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March 14, 2008
Israel program sparks debate
Zionist club clashes with other campus groups at UBC.
ALLEGRA LEVY
The University of British Columbia Israel Awareness Club (IAC), run by co-presidents Sam Heller and Keta Kruse, created this year's Israel Awareness Week to educate UBC students and staff about Israel. Heller described their goals for the week as "apolitical," and designed to be fun. Together with Hillel programming director Katie Quinn and Hillel staff member Jeff Bradshaw, they presented a week of events and programs designed to show culture and history, not just headlines.
March 3 kicked off the four-day event, which included an Israeli-style hot lunch, movie screenings in the Norm Theatre, week-long tabling in the Student Union Building (SUB), and a huge Shabbat dinner hosted by Schara Tzedeck. Turnouts improved daily throughout the week despite what Heller called, "one of the worst years for student involvement," he has ever seen. By the end of the week, however, it was clear that low involvement did not mean low interest.
At the IAC booth, there was obvious tension between the Zionist community and other campus organizations. Although Israel has, in the past, enjoyed student support, they are now tarred with the brush of "occupying force," and their ties to the United States make them unpopular on a campus. The focus of the week was getting people to stop and think critically, to open their minds and, as Heller said, to get people to say, "Wow, there is something else going on there; it's not just what you see in the media, it's not just what you hear everybody always talking about - this many people dead, that many people dead, the army doing this, the military doing that."
The IAC was created as an arena for understanding Zionism and for discovering ways of promoting reconciliation. Heller's issue was not with protesters or social activism, he said, but with the blind anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism that leave no room for wavering confidence.
"I believe in the state of Israel, I believe in the self determination of the Jewish people," he said.
To counter students' criticism, the IAC has equipped its members with information to argue effectively. Some students, for example, declined Israeli snacks because they try to boycott Israeli products. So IAC members offered to relieve one student of her Intel Pentium PC and her cellphone, as both of those have parts and engineering that likely came from Israel.
Although the first two days of programming fell under the shadow of angry protest, by Thursday, the mood had lightened considerably. More people were volunteering for setup and cleanup, conversation flowed all day at the SUB booth, and, perhaps because it was the day that included the most food, Hillel House was full of cheerful fraternity brothers, students and professors, construction workers and Hillel staff members who gathered in front of the house for a kosher barbeque. Discussion focused on areas of conflict, and staff and students brainstormed ways to effect change in the Middle East.
Many took a less light-hearted approach to the discord. This year, Israel Awareness Week followed Israeli Apartheid Week on the Alma Mater Society calendar, a grim reminder of the position of Israel in the eyes of many student organizations. It faced opposition from multiple groups on campus, not limited to those with Middle Eastern ties. Last week, the IAC was forced to call SUB security to help calm members of the Wreath Underground, a left-wing student activist organization that specializes in targeted vandalism against the authority of the university. Their representatives approached the IAC display to distribute anti-Israel flyers and to spark heated debate. Heller welcomed them for discussion and encouraged debate, but was deeply unappreciative of their hateful literature.
"The nature of [that] club is that [they] have people with very different political opinions," he said. "How do you reconcile that?"
The on-campus events culminated in a small panel discussion featuring Canadian students Freeman Poritz and Eyal Levy who discussed their experiences as soldiers in the Israeli army. The men, youthful, eloquent and passionate, each spoke about the strange nature of being involved in a struggle for the right to exist. They also shared one sentiment in particular: no regrets. They took pride in their actions and the choices of their units and showed a distinct respect for the Israeli army, its policies and its rules of engagement. When asked whether or not he feels disturbed about his choices in action, Levy said, "I sleep well at night." He also emphasized the ability of the media to distort reality and the ability of reality to form itself around the media.
Allegra Levy is a Vancouver freelance writer.
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