| Campus
Focus: An Interview with Neil Lazarus
In light of the rise of anti-Israel Propaganda on campus and
the violent attack on Jewish students attending a pro-Israel rally
in San Francisco State University, Behind the Headlines interviewed
Neil Lazarus, keynote speaker on Israel Advocacy, who has just returned
from visiting 40 campuses in the USA, where he spoke to Jewish students
and faculty.
BTH: What do you think about what has been happening
on campuses like SFSU?
Neil: Well, it shows what Martin
Luthur King said about the connection between Israel and anti Zionism
to be true: when people talk about Israel, they mean Jews.
I am more and more convinced that the anti-Zionist campaign is creating
an environment for Anti-Semitism. Events at San Francisco State
University and at least 5 other campuses prove my feelings are right!
BTH: What now? What should the students do?
Neil: Ironically, the violence
of the other side created an opportunity to take various paths of
action at SFSU.
Primarily, now is not the time to stand down, the incident must
not go unremarked. What we saw there was not expression of the right
to freedom of speech: it was Anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism should
never be tolerated, and especially not when it is funded from taxpayers'
money. That's also your Senator, your Congress representative, who
can even say so officially - provided you let them know and ask
them for a statement.
BTH: Isn't it a campus issue, rather than a political
one?
Neil: Students and faculty need
to address it both levels, the campus is also part of society and
the culture, and the Jewish community can handle most of the outside
implications, if mobilized. Indeed, they need to know and they have
a responsibility to act.
However, most of the real effort is going to fall upon the students
on campus.
I would suggest that the students check what action can be taken
against their school and then take it. Are there photographs, depositions
or statements of what happened to substantiate any such action?
The bottom line is: the apologies of the university are not sufficient
and they should acknowledge their responsibility.
They must be held accountable for their action in this case, where
they were responsible for the protection of Jewish students, or
any other democratic minority group of students, and they must take
action to prevent unreasonable and violent patterns of behaviour
- or enact sanctions against those who conduct themselves in this
manner.
BTH: What do you mean by action?
Neil: Whatever proves relevant
to the case. Investigation, legal action, maybe a complaint to the
Governors and/or Senate, the Chancellor... One school impeached
its Student Union for the activities they were constantly funding
and voting on the budget: inviting known racists and troublemakers
to the campus who were not students or reputable public speakers
- it depends on where you are and what applies.
BTH: Anything else?
Neil: Yes! A lot more. Become
activists... take the initiative. You have created a lot of support
here. Adopting "Stop racism on campus!"
as a banner will have a wide appeal and you will be able to create
a broad coalition. Don't forget what has happened in France and
Holland: this fomentation of Antisemitism should not go unnoticed,
if you want to prevent it gaining momentum.
BTH: Do you think it is the same?
Neil: Yes - and that is part
of the problem. In Europe, Jewish students are much more familiar
with dealing with anti-Semitism. For many students in the USA, it
is a new phenomenon.
As they say, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it
is a duck. What happened in San Francisco walked like Anti-Semitism,
talked like anti-Semitism and was Anti-Semitism!
The test is simple. On campus, do men feel more comfortable wearing
a baseball cap, or a Yarmulke? Do women students feel comfortable
wearing a Magen David (Star of David) on a necklace?
And we also come back to Martin Luther King's thesis once again.
BTH: You mention the word activism a lot: what
is it and why should students be activists?
Neil: Activism is about caring
and being involved. Historically, students have led the battle against
injustices worldwide. Students should be active because they have
the creativity and the passion to change a world that has been neglected
by the older generation.
· A generation ago, American and European Jewish students
led the Campaign for Soviet Jewry; others followed their example.
· Take, for example, the Israeli Student movement. They have
led the campaign to get Israeli Soldiers who are Missing In Action
(MIA) returned home. http://www.mia.org.il/
· WUJS, the World Union of Jewish Students, recently led
a campaign against Anti-Semitism and Islamic fundamentalism at the
summer 2001 UN meeting in Durban.
You can find more resources to counter this type of Anti-semitic
campaign on this website, too: http://www.jajz-ed.org.il/actual/zr/index.html
BTH: So where and how do you launch a student
campaign?
Neil: It is important to be
clear about aims and goals. If you want to lead, you need to have
a direction.
Before you do anything else, decide what your central political
message is.
