In the wake of Operation Pillar of Defence, pro-Israel organizations across North America have worked to ensure Israel is portrayed in a fair light. The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs is one of Canada’s key players in providing advocacy support for campuses across Canada. The man behind these efforts on these college campuses is Dylan Hanley.
Hanley is one of the loudest pro-Israel voices on Canadian college campuses. He travels the country encouraging others to support the cause. He also runs the Israel Young Leaders Program (IYLP), which takes young, politically engaged non-Jews to Israel to learn about Israeli politics, history, culture, social issues and the Arab-Israeli conflict.
But, once upon a time, Hanley was a vocal opponent of Israel. His former stance, he said, stemmed from his involvement in social-justice causes, until a professor inspired a change of heart.
When Hanley began his studies at the University of Calgary in 2000, he said he hadn’t formed an opinion on the Israel-Palestinian conflict; in fact, he had no interest in it until he spent some time in Seattle during his undergraduate studies. As a political science major, he became active in the anti-globalization movement, which, he said, led to his introduction to anti-Israel activism.
When he returned to Calgary, Hanley worked with Students 4 Palestine, a small group that led campus protests, and he attended anti-Israel lectures.
“I was quite vitriolic in my criticism of Israel,” Hanley said of that time.
Today, when he looks back on his involvement in the anti-Israel movement, Hanley believes that he “was exposed to a distorted narrative that capitalized on my desire to do good.” That is significant, he added, because it is this desire that attracts many to the cause.
“For example, anti-Israel groups display photos of dead children, or women being searched at a checkpoint, for the express purpose of pushing emotional buttons,” he said, adding that the discussion often lacks any effort to put the images in context.
This approach is not unique to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Hanley noted. “The fact is, when people see a protest against injustice anywhere, do they thoroughly research the political context and history first? Not usually. They join the protest. And that is how the anti-Israel movement attracts people.”
Ironically, his change of heart began in a class taught by a Jordanian professor who was openly critical of Israel. He assigned Hanley to write a paper on former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon, who, said Hanley, they both believed was a “monster.” However, upon the presentation of his paper, the professor sent it back for revisions because it lacked adequate scholarly sources.
“My paper was, admittedly, based primarily on extreme websites and propagandistic literature, rather than real historical sources,” Hanley acknowledged.
He went to the library where he found Sharon’s autobiography, Warrior. It was his first exposure to the Zionist narrative. “I finally began to understand the mistruths being put forward by the anti-Israel movement,” he said.
Later that year, Hanley took a course with visiting professor Alan Dowty from the University of Notre Dame. Dowty had many Jewish and Arab students in his class, and his class was seen as presenting a balanced approach to the issues. For Hanley, the course changed his mind about his politically extreme friends, who “had either been lying to me, or were profoundly uneducated about the issues they were so vocal about.”
After graduating in 2005, Hanley went on to do a master’s degree in Israel studies at the University of Calgary, where he studied Zionist philosophy, Palestinian nationalism and regional security. In 2006, he participated in the March of Remembrance and Hope (a college-age program of March of the Living), which brought non-Jewish undergraduates to Germany and Poland to learn about the Holocaust. This experience resulted in his involvement in the IYLP, which he now runs, and his job with CIJA.
Today, Hanley said, he “stands with Israel,” but judges each issue with care before determining his views. He prides himself on maintaining a high level of knowledge and awareness both of current and historical issues, and feels that a nuanced approach should come with the territory.
“When I speak to audiences throughout Canada and the U.S., I always stress the need for more education,” he said. “For universities, it’s about offering courses and programming that gives students the basic facts in an unbiased manner.”
Hanley, who is not Jewish, does not expect non-Jewish students to become “flag-waving Zionists,” but he wants them to develop an understanding of how Israel can be relevant to non-Jewish audiences, especially those who will never become interested in the conflict. According to him, “it is critical to ensuring that the pro-Israel movement does not fall into the trap of becoming an echo-chamber by only preaching to the choir.”
In recent weeks, Hanley has been amping up his efforts. “In crisis situations like the [recent] one, we act to support Hillels and pro-Israel groups across Canada through sharing of information, crafting messaging, monitoring and tracking the situation on campuses across Canada, and ensuring that responses to anti-Israel events and protests on campuses are conducted strategically, and that they ensure the safety of all Jewish students across Canada,” he said.
Hanley and his team have also been conducting an intensive social media campaign, as a means for Jewish and pro-Israel students to get the message out among their peers.
Hanley, who now serves as the associate director of university relations at CIJA, can be reached at dhanley@cija.ca.
Alexandra Markus is an intern-reporter for Israel Campus Beat and a senior at McGill University. She is majoring in physiology and minoring in English and the social studies of medicine.