“We cannot afford to be passive about the considerable violence and brutality that the Israeli state has inflicted and continues to inflict upon the Palestinian people and other minoritized populations, particularly as the United States financially, militarily, and diplomatically supports the Israeli state, and thereby contributes to the ongoing occupation,” the 39 faculty members wrote.
“It got to the point where I needed outside help,” Storch said. “Having more information is in my opinion the biggest part of the battle, and CAMERA provided that.”
With more than 60 colleagues in attendance at the CAMERA conference, many pro-Israel student leaders felt empowered by seeing those who shared their passion for the Jewish state and have faced numerous challenges on campus.
“The networking is the best part,” said Ari Benjamin, a rising sophomore at George Mason University in Virginia.
“The more minds looking at the problem and getting different opinions and angles helps to eventually conquer the whole problem.”
Benjamin, who served in a special forces unit in the Israel Defense Forces before returning to the U.S. to attend college, said hearing about other students’ experiences gave him confidence in knowing he is not alone in standing up for Israel on campus. He also praised CAMERA for supporting students through the process.
“[CAMERA] is with you 100 percent,” Benjamin said. “It is unbelievable how many tools and options they offer, on everything from speakers to funding for your group. They have experts on every field when it comes to Israel.”
“You could see on the students’ faces that they felt renewed and empowered,” said Aviva Slomich, CAMERA’s international campus director.
“What we try to do is give the students a network of support and strategies to make a persuasive case for Israel.”
Osakwe, the University of Windsor student, lauded many of the marketing and social media tools she learned at the conference that will help her promote her pro-Israel group. Those tools will also come in handy after graduation, as she hopes to one day open her own public relations firm.
“We learned how to better use Facebook to advertise events and reach my target audience…and also about buzzwords and catchphrases to use when writing or tweeting,” she said. “These were all super helpful.”
The CAMERA conference culminated in a two hour-long mock hearing on an Israel divestment resolution, in which the students were asked to put the knowledge and tools they’d amassed during the four-day conference into speeches opposing a divestment measure.
In recent years, Israel divestment votes have become more numerous at schools across North America, with many pro-Israel students forced to plead their case in front of student government officials who often come in with their own biases about Israel.
The students were divided into four groups and tasked with coming up with their own speeches against the proposed Israel divestment resolution. Each group then selected two members to stand in front of a mock student government panel comprised of CAMERA staffers who critiqued their speeches.
In the speeches, many of the students told personal stories about their experiences in Israel, while also condemning the divestment resolution for singling out the Jewish state for criticism despite egregious human rights violations by other countries around the world.
George Mason’s Benjamin said that besides the tools that could be gleaned from the conference, “it is the people, it is the human power in bringing together all these student leaders” that made the gathering special.
(JNS)