Once this is done you need to find a handful of people who will
help you: leadership involves the guiding of others - you cannot
be successful alone, and you need a core group.
Around this core group, you need a constituency which will give
real support and be interested in the cause. It helps if these people
are not only students by the way! Try to get as broad based group
as you can, with involvement in different academic disciplines,
too.
Invite them to an opening meeting - with a guest speaker to give
input from experience.
Use the local Jewish community for resources, advice and speakers,
read up and hand out useful information in advance to as many people
as you can, as well as on the day.
There are online and offline resources on Anti-semitism and countering
Hate crimes from reputable organizations:
BTH: Aren't students going to say, "Not
more meetings?"
Neil: True, but if you don't
meet you can't plan, so that first meeting is crucial. Get it rolling
by advertizing a good speaker and a planing session. Your outline
plan of where you can go, what you can do will bring them to a second
meeting and so forth.
Focus on your purpose. Then ask yourself whom the campaign is targeted
at - there could be a number of target groups. The first objective
then is to set your target populations: whether the general public
- institutions, special interest targets (gay, ecological etc...),
or just people in the street.
You could decide to invite the media as well or local politicians
to an event you're working towards.
BTH: But where can I get good ideas from for
a campaign and events?
Neil: The best resource is
you. Brainstorm your overall approach with a few people and then,
at the second meeting bring in everyone's ideas, from the bizarre
to the obvious. It's really important to include all of these, before
you get tied down with practicalities! Remember the key to successful
brainstorming is to let everyone say what ideas they have and only
then decide what will really work.
Next, work out what resources you have easily accessible, and whom
you could approach as partners. So you need to set down names of
people who will help out, or provide you with things you need and
who will contact whom. Remember, you may have to raise money!
The next stage is to define the areas of responsibility between
yourselves and any other existing, or potential partner organizations,
where appropriate. Clearly define who does what and how you will
update each other, keep coordinated.
I then recommend setting timetables for campaign action. There
is only so much term time, and students want to see to what they
are committing.
BTH: What about some neat techniques for campaigning?
Neil: It's not a recipe which
works from one place to the next, and everyone's scope and talent
vary. The secret is creativity, trying something new with a local
twist.
A lot of what you do can combine well tested ideas, making it lively
and colorful, generating broader interest - but then you have to
come up with the right idea for your setting. Leaders are not frightened
to try!
Ideas could be: Power Point or slide presentations, films, music,
competitions (posters, drama, essays, and poetry), quizzes. Street
theater, Art exhibitions and music in streets, or malls; multi-cultural
street dancing (students, too); Billboard PR; Stickers and gimmicks;
PR stalls in malls; Travel agency material; Sign-up campaigns; Food
stalls, too: students eat and they like a social event!
Adapt from Planning a Campaign on our site: http://www.jajz-ed.org.il/hasbara/campaign.html
BTH: Can students really expect the Press and
Media to come?
Neil: Yes but you need to organize
IN ADVANCE. The press needs to know who to contact. The worst that
can happen is that the press will not turn up. That's why I suggest
sending out press releases for their use, whether they come or not.
Again, you need to approach the media with news items well ahead
of time and follow up afterwards, too. By the way, don't forget
radio as a good local and national option.
Press coverage and press conferences are OK, but to guarantee television
coverage, you really need to make the event visual. Remember - the
more unusual (not to say, outrageous) the material - the greater
the impact.
BTH: A very popular claim that we heard at San
Francisco and elsewhere is that Israel is racist and a comparison
of Zionism with Apartheid.
Neil: Let's start with the
question of what Apartheid really was - most students are simply
too young to remember it properly. It's rhetoric designed to attract
liberal, left-wing and black students into the anti-Israel camp.
Here is what The History Channel says:
"Apartheid [In Afrikaans it means separation], was the former
racist system of white supremacy established in South Africa. Apartheid
separated whites from nonwhites, and nonwhites - coloreds (persons
of mixed race), Asians (mainly of Indian ancestry), and Bantus (persons
of African ancestry) - from each other, and one indigenous African
group from another."
[It may have been termed "separate development" by the
RSA Government, but the bantustans (homelands) for the African ethnic
groups, who constituted 75% of the country's population, and which
established on about 14% of the country's land, were not suitable
for an agricultural economy and lacked capital investment, or infrastructure.
In the homelands, however, Africans had some rights; elsewhere,
they did not have freedom of residence, occupation, or the vote.]
