MINDING THE CAMPUS
by Hen Mazzig, StandWithUs
May 26, 2014

Over the past year, I’ve been invited to speak at over 150 college campuses around the U.S. about my experiences as a commander in the Israeli Defense Forces. I’ve spoken at the University of Washington, Stanford, UC Berkeley, Georgetown, NYU, Columbia, Swarthmore, and many more. I looked forward to meeting and talking with students who were critical of Israeli policies and who would question my perspective. What I did not expect was that, instead of a free exchange of ideas, I would often be faced with well-organized efforts to silence me and other pro-Israel voices.

In the last few years, the “Boycott Divestment and Sanctions” (“BDS”) campaign has grown on college campuses. Presented as a “human rights movement,” its apparent goal is a broad-based boycotting of the Jewish State because of alleged human rights violations. However, a YouTube video of anti-Israeli activists at Galway University shows the real face of BDS.

The BDS campaign is a new front in the Arab-Israeli conflict, directed at Israel. Its tactics are simple.

Stage 1: Start a student group and build relationships with other minorities’ student groups. Get them to like you. After convincing them that you are an ally, get them to support your anti-Israel narrative. Tell them that you’re not against Jews, only against the Jewish state. If you have Jewish students in your anti-Israel group, bring them along to the meeting and have them speak about how Israel’s existence conflicts with Jewish values. Portray the Palestinians as the underdog…..

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