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Op-Ed: Fighting the new divestment effort on campus

By Wayne L. Firestone · May 6, 2010

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- The efforts of anti-Israel activists to pass divestment resolutions at the University of California, San Diego and University of California, Berkeley are troubling developments, but not for the reasons their proponents are proclaiming. These resolutions -– thwarted by pro-Israel students on campus in both cases -– hold little practical impact and likely would be overturned on technical grounds if they should ever win passage. Nevertheless, the pro-Israel community must take these measures seriously for their potential to demonize Israel and foster anti-Israel sentiment on campus.

This isn't the first time in recent history that the openness of the campus has drawn the attention of divestment forces. In the fall of 2001, a self-proclaimed divestment movement announced plans to stage a conference at UC Berkeley in response to the outbreak of the second intifada a year earlier. Although the conference was postponed to the spring in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the efforts launched a six-year effort to turn the presumed local conference into a national phenomenon by staging it in subsequent years at the University of Michigan, Rutgers, Ohio State, Duke and Georgetown. Considerable media attention and resources in Jewish and campus press were devoted to these efforts.

The pro-Israel community learned several lessons from this anti-Israel campaign -- first and foremost that it was neither about divestment nor was it a movement.

The so-called divestment movement was not about economic sanctions but was a cunning attempt by marginal groups on campus to drum up publicity by comparing today’s Israel with yesterday’s apartheid South Africa. Divestment has been a thinly veiled effort to delegitimize and demonize Israel. Then as now, these groups have no reasonable chance of affecting university investment policy.

Yesterday’s divestment movement was destined to fail because it was not truly an organic, authentic movement of local students, faculty or trustees. Divestment conferences of the past featured off-campus speakers and participants from anarchist, far left and anti-Israel groups who flew in for the occasion. Local students, faculty and staff looked on with amazement and chagrin as national radical hotheads hijacked their campuses for a weekend and moved on. Other guerrilla tactics of the era, like mock “checkpoints,” were met with similar shame, bemusement and embarrassment. At the University of Virginia, the student newspaper cried shame and editorialized that such conduct had no place in the birthplace of Jeffersonian democracy.

Today’s divestment movement is different. The divestment movement is no longer seeking to hijack the campus; it wants to hijack the student government. Organizers are using the tools of democracy to lobby their student government representatives to sponsor and support anti-Israel measures. What may seem like a simple, pro-forma, sense-of-the-senate resolution to an unsuspecting college legislator has profound symbolic significance for friends of Israel on campus.

The only way to combat these efforts is to strengthen the efforts of the tens of thousands of pro-Israel students on campus who have participated in a Taglit-Birthright Israel trip or another similar program. At Berkeley and San Diego, anti-divestment activity was mobilized immediately with the collaboration of a Hillel Jewish Agency for Israel fellow, the Jewish
Community Relations Council, the Israel Consulate and myriad pro-Israel organizations in the Israel on Campus Coalition. The day before the Berkeley vote, the Israel fellow on campus had worked with other campus groups to sponsor a high-level seminar on Israeli democracy featuring renowned Israeli jurist Ruth Gavison.

Moving forward, three specific strategies should help guide our response to the new divestment movement:

* Student empowerment: This is a battle that needs to be fought and won locally. Off-campus groups should resist the temptation for uncoordinated fly-ins that undermine local efforts or send signals to the students that they cannot or should not take ownership of this issue.

* Coalition building: Israel delegitimization is not a battle the Jewish students should fight alone. It has been heartening at several AIPAC policy conferences to see hundreds of non-Jewish student government presidents who are publicly associated with the pro-Israel movement.

* Israel’s brand: Israel’s friends on campus cannot abandon efforts to promote Israel’s remarkable success as a high-tech democracy, a “start-up nation.” We must continue to represent the true Israel as a country that shares America’s Western values and contributes to the world in a variety of fields, not the least of which are industry, medicine and the arts.

This campaign presents Hillel and the pro-Israel community with an opportunity to continue to educate the campus about the true face of Israel. We cannot sit by idly as anti-Israel activists undermine Israel’s position among the future leaders of this nation. We cannot be silent as a central tenet of Jewish identity is defamed.

With only a few weeks left in this school year, it is unlikely that a specific divestment effort will succeed. However, it is important for the community to recognize the seriousness of the warning signs from this year, to support student empowerment and training, and to be prepared to fight next year’s as opposed to last year’s battle.

