Pro-Israel students at 75 universities across the US and Canada are participating in “Israel peace Week” from Feb. 26 until March 9, 2012. The grassroots initiative has “a simple, positive message according to organizers: Israel wants peace and has demonstrated its willingness to make painful sacrifices for peace.”
The effort has been designed to counter widespread campus anti-Zionism and “Israel Apartheid Week,” which pictures Israel as an enemy to peace. The campaign outlines options for peace, existential threats to the Jewish state, and the values and accomplishments of a thriving Israeli democracy in an otherwise despotic region.
Natalie Menaged is a key person in the campaign as she was active in the training of Jewish student organizers for "Israel peace week." As education director of the Hasbara Fellowships, she says the idea of "Israel peace week" - is "to engage the people in the middle, not the anti-Israel movement." The campus organizers vary, and in many instances are a combination of Jewish and non-Jewish students, who developed the concepts of the event on their own. IPW has developed into a proactive and engaging campaign that is effective regardless of whether there is anti-Israel activity on a specific campus.
(Picture above: University of Pennsylvania freshmen Kevin Beckoff and Haviva Garrett hand out pro-Israel flyers and kosher cookies as part of "Israel Peace Week.)
IPW organizers employ methods such as interactive displays in the center of campus, cultivating relationships with non-Jewish groups on campus, writing in the campus newspaper, and innovative social media campaigns in order to educate as many of their peers as possible.
A “Faces of Israel” panel of Israelis will discuss their stories about life in Israel. There will be 100 Israelis split into 20 groups that will participate in conferences and panels, as well as speak directly to college students. The participants were chosen to show that Israel has a diverse society that values equality and human rights and include settlers, Arabs, artists, experts in national security, gay people, and immigrants from Ethiopia. The participants have undergone several weeks of training at the Public Diplomacy Ministry and will be expected to explain to students that they are all Israelis who come from different walks of life, yet choose to remain in Israel.
A film will also be available: “Israel Inside: How a Small Nation Makes a Big Difference.” The 55-minute film is hosted by Dr. Tal Ben Shahar, who avoids politics and instead explores achievements of Israeli society with stories of how Israelis resilience has propelled Israel to the forefront of world innovation and progress in the fields of science, environment, medicine and technology.
Shahar explores the core character strengths of Israel – called “actualizers” – that enable Israelis to succeed against incredible odds. These are deep-seated values such as education, family and responsibility to the world (a Jewish concept known as ‘tikkun olam’). You can see a 3 minute trailer for the movie by pressing here.
Other activities on campuses will include Israel’s options for peace in view of existential threats to the Jewish state, and participants will explore the values and accomplishments of a thriving Israeli democracy in the volatile Middle East that is dominated by autocrats.
For the most part, the established pro-Israeli community hasn't figured out the best way to deal with “Israel Apartheid Week,” and so they opt to ignore it. The one exception is Hasbara Fellowships. In 2010, a group of pro-Israel student leaders trained by Hasbara Fellowships created Israel Peace Week in an effort to educate their peers on campus about Israel's efforts for peace. The founders were Arielle Adler, Boston University, Jonathan Dress, University of Cincinnati, Brooke Katz, Johns Hopkins University, and Anna Richlin, University of Rochester.
In 2010, its first year, the program reached 28 campuses in the US and three in Australia. In 2011, Israel advocates at 50 universities organized events, and for the year 2012, at least 75 campuses are expected to participate.
Hasbara Fellowships provides print materials, films and speakers, if requested. Hasbara Fellowships Staff provides preparatory meetings and support, as well as activism training. Materials are available including posters, postcards, pamphlets, interactive activities, and movies. For more information, visit the "Israel Peace Week" website.
Organizer Natalie Menaged believes that this approach has proved successful. "At places like Berkeley or Rutgers University or Carleton University (Ottawa), which have a history of anti-Israel activity, supporters of Israel have been able to change the conversation to one about what needs to be done for peace. And at the majority of schools, which don't have a lot of anti-Israel activity - schools like Boston University, University of Illinois, Ohio State University, Johns Hopkins University - it is an excellent way to start the conversation", she says.
Natalie Menaged is the director of education of the Hasbara Fellowships, a project of Aish International, which trained the Jewish student organizers of the "Israeli peace week." Since 2006, Natalie Menaged has been on the management team.
Natalie was a participant on the very first Hasbara Fellowships and was the founder and president of Gators for Israel at the University of Florida. She was extensively involved in university and state politics, as well as the Jewish community, during her time at UF.
The Menaged family recently moved to Israel to join the Israel XP program at Bar-Ilan University, where they look forward to continuing their work in Jewish education and Israel advocacy.
Natalie Menaged points out that most refer to 'pro-Palestinian activists’ when describing the organizers of “Israel Apartheid Week.” But these aggressive people are anti-Israel, not pro-Palestinian." "I have yet to see them organize a national campaign to teach about Palestinian culture or plans for peace. They are only interested in propagating hatred of Israel.
In stark contrast to Israel Peace Week, the main thrust of “Israel Apartheid Week,” is to generate support for the “Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions” movement, a campaign that calls on universities and individuals to divest from companies that do business in Israel, boycott the sale of goods produced in West Bank settlements, and boycott Israeli universities and professors. By singling Israel out for censure and advocating for a one-state solution, BDS is not a simply a movement to criticize Israeli policy, but an effort to delegitimize the state itself.
The students who created Israel Peace Week intuited that their peers could be engaged with messages about peace and how to achieve it. By propagating a solution-oriented message, Israel Peace Week lends wider understanding to the efforts Israel has made for peace and the reality that terror and incitement must be eradicated to bring about a true solution. It is an opportunity for pro-Israel students to discuss difficult topics in a resonant manner.
The schedule of campus activities at the University of Rochester in 2011 provides a good example of what goes on during Israel Peace Week.
There was an Israel Peace Train (a night of free falafel and Israeli music), and Shabbat services at the Rochester Chabad House. A movie screening of the pro-Israel film “Relentless: The Struggle for Peace in the Middle East.” The movie used primary source clips to examine the history of the Mideast conflict and to explain how the Peace process unraveled in a surge of violence. A 7’ 27” promo of the film can be seen by pushing here.
Perhaps the most attention-grabbing event during Israel Peace Week at Rochester was the lecture by the economist Dan Senor, co-author of the book “Start Up Nation: The Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle.” The lecture had several school officials in attendance, along with a portion of the student body. After UR President Joel Seligman offered a brief introduction, Senor’s lecture covered the economic state of Israel and his perceptions of the economy versus the political intricacies of the country, focusing on Israel as an economic power in the world at large.
Anna Richlin, co-founder of Israel Peace Week at the University of Rochester, commented: It is not the provocation of thought that the organizers of Israel Peace Week fear, rather, the absence of thought and political apathy that are widespread through all college communities. Israel Peace Week seeks to combat apathy. “A big goal of mine with Israel Peace Week is to just spread the message and get people to care.” “Because, if you learn one positive thing about Israel that you didn’t know before, and you begin to care about that one positive thing, that makes all the difference in the world.”
Further Reading:
Report finds anti-Semitism on American university campuses and Anti-Israel indoctrination
Jessica Felber loses her fight in the courts against anti-Semitism at UC Berkeley
Dr. Charles Jacobs fights Islamic extremist hatred in America
Rachel Fish fights the radical Islamization of University Middle East Studies Programs in America
Christian Students in CUFI fighting hatred on American University campuses
