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	<title>FrontPage Magazine &#187; Sara Greenberg</title>
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		<title>Harvard&#8217;s Reckless Sponsorship of Anti-Israelism</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/sara-greenberg/harvards-reckless-sponsorship-of-anti-israelism/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=harvards-reckless-sponsorship-of-anti-israelism</link>
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		<pubDate>Wed, 19 Nov 2014 05:35:32 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Sara Greenberg]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Anti-Semitism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[BDS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Harvard]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Israel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[palestinians]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=245521</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[BDS legitimized at the Ivy League school. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/widener.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-245524" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/widener-450x337.jpg" alt="widener" width="327" height="245" /></a><em>Originally published by the <a href="http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2014/11/18/harvard-bds-panel-support/">Harvard Crimson</a>. </em></p>
<p>I never imagined that a day would come when some of the world’s leading corporations would fund calls for Israel’s destruction, let alone at one of the world’s most prestigious universities. But that is exactly what happened last week at Harvard.</p>
<p>My invitation to “Harvard Arab Weekend” promised to provide a “mosaic of perspectives and insights on the most pressing issues in the Arab world.” Many of the panels appeared worthy of the conference’s corporate support from McKinsey &amp; Co, The Boston Consulting Group, Booz Allen Hamilton, Bank Audi, Strategy&amp;, and the energy giant Shell. And yet featured prominently on the conference agenda was a panel devoted to the destruction of Israel: “<a href="http://harvardarabweekend.org/panels/">The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement: Accomplishments, Tactics and Lessons</a>.”</p>
<p>The panel’s moderator, Ahmed Alkhateeb, began by noting that a primary goal of the BDS movement is “promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties” in what is today Israel. As President Barack Obama pointed out in 2008, this goal stands in opposition to a “two state solution” and “would extinguish Israel as a Jewish State.” And in an op-ed published in Al Akhbar newspaper, Cal State professor As’ad AbuKhalil, an outspoken advocate of the BDS movement,<a href="http://english.al-akhbar.com/blogs/angry-corner/critique-norman-finkelstein-bds"> affirmed</a> that “the real aim of BDS is to bring down the state of Israel.” This is the “unambiguous goal…[and] there should not be an equivocation on the subject.”</p>
<p>He’s right. While Jews are the majority in the democratic state of Israel today, the BDS movement imagines and seeks a state in which Jews would ultimately become the minority, implying the end of the Jewish people’s right to self-determination.</p>
<p>Of course, students have a right to speak their minds freely, and corporate sponsors have a right to donate their money and institutional backing to any political view. But is it appropriate for Harvard University to lend its facilities to a group of activists who are working to eradicate the one Jewish state?</p>
<p>Not everyone at Harvard thinks so. Former Harvard president and current professor, Lawrence H. Summers, spoke out in 2002 against calls for Harvard to divest from Israel. When I asked him about last week’s panel, he told me that “promoting BDS is exactly the kind of thing I had in mind when I warned years ago about actions that were anti-Semitic in effect, if not intent.”</p>
<p>“Avoiding censorship, which is right, should not equal sponsorship, which is wrong,” Summers explained. “I am sorry that Harvard, not for the first time, has allowed its good name to be associated with calls to delegitimize Israel.”</p>
<p>The panel at Harvard was not a debate about the goals and merits of BDS—it was an endorsement. <a href="http://harvardarabweekend.org/panels/">Panelists</a> included a <a href="http://www.thejerusalemfund.org/ht/d/EventDetails/i/46854">vocal supporter</a> of BDS who frequently accuses Israel of “apartheid,” a professor who initiated the American Studies Association academic and cultural boycott, a Presbyterian minister who led the Church<a href="http://www.ecclesio.com/2012/03/the-long-road-to-bds-by-jeff-deyoe/"> boycott</a> of Israel, as well as MIT professor Noam Chomsky.</p>
<p>Student organizers of the panel told me that Chomsky would provide the “anti-BDS” perspective, and he was introduced as the only voice on the panel to be critical of BDS “tactics.” But Chomsky would have none of it: “It’s interesting that I’m introduced as someone that has criticized BDS tactics; actually I have strongly advocated for BDS.”</p>
<p>Chomsky also encouraged anti-Israel activists to take a phased approach toward the annihilation of Israel as a Jewish state: “The one-state option is a good idea in the long run but there’s only one way that I can imagine we can reach it, and that’s in stages.”</p>
