March 12, 2009

In a long and disturbing article, the on-line magazine Inside Higher Ed describes the current pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian activity on college campuses. Like a similar article by JTA, it describes a growing sense of unease among pro-Israel activists about the other side’s rhetoric and tactics. At events like this month’s “Israeli Apartheid Week,” Israel’s critics are turning up the volume, staging emotional protests, pushing university divestment from companies that do business with Israel, and calling for cultural boycotts of Israel.

“I think it’s safe to say that we’ve seen a more shrill tone to much of the criticism of Israel,” said David A. Harris, executive director of Hillel’s Israel on Campus Coalition. “Whether it’s in the campus quad, whether it’s rallies with signs, whether it’s blog postings to articles in the campus press, whether it’s question-and-answer sessions at academic fora about Gaza or about American policy toward Israel, ... in all of these things we’ve noticed a trend — a reduction of civility of this dialogue, and that’s deeply troubling.”

Israel should not be immune from criticism, and Jewish kids should learn that university is a place to encounter difficult and even wrong-headed ideas. It would be a mistake to treat the challenge of anti-Israel activity as a matter of “self-defense.” Rather, it is an opportunity for empowerment. As was shown at Rutgers University just a few years back, the proper response to anti-Israel activity is education and organization. Various Jewish organizations are offering resources to help kids become better advocates for Israel. (NJJN’s teen blog, njjewishnews.com/nu/, describes their efforts in a regular advocacy feature called Nu Voices for Israel.)

If your college-age kids don’t know about these efforts, they should; if you believe campus life is somebody else’s responsibility, you shouldn’t. Colleges are a battleground of ideas, and students need the weapons to fight the good fight.

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