Iwas more than frustrated after a group I was guiding during the summer
participated in a
hasbara (advocacy) workshop. Even though the workshop
facilitator was adept, and engaged the audience well, my issues with what
transpired were numerous.
I had spent the entire summer trying to develop
independent, analytical and critical thinking among my
hanihim (group
participants), without regard for accepted orthodoxies. And then they
participated in a workshop which attempted to do the exact opposite. It
was clear that the workshop was seeking to give simplistic answers. The
facilitator commented afterward that he had never before come across such
resistance. I thought it was only those chanichim who refused to accept
his statements as absolute truths who he should want as hasbara activists. The
conflation of hasbara with Israel Education does not produce educated people or
great hasbara activists.
THE WORKSHOP lacked nuance. For example, instead
of explaining that any statement linking Israel to apartheid is “anti-Israel” or
“anti-Zionist,” I would have liked to see an actual analysis of claims against
Israel.
Hanihim need to be exposed to the argument that there are similarities
between the apartheid regime and Israeli rule in the West Bank, which include
distinct law enforcement and judicial systems for residents based on ethnicity.
To ignore this, or to obfuscate reality by claiming that the entire
Israel/apartheid analogy is false because Israeli Palestinians have full rights
as Israeli citizens does not educate
hanihim nor prepare them to be hasbara
activists.
I do not think all
hanihim need to be trained in
hasbara. Advocacy, or lobbying, is a very specialized field. I
imagine that almost all my
hanihim oppose smoking – some even vehemently – but I
also imagine that only a small fraction of them will ever become antismoking
lobbyists. With this in mind, my arguments are not against small-scale,
selective programs such as Write on for Israel, but rather against “hasbara for
the masses” workshops, which are often held because “they’ll be in college soon,
will come across this sort of stuff, and therefore we have to do
something.”
Many Jewish organizations tend to argue that almost all
students will be exposed to anti-Israel activity on campus, and therefore almost
all students should participate in hasbara training. I am unconvinced that
almost all Jewish students are exposed to anti-Israel hasbara (and I
deliberately use the term “hasbara”) on campus, notwithstanding some truly
nefarious lobbying by anti-Israel activists. Moreover, an environment is created
in which Jewish students believe that any lobbying by pro-Palestinian or anti-
Israel activists is, by definition, illegitimate. One former student told me –
in horror, mind you – of students on one college campus who had set up a fake
IDF checkpoint.
I responded by saying that it is legitimate political
activity, even if it is not nuanced, as it ignores the fact that while some
checkpoints function for political reasons, many others certainly do function
for security reasons.
I suggested that students engaging in pro-Israel
hasbara on that campus approach the checkpoint as fake suicide bombers. This
would also represent a nonnuanced approach, as it would suggest that the only
reason checkpoints exist is to protect against suicide bombers, and would ignore
the fact that suicide bombers never routinely access Israel via the
checkpoints.
Nevertheless, it would certainly be appropriate in the
context. I am not proposing that hasbara activists engage anti-Israel protesters
in nuanced debate; blackand- white hasbara responses to black-and-white anti-
Israel campaigns can certainly be suitable, as long as the activists involved
understand the grey of the issues. I also think that a focus on hasbara
diminishes the importance of other campus-centered, Jewish-related activity.
Including a hasbara workshop as an integral part of an Israel program, and
thereby reinforcing the notion that hasbara is the central component of Jewish
college activities, minimizes the role played by Jewish activists who organize
Shabbatonim and shiurim, social events, sporting activities or
tikkun olam
projects. Not everybody needs to – or should – be a hasbara activist. There are
many other ways for Jewish students to be involved in Jewish campus
life.
Finally, as somebody who has chosen to make Israel his home, I
don’t think putting Diaspora Jews in the position of having to defend the
policies of a foreign government is a productive way of inculcating Zionist – or
patriotic American – values. I am not arguing against the activities of AIPAC
and J-Street, but rather advocating for a more scaled-back, nuanced, considered
and educational approach to hasbara, when dealing with students.
The
writer is director of Teaching Israel. www.teachingisrael.com