By Leyna Krow, Assistant Editor, JTNews
The Evergreen College in Olympia has a long-standing track record of sympathy for the plight of the Palestinian people. But in recent months, student Israel enthusiasts have been partnering with advocacy organization StandWithUs Northwest in an attempt to show the other side of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict as well. It was in that spirit that StandWithUs joined student organization SIIA Shalom for a talkback session at the college on May 28.
The event included a screening of the documentary A Case for Israel, based on attorney Alan Dershowitz’s book of the same name, followed by an opportunity for the approximately 30 people in attendance to ask StandWithUs and SIIA representatives questions about Israel.
Rob Jacobs, regional director for StandWithUs Northwest said the aim of the event was to present Evergreen students with a perspective on Israel that they may not often hear.
“Evergreen has always sort of been the alternative, do-things-differently sort of school,” Jacobs said. “It has been that way for decades. There’s a core group of faculty that has developed down there that does a good job of presenting a perspective that is highly critical of Israel.”
The Evergreen community has been hearing more positive rhetoric about Israel in recent months, however, largely due to the efforts of third-year student Noah Milstein.
In January, Milstein founded SIIA Shalom (which stands for Students Interested in Israel Advocacy and Peace) after becoming frustrated with what he perceives as an overwhelmingly anti-Israel bias among the Evergreen students and faculty.
“There is a ridiculous amount of anti-Zionism, anti-Semitism and propaganda full of lies about Israel that is being spread by other groups on campus,” Milstein said. “We want to provide an alternative to that.”
SIIA is currently made up of six core members and has an e-mail list of around 40, although Milstein noted that about half of those on the list are anti-Israel and have signed up to keep track of the opposition’s activities.
SIIA receives support, in the form of educational materials, encouragement and a financial grant, from
StandWithUs. Milstein said he first heard about StandWithUs from his mother, and decided to get in contact with the organization after realizing the challenge that bringing a pro-Israel voice to Evergreen might pose.
This was the first time SIIA had partnered with StandWithUs on an event. Previous SIIA activities have included talks on the history of Zionism and the challenges facing Jewish refugees from Arab countries. Milstein added that he spent most Wednesday afternoons of the winter quarter tabling for his organization in the center of campus and attempting to engage students in discussions about Israel.
“My presence in the quad was not always welcome,” he noted.
Jacobs said he was pleased with the outcome of the May 28 discussion.
“We figured we’d see one of three scenarios,” Jacobs said. “We’d show up and there would be like 10 students, all of whom were supportive of us. Or we’d see a slightly larger crowd, some of whom had strong opinions, and we’d have a dialogue, which was what ended up happening. The third scenario was that a large group of those critical of our being on campus would try to stop us from talking. We’re glad that didn’t happen, but we definitely considered it a possibility.”
He added that he intends for
StandWithUs to return to Evergreen in the near future, bringing in speakers to talk about Israel and engage not only students by also faculty and staff in an ongoing discussion.
“This was a great start,” Jacobs said. “It has been very hard to get the kind of discussion we had. I think everyone present took one of my cards to continue the dialogue, even if just by e-mail.”
Milstein, however, had hoped for a larger turnout to the event as well as a more attentive audience.
“A lot of people who should have been there weren’t,” he said. “Also, there was a lot of talking, and snickering during the film. A lot of people went to be divisive rather than listen to what we had to say. That’s indicative of the school’s reaction to us, by and large.”
Milstein said he has found many of his fellow Evergreen students to be so aggressive in their opposition to Israel that they inhibit the ability of others to have a serious dialogue on the topic. He cited instances of student government meetings turning into shouting matches when the subject is broached and said that when he puts up fliers for SIIA events, he often returns to find them torn down or pasted over within an hour.
Some of the reactions he said he has received to his promotion of SIIA go beyond a heated political dispute to outright hostility.
“I’ve been compared to a Holocaust denier. I’ve been called a racist, a Nazi,” Milstein said, adding that leaders from the campus’ pro-Palestinian organization, the Middle East Solidarity Project, refuse to communicate with him or even reply to his e-mails, dashing any hopes of cooperation between the two groups.
“I don’t feel like it’s a comfortable or a safe place to be pro-Israel,” he said. “And for a lot of people that’s something that’s synonymous with being Jewish.”
He added that he knows of a number of Jewish students who feel so out of place at Evergreen they are considering transferring to other universities. As for his own time at Evergreen: “The experience has definitely been formative for me. But I don’t really want to be here anymore,” Milstein said.
Evergreen spokesperson Jason
Wettstein said the university works hard to provide the opportunity for students of all political stripes to share their opinions in a constructive fashion.
“There are a variety of perspectives on the Palestinian issue on Evergreen and we try to provide a forum where all of those can be heard,” he said.
When asked about Milstein’s concerns that Jewish students were being made to feel uncomfortable as a result of their association with Israel, Wettstein said, “We certainly take any charge of intolerance to religion very seriously.”
Despite the challenges his group has faced, Milsten said he feels like SIIA Shalom has made progress in adding an alternative voice to a campus whose political outlook can at times seem rather homogenous.
“I think we’ve done a great amount of good,” he said. “We’ve been trying to present calm, reasonable points, and show how irrational those who refuse even to talk to us are.”
Jacobs pointed to the May 28 discussion as an indication of the success SIIA is having in making Evergreen a more welcoming place for students to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from all sides.
“I was surprised and pleased that there was such an opportunity to have the dialogue,” Jacobs said. “I don’t know if we changed anyone’s mind, but that dialogue is now open.”