<p>The panel discussion left me with an overwhelming sense of sadness: I was sad to see firsthand how BDS encourages Palestinians to reject compromise in pursuit of the destruction of Israel; sad that the student organizers of the conference were unwilling to create a panel of diverse, honest views that would have led to true dialogue; sad that Harvard administrators allowed an event promoting an end to the national existence of the Jewish people to take place under Harvard’s auspices; and sad that the names and institutional prestige of major corporations were used to give legitimacy to the BDS campaign.</p>
<p>I sent inquiries to senior executives at every sponsor company before the conference, but the panel went on. After the conference, a senior McKinsey spokesman wrote to me to apologize for the firm’s involvement with the conference: “The firm does not knowingly associate its name with political issues and debates.” I believe it is likely that the other corporate sponsors also did not intend to have their funds used to promote the BDS movement.</p>
<p>Corporations and universities should not lend mainstream legitimacy to such a radical and odious movement, nor should they provide funding or resources to events that demonize Israel as this one did.</p>
<p>I hope Harvard and the corporations that sponsored Harvard Arab Week—and in doing so sponsored the BDS panel—will publicly pledge to be more vigilant in the future and never again associate their names or provide funding to any movement that seeks to destroy Israel.</p>
<p><em>Sara K. Greenberg is a joint masters degree student at Harvard Business School and Harvard Kennedy School. You can listen to the full audio of the BDS panel <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmM3KIRop-c">here</a>.</em></p>
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		<title>Hillel’s Role in Fighting BDS on Campus</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/sara-greenberg/hillels-role-in-fighting-bds-on-campus/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=hillels-role-in-fighting-bds-on-campus</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 21 Jan 2014 05:02:19 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Sara Greenberg]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Anti-Semitism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[BDS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Campus]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hillel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Israel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jews]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=216819</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A community that stands for nothing but openness, stands for nothing. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/bds.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-216827" alt="bds" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/bds.jpg" width="260" height="194" /></a><strong>Reprinted from <a href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/">TimesofIsrael.com</a>.</strong></p>
<p>Will students like me remember 2013 as a year when the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel made headlines with calls for academic boycotts? Will we remember it as a time when the American Jewish community debated how “open” our university campus Hillels should be?</p>
<p>As a graduate student at Harvard University, and a member of the local Harvard Hillel board, I have been disappointed to see many news outlets covering these respective, albeit related, news stories interview professors, administrators and university presidents, while leaving out an important voice: the very students these headlines effect.</p>
<p>In April, the Asian-American Studies Association became the first professional academic association in the United States to <a href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/for-first-time-us-academic-group-boycotts-israel/" target="_blank">call for an academic boycott of Israel</a>. In early December, the American Studies Association (ASA) voted to <a href="http://www.theasa.net/from_the_editors/item/asa_members_vote_to_endorse_academic_boycott/" target="_blank">boycott Israeli universities</a> and asked American scholars to sever ties with Israeli academic institutions. The Modern Language Association comprised of 30,000 members, opened its annual conference in early January with a panel on “Academic Boycotts: A Conversation about Israel and Palestine.”</p>
<p>Such boycott-resolutions are not only a clear violation of academic freedom but also part of a global campaign to undermine the moral and political foundations of the State of Israel. The BDS movement openly asserts its opposition to the existence of a Jewish State.</p>
<p>BDS activists have long relied on academic organizations and platforms to promote their cause. The college campus has become a hotbed for anti-Israel activity and while there are examples of students speaking out against student organized anti-Israel and BDS activities, in the classroom, it becomes more difficult. When a professor uses his classroom to espouse lies and hatred against Israel, many students do not speak up for fear of grade retribution.</p>
<p>With the rising surge of BDS on campus, it is becoming increasingly important that students have a safe haven to discuss, criticize and support Israel free from those who seek its destruction. Campus Hillels are one place, an important place, where students from a broad spectrum of backgrounds and viewpoints can and should be able to come together and find support to speak up against those who seek Israel’s demise.</p>
