NEWS RELEASE
Zionist Organization of America
Jacob & Libby Goodman ZOA House, 4 East 34th Street, New York, N.Y. 10016
(212) 481-1500 Fax: (212) 481-1515 email@zoa.org www.zoa.org

January 24, 2007
Contact Morton A. Klein at: (212) 481-1500
Attn: NEWS EDITOR

AJCommittee, ADL, AIPAC, AISH HATORAH, JNF, Hillel, JCPA,
Conference of Pres., Shusterman Foundation - All Voted Yes.

ZOA DISMAYED: MAJOR JEWISH GROUPS ALLOW
ANTI-ISRAEL CAMPUS PROGRAMS
TO REMAIN UNDER THEIR UMBRELLA

New York - At a time when Israel bashing and anti-Semitism on college
campuses are reaching new heights, nine major Jewish groups that comprise
the Steering Committee of the Israel On Campus Coalition (ICC) have
unanimously voted not to address campus programming sponsored by ICC members
that criticizes Israel without regard to fact and context, and that may
actually incite hatred of Israel among college students. The Committee also
unanimously voted that there was no "cause under the ICC's membership
criteria to remove [the Union of Progressive Zionists, an ICC group member]
from the Coalition." The Jewish groups on the Steering Committee who cast
these votes are the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League,
AIPAC, Aish HaTorah, the Jewish National Fund, Hillel, the Jewish Council
for Public Affairs, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish
Organizations, and the Shusterman Foundation.

The ICC is a pro-Israel umbrella group