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September 6, 2002
Ideas from the town hall
LORNE BALSHINE SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN
The conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Authority has been
a permanent component of the daily news in the North American media
for a long time. In recent months, the media has conveyed more pro-Palestinian
sentiments and has shown a bias against Israel, according to a message
delivered at the fourth Town Hall meeting at the Jewish Community
Centre of Greater Vancouver Aug. 21.
More than 200 people attended the meeting to hear guest speaker
Judy Lash Balint talk on media bias and to discuss how to help Israel
today in her "high crises" period.
Israel wants peace and the Arabs want Israel, said Balint, a Jerusalem-based
journalist and author of Jerusalem Diaries: In Tense Times.
If the Arabs put their weapons down, there will be peace, but if
Israel puts its weapons down, there will be no Israel, she said,
adding that these are the messages that need to be delivered to
the Middle America public.
Balint suggested several different ways to deliver these messages
and emphasized the importance of speaking out to the media and supporting
students on campuses. Following her initial presentation, the audience
split into groups for roundtable discussions. At the end of the
meeting each group shared their thoughts on each issue, as did Balint.
The points and ideas raised at the meeting focused on three areas:
ways to speak out to the media, politicians, forums, etc.; ways
of combating anti-Israel bias on campuses and in high schools; and
ways to reach out to the non-Jewish community.
Spreading the message
Among the suggestions that Balint put forward with respect to getting
pro-Israel messages out to the public were to take media personalities
to Israel and to establish a community liaison with local Vancouver
media personalities.
From the audience break-away groups, there was a strong feeling
that Jews need to change the public's perception that the Palestinians
are the underdogs. Since there are only 13 million Jews in the world,
it was suggested, Jews are really the minority or underdog. Other
suggestions included sponsoring speakers and films to educate people
on the origins of the conflict, lobbying the international community
to try and stop the ongoing Palestinian and Muslim teaching in schools
of hatred against Israel and Jews, preparing a one-page fact sheet
to hand out to people and media, and encouraging local rabbis to
speak out more and be more political on the High Holidays.
The Israel Action Committee Web site was suggested as an educational
tool to assist people who want to petition politicians and write
letters to the media.
Concerns on campuses
Balint addressed the issue of Palestinian groups on North American
campuses and how to combat the information that's being disseminated
by them.
"We must find interested students on campuses and not rely
on Hillel," she said, adding that a good idea would be to organize
a "teach-in" on campuses, where speakers would include
resource people from Israel or New York.
Balint added that organizing interviews on campus radio stations,
meeting with influential Jews who are active in the arts and politics
and asking them to exercise their influence could also be effective.
Most members of the audience agreed that anti-Semitic campus activities
were a grave concern. They suggested providing information in student
newspapers, glossy posters for the campuses and a 30-second sound
bite for radio stations as educational tools, as well as organizing
seminars about Israel.
Reaching the non-Jews
In discussions about how to reach the non-Jewish community, several
suggestions were forthcoming, including:
providing Christian groups with information on Israel at
a grassroots level leaflets, videos, films, speakers, etc.
inviting the involvement of influential non-Jews, such as
Rev. Bernice Girard and former B.C. minister Grace MacDonald, to
"fight ignorance."
organizing educational missions to Israel.
creating travel assistance programs for non-Jewish people
to send them to Israel, either for free, with a partial reduction
or through a volunteer work project, etc.
organizing a road show where speakers travel to non-Jewish
schools to educate the students about Israel.
Lorne Balshine is with the Israel Action Committee.
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