Home » News » The Hasbara Campus Pulse

By: Chananel Weiner

I got the call from my students just after noon that a speaker from the Palestinian Authority, Fatah, was coming at 4:30 as part of a special presentation in a class on Islam and America at Northeastern University.
My students were upset that his talk was planned clandestinely, sprung on them and would be happening both in the shadow of 9/11 and on the heels of the UN General Assembly meeting.

The speaker, Dr. Husam Zomlot, is the coordinator for the Palestinian bid for statehood and UN recognition.  Apparently the professor that brought him in to speak also has a long history of bringing Anti-Israel speakers and discussing topics against Israel in his classes. 

We mobilized as fast as we could.  I created a flyer using our Friend Request Pending campaign (http://www.hasbarafellowships.org/resources/campaigns/friend-request-pending) focusing on the efforts of Israel over the years to find ways to make peace.  It included the slogan “ you don’t get real peace without talking to your neighbors.”  I ran to kinkos to get them printed. 

Our Hasbara New England Fellows at Northeastern, Marlena and Ethan organized some friends from their on campus Israel group 'Husskies for Israel' who joined them in handing out the flyers as students entered the lecture hall.  Some students took the flyers, ignoring them, and others asked questions.  Everyone received one.

It turns out that the speaker got a flyer, too.  We saw him discussing it before he was to speak.  Then, he began his talk and the very first thing he did was respond to the flyer saying “I would like to respond to this flyer that has been handed out.”  We were thrilled that now every student in the room would read the information due to the attention he brought to it. 

He went on to explain that the reason the PA is walking away from negotiations with Israel is because Israel only wants the status quo of negotiations to mask its’ ongoing oppression and occupation of his people. 

He then proceeded to deny Israel’s history, charge conspiracy theories, paraphrase the protocols of the elders of zion, abrogate the PA’s responsibility for terrorism and paint a picture of the overall humiliation of his people. 

It was clear to anyone with a basic education on the issues in the conflict that he was inaccurate, inflammatory, and that he was there to simply delegitimize and demonize Israel.  However, most in the crowd were uneducated on these matters and simply accepted with nary a snicker or a gasp his constant stream of outlandish claims. 

The question and answer period began and Arthur, a Hasbara Fellowships trained activist and a participant on this past summer’s AEPi Road Trip, opened by asking about previous offers of statehood and the rejection from the PA that followed.  He also singled out the professor for his obvious bigotry towards Israel.  The speaker refused to answer stating, “your question insults me and I will not answer it, next question.”   

In the course of the discussion the speaker and the professor decided to deride America and the forthcoming Veto planned against the unilateral declaration of the state.  At this point some of us in the audience clapped in support of the bold, important move by the Obama administration.  This drew the ire of the professor and he went on to mock us in his remarks.  Moments later he pointed at me and asked if I had something to say.  I said I did and proceeded to address the room for the next 10 minutes on the real obstacle to peace in the region - terror and incitement. 

I explained to the students that Israel has tried multiple times to make peace and desires it strongly.  I explained that Israel has only been met with refusals and terrorism.  

I illustrated to them the attacks of just a few weeks ago on the Sinai desert when vacationing civilians were ambushed with rocket propelled grenades and asked if their summer vacation had any similar occurrences.  Even though the professor repeatedly interrupted me, I was able to get the message across and ended my comments to applause. 

Later on the session went informal with the speaker and the students talking over coffee and cake.  Our students confronted the speakers asking why Anti Semitism and Anti Israel Rhetoric were brought to campus.  Andy, another Hasbara New England fellow,  wanted to know why he, as a leader of Jewish life on campus as he occupies leadership positions in the Hillel, AEPI, and the Husskies for Israel group, was not approached about the speaker before hand.  He demanded that the other side be told and that the lecture be given context.  You could tell that his objections fell on deaf ears as the professor nor his assistants, Jewish Ph.D students, were interested. 

One of the professor’s assistants was an Israeli who sat on the panel and nodded along to the monologue of injustice.  When confronted he said that the other side of the story was going to be told.  I asked the professor if it is indeed true that the other side will get equal voice.  The professor’s stoic reply, “what other side?”

In the end the PA speaker and I were left to “discuss” the issues.  He began by talking about Gaza, to which I replied by reviewing the over 15,000 rockets fired, the razing of a once beautiful farmland, and the corruption of Hamas.  His answer, “maybe that’s not a good example.” 

Then he brought up the current leadership stating how progressive they are and that they have been great partners for peace, yet Israel will not allow it.  I responded by reminding him that Fatah partnered with Hamas and that his example was absurdly false and that Israel has tried multiple times only to have the leadership of the Palestinians walk away from the negotiating table, just as they have again now.

Then I looked him square in the eye and issued him the challenge to become the leader that his people need.  One that embraces peace over death, tolerance over incitement and hatred, and teaches his people to want to build and grow the society that they live in.  The look on his face said it all, he was flabbergasted and the professor’s assistants decided to step in to save him and declared “ok ,that’s a positive note, we have to go now” and whisked him away.

Our students are stronger from this.  Before their fellowship training they would not have been able to stand up and stand out as they did.  They would not have been able to organize as they did.  Now, they realize the power they have due to the knowledge and skills they have acquired and for the rest of their lives they will know that they were players in the debate of our people’s future.  Even more so, they now know the power of standing up for their values.  Is there a better lesson for young Jewish students?