources:
The
Costs of Jewish Living: Revisiting Jewish Involvements and Barriers
by
Gerald B. Bubis
Ohio´s
Israel advocates prepare for Palestinian solidarity gathering
by Tami Kamin Meyer
Campus
confrontation looms: Protest planned for pro-Palestinian forum
by Joanne Palmer
Jewish
groups coordinate efforts to help students ‘take back campus’
by Rachel Pomerance
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