<p>Last year at Harvard, a group of students, the Harvard College Progressive Jewish Alliance, requested to cosponsor an event at the Harvard Hillel entitled “Jewish Voices Against the Israeli Occupation” with the Harvard College Palestine Solidarity Committee, a group that wholly <a href="http://www.harvardpsc.com/about/mission/" target="_blank">endorses</a> the BDS movement. Rabbi Jonah Steinberg, Harvard Hillel’s executive director, rejected the students’ request citing <a href="http://www.hillel.org/jewish/hillel-israel/hillel-israel-guidelines" target="_blank">Hillel International’s standards of partnership</a>, enforced at Harvard Hillel, that prohibit partnerships with or sponsorships of groups (Jewish or non-Jewish) that deny the right of Israel to exist. Subsequently, the student-organized event took place outside of Harvard Hillel, and the point was made that Harvard Hillel would not lend its name or resources to groups that support BDS.</p>
<p>Sadly, such is not the case at all Hillel Houses around the country. On December 8, the student board of Swarthmore College’s Hillel <a href="http://mondoweiss.net/2013/12/swarthmore-chapter-zionists.html" target="_blank">passed a resolution</a> to defy Hillel’s national guidelines entirely. In rejecting Hillel’s guidelines for campus activities, Swarthmore’s chapter wrote “all are welcome to walk through our doors and speak with our name and under our roof, be they Zionist, post-Zionist, or non-Zionist.”</p>
<p>In response, Eric Fingerhut, the new President of Hillel International, stated in a <a href="http://www.hillel.org/about/news-views/news-views---blog/news-and-views/2013/12/10/hillel-president-responds-to-swarthmore-college-hillel-resolution" target="_blank">letter</a> to the Swarthmore Hillel student board that “Hillel International expects all campus organizations that use the Hillel name to adhere to [its] guidelines…Anti-Zionists will not be permitted to speak using the Hillel name or under the Hillel roof, under any circumstances.”</p>
<p>Since issuing this response, Fingerhut has received criticism from a variety of media sources decrying how Hillel International’s policy censors speech. But Hillel, like any private organization, has the right to refuse to underwrite, sponsor or endorse a speaker or event, particularly if the speaker or event discriminates against the Jewish people, and Hillel does not prevent such speakers from taking their message elsewhere.</p>
<p>Other outlets have acknowledged Hillel’s right to have guidelines, but have criticized the guidelines themselves, citing concern about the inability for Jewish students to engage in constructive dialogue with Palestinian students on campus.</p>
<p>Inside Hillel, as Fingerhut wrote in a <a href="http://www.hillel.org/about/news-views/news-views---blog/news-and-views/2013/12/29/president-fingerhuts-response-to-new-york-times-article" target="_blank">post</a> on Hillel’s website on December 29th, “Hillel welcomes all students, Jewish and non-Jewish, to discuss and debate topics.” There is a difference, however, between inviting individual students into the Hillel and hosting or providing a platform to a group that does not recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish State.</p>
<p>This past September, a diverse group of students gathered for lunch at the University of Southern California Hillel. Jewish, Muslim, and Christian students came together to listen, learn and initiate an interreligious dialogue about peace building in the Middle East. Guest speakers included Rabbi Ron Kronish, founder and director of the Interreligious Coordinating Council in Israel and Qadi Iyad Zahalka, the judge of the Jerusalem Muslim Sharia Court of the State of Israel. According to Danielle Haberer, a Jewish student at USF who attended the event, “though sensitive, complex questions were asked, in the end, we left with more knowledge about one another than we had entered with and we left with the promise that dialogue would persist.” At the Drexel University Hillel, the pro-Israel student group, Dragons for Israel, recently cohosted a Middle East Peace Night with the Muslim Students Association.</p>
<p>The reason these events were possible? In each scenario, the Palestinian and Arab student groups and speakers did not endorse the BDS movement. Jewish and Muslim students were thus able to engage in constructive dialogue inside the Hillel House.</p>
<p>Hillel’s guidelines do not prevent students from engaging with Palestinian students on campus. Instead, the guidelines serve as a necessary signal to both Jewish and non-Jewish groups about the parameters that are necessary in order to achieve productive, peaceful and tolerant dialogue. Without Hillel’s guidelines, it is unlikely that students that support the BDS movement would ever come to realize the anti-Semitic, hate-filled nature of the movement and eventually, hopefully, withdraw their support.</p>
<p>Moreover, if Hillel were to abolish its guidelines and effectively provide a platform for speakers and groups that sought to destroy Israel, it would become much more difficult for students on campus to speak up and correct the misinformation and lies spewed by anti-Israel activists on campus. After all, if the Center for Jewish Life on campus is willing to host voices that seek to undermine the legitimacy of a Jewish State, how can I, as a student, credibly suggest (as I should) that such groups preach hate, not peace.</p>
<p>A community that stands for nothing but openness, stands for nothing. By taking a stand against groups that seek Israel’s destruction, Hillel serves to empower and encourage the next generation of American Jews to speak out and expose the anti-Semitic goals of the BDS movement. If not us, then who?</p>
<p><em>Sara Greenberg is pursuing a masters degree in public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School and a masters in business.</em></p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>.   </b></p>
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