So, when you compare facts and not rhetoric, it is easy to show
how ridiculous the claim is in terms of Israel's laws and society:
BTH: Where is there more information on this?
Neil: There is an official
Israeli statement on the claim Zionism is Racism and there are other
background and developmental materials online:
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The Conclusion of the Durban Conference - Comments by Israeli
leaders and officials:
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Educational resources and discussion series:
http://www.jajz-ed.org.il/actual/zr/index.html
BTH: There are a whole stack of allegations against
Israel that students hear every day, can we go into some of them?
For example, the claim that Sharon does not want peace and that
Israel is a block to peace.
Neil: This claim is laughable
in terms of substance, but it is deliberately designed to deligitimize
any Israeli leader and the existence of Israel, too. As far as peace
intentions go, the then Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, offered the
Palestinians 95 per cent of the West Bank and a far-reaching compromise
on Jerusalem. Arafat rejected the offer.
BTH: So, if we don't go forward, we move backwards?
Neil: Absolutely. In response
to Camp David, the Palestinians made a deliberate choice to pursue
violence - and this preference over negotiation was clearly explained
in the Palestinian media.
On December 6, 2000, the semi-official Palestinian daily Al-Ayyam
reported as follows:
"Speaking at a symposium in Gaza, Palestinian Minister of
Communications, Imad Al-Falouji, confirmed that the Palestinian
Authority had begun preparations for the outbreak of the current
Intifada from the moment the Camp David talks concluded, this in
accordance with instructions given by Chairman Arafat himself.
Mr. Falouji went on to state that Arafat launched this Intifada
as a culminating stage to the immutable Palestinian stance in the
negotiations, and was not meant merely as a protest of Israeli opposition
leader Ariel Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount."
BTH: They also claim Settlements are a block
to Peace?
Neil: This claim denies any
religious and historical claim of Jews to the land, despite the
fact that Jewish settlement in West Bank and Gaza Strip territory
has existed from time immemorial. There are different political
views about their priority, necessity, desirability and so forth,
but there was all-out war against Israel before the Six Day War,
so the settlements are not the cause of problems in the Peace Process.
Just for the record: some Jewish settlements, such as in Hebron,
existed throughout the centuries of Ottoman rule.
Other communities and blocs, such as Neve Ya'akov, (north of Jerusalem,)
the Gush Etzion bloc in Judea, the communities north of the Dead
Sea and Kfar Darom in the Gaza region, were established on land
purchased by the Jewish National Fund under the British Mandatory
administration - prior to the establishment of the State of Israel.
[See Jerusalem Map http://www.jajz-ed.org.il/100/MAPS/jerusalem2000.html
]
BTH: You're not saying all the settlements share
this status?
Neil: No, but I am saying that
this claim is linked to the deliberate delegitimization of any Jewish
claims to land and the rejection of the basis for Israel's right
to exist. To be sure, many Israeli settlements have been established
on sites, which were home to Jewish communities in previous generations,
in an expression of the Jewish people's deep historic and religious
connection with the land. Israel, however, has been willing to concede
most of the land under dispute.
It's a smoke screen for other issues. http://www.idf.il/idf_in_pictures/hasata/hasata_eng.stm
Recommended Reading and References
SFSU president acts to combat anti-Semitism on campus
http://www.jpost.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=JPost/A/JPArticle/Full&cid=1021813218404
Like Wow, by Michael Graham, Usual Suspects, Columbia Free
Times: A reporter's inside view on the real messages at a "pro-Palestinan"
rally and the questions he dared to ask - try them! http://www.free-times.com/Usual%20Suspects/suspects042402.html
Radical Islam vs Academic Freedom http://www.frontpagemagazine.com/guestcolumnists2002/alexander04-29-02.htm
ADL Listing of campus incidents
http://www.adl.org/campus/campus_incidents.asp
and How to Combat Hate on http://www.adl.org/
The Israel Divestment campaign: cornered at Harvard and MIT,
but continuing at U Michigan and in the U California system
http://www.chicagojewishnews.com/features.jsp#22757
Laurie Zoloth [SFSU] writes http://frontpagemag.com/guestcolumnists2002/zoloth05-13-02.htm
Points To Ponder
* What do read into the prevarications presented in the first
linked article?
* What legal and community resources were and can and should
be explored before convening a rally?
* How can anti-Hate resources and Hate crime knowledge be helpful?
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