By: Daniel Cohen

Student leaders at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have hit the ground sprinting this year with a week of Israel programming called I-Fest.  The programming includes tabling for “Real Partners Real Peace” with Hasbara Fellowships’ “Friend Request Pending” materials, a 9/11 campus-wide vigil, and culminates with a speech from Tal Brody, Israeli basketball superstar and current Goodwill Ambassador.

Hasbara Fellows Tali Segev and Shoshanna Shaoul, as well as past Fellows Julie Levitt and Jessica Ost, were behind many of the events.  For the tabling, the Israel Illini student leaders created an ingenious system to engage their hungry college peers: if they answered a question about Israel’s peace process correctly, then they got a free cookie.  Sample questions were: “Who did Israel sign a peace treaty with in 1979?” (Hint: the answer is Egypt) and “Does America support the unilateral declaration of Palestine in the upcoming UN meeting?” (No!).  Unfortunately, Israel Illini is now out of cookies, but they plan on making more for future tabling efforts.

At the 9/11 vigil, over 200 students attended and eight different coalition groups were engaged, ranging from the Illini Conservative Union to College Democrats to Sexual Health Peers to the Student Government.  Each coalition partner was given an opportunity to speak, and the president of the student government spoke on behalf of the campus community.  Israel Illini featured an excerpt from Ariel Sharon sending his condolences to the American people after 9/11 and restating Israel’s support for the US.  The campus newspaper, the Daily Illini, was also present and covered the event.

I-Fest will conclude this weekend with a visit from Tal Brody, one of Israel’s sporting legends.  No word yet on whether there will be cookies.