With 15,000 recommends, and over 15,000 shares , its safe to say this article by Hen Mazzig has gone viral. The StandWithUs Pacific Northwest Campus Coordinator's article discussing campus anti-Israel activism and the role of
American Jews was one of
The Times of Israel's most read articles in 2013.
Hen's article, titled "An Israeli Soldier to American Jews: Wake Up!"
implored American Jews to stand up for Israel on campus. If you missed it the first time around, check it out.
Hen writes:
As part of my work as an educator at StandWithUs, between January and May
of this year, I traveled to college campuses, high schools and
churches, sharing the history of modern Israel. I also shared personal
stories about growing up in the Jewish state, and about my family. I
always spoke about my military service as an officer in an IDF COGAT
unit that attends to the needs of Palestinian civilians who are not
involved in the conflict and promotes Palestinian civil society. Each
time I would speak and take questions for an hour or more. I have shared
my personal story with over 16,000 people at many, many college
campuses and high schools, including UC Berkeley, Stanford, the
University of Washington, Seattle University and many others. Many of
those to whom I spoke were supportive, friendly, and open to hearing
about my Israel. But, sadly, far too many were not...
I was further shocked by how unaware the
organized Jewish community is and how little they are actually doing to
counter this rising anti-Semitism, which motivated me to write this
article.
This new form of bigotry against Israel has
been called the “new anti-Semitism,” with “Israel” replacing “Jew” in
traditional anti-Semitic imagery and canards, singling out and
discriminating against the Jewish state, and denying the Jewish people
alone the right to self-determination. The new anti-Semitism is packaged
in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign (BDS), which claims
to champion Palestinian rights though its real goal is to erode American
support for Israel, discredit Jews who support Israel, and pave the way
for eliminating the Jewish state. One of BDS’ central demands is the
“complete right of return” for all the descendants of the original
Palestinian refugees, subtle language that means the end of Israel as
the Jewish homeland because it would turn Israel into a Palestinian-Arab
majority state.
Hen's experiences are shocking:
To give you a taste of the viciousness of the BDS attacks, let me cite
just a few of the many shocking experiences I have had. At a BDS event
in Portland, a professor from a Seattle university told the assembled
crowd that the Jews of Israel have no national rights and should be
forced out of the country. When I asked, “Where do you want them to go?”
she calmly answered, “I don’t care. I don’t care if they don’t have any
place else to go. They should not be there.” When I responded that she
was calling for ethnic cleansing, both she and her supporters denied it.
And during a presentation in Seattle, I spoke about my longing for
peace between Israel and the Palestinians. When I was done, a woman in
her 60’s stood up and yelled at me, “You are worse than the Nazis. You
are just like the Nazi youth!” A number of times I was repeatedly
accused of being a killer, though I have never hurt anyone in my life.
On other occasions, anti-Israel activists called me a rapist. The claims
go beyond being absurd – in one case, a professor asked me if I knew
how many Palestinians have been raped by IDF forces. I answered that as
far as I knew, none. She triumphantly responded that I was right,
because, she said, “You IDF soldiers don’t rape Palestinians because
Israelis are so racist and disgusted by them that you won’t touch them.”
Read it all
here