(Wayne L. Firestone is the president and CEO of Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life.)

More than 250 students from Utah Valley University and Brigham Young University attended a program featuring Daniel Gordis, Senior Vice President of the Shalem Center in Jerusalem and author of the book Saving Israel. Gordis spoke about Israel's importance in the Middle East and the current threats that face both Israel and the West. UVU student David Smith said, "We feel that the event impacted the campus community by raising awareness of some of the critical issues surround Israel and the Middle East." Israel Campus Coalition and The Leadership Institute cosponsored the event.

I wanted to share Yoni Mann's (a Campus Fellow from 2009) thoughts about Israel sentiment on college campuses:

Moving forward has been a common theme on my mind lately. When two little kids don’t get along and get in an argument, usually one blames the other and whines “but he started it!” There comes a point when the parent tells the two kids “I don’t care who started it, put your differences aside and move forward.” Since when have accusations and blame solved anything? The African-Americans had every reason to blame and hold resentment toward White people. African-Americans were fighting for equality and civil rights. They were essentially fighting for their independence. They could have resorted to violence and ruckus, but instead they resorted to incitement of peace and understanding. The African-American civil rights movement was about moving forward and not about holding a grudge.

Why then, on college campuses throughout the U.S. and Canada is the “Pro-Palestinian” movement focused on delegitimizing the Jewish state of Israel? Why is the “Pro-Palestinian” movement on campuses focused on hate and violence? Why isn’t the movement focused on peace and moving forward? Why isn’t it focused on promoting civil rights and democratic values in the Palestinian-controlled Gaza Strip and the West Bank to improve the quality of life for Palestinian Arabs? A common chant within these “Pro-Palestinian” groups on campuses is “Death to Israel. Death to Zionism” — Sounds like one heck of a peace movement to me. If this “Pro-Palestinian” movement truly supported civil rights and equality, then why are they not condemning human and civil rights abuses in Iran and other Middle Eastern countries where you can be legally executed for being gay? The movement goes as far as equating Zionism, the national movement for a homeland for the Jewish people, with Nazism, the genocidal brutal oppressive dictatorship that degraded and murdered over 6,000,000 Jews and 5,000,000 Blacks, Homosexuals, Gypsies, and many other minorities.

I am Jewish, yet I am Pro-Palestinian, Pro-Israel, and Pro-Peace. As a Jew and Israeli, I am sickened by and tired of these personal attacks and accusations on the general Jewish and Israeli populations. I support the right of self-determination for the Palestinian Arabs and I also support their right to freedom of speech, freedom of the press, human rights, civil rights, and thriving living conditions just as I support the right for Israelis to live in peace and security in a Jewish-majority state. The Palestinian Arabs also have a legitimate claim to the land. Both sides can go back and forth and accuse each other saying “you stole my land; it was my land first; the British controlled the land; you stole my camels.” You don’t see the pro-Israel movement on campuses saying “death to Palestinians” but rather “Let’s make peace with the Palestinians” and “Let’s coexist.”

The African-American civil rights movement had the right idea: incite peace and not hate, promote understanding and not violence, move forward and not backward. I call on both sides to stop pointing fingers at one another like two little kids in an argument and move forward. Move forward for civil rights. Move forward for human rights. Move forward for prosperity. Move forward for democracy. Move forward for a safer future for both Israeli and Palestinian children. Move forward for peace.

Hi Everyone,

I just got back from Jewlicious – it was AWESOME!  There were a lot of cool Jewish musicians including Matisyahu and great sessions dealing with contemporary Jewish topics.  Go to Jewlicious.com to find out more.  Here’s a picture of me tabling.

We have a lot going on at The David Project right now.  Follow these links to find out more:

Israel BUYcott - This is a great new website that encourages purchasing Israeli products!

Campus Fellows

Apartheid Materials

Student Grants

Also, I am going to San Francisco Hillel on March 5^th to talk with students about activism and the Apartheid accusation.  I will then be traveling to Utah on March 10^th to hear Daniel Gordis speak. Check out his latest book, Saving Israel.

Hi Everyone,

This is my blog.  I will be putting my trips on the calendar to the right, so if I am in your area and you want to get in touch, let me know.  I will use this space to give updates about what I'm doing/what's going on on the West Coast, so let me know if I should add anything.  Check out my calendar - there are a lot of things coming up, specifically in the California area.

Your West Coast Coordinator,

Jason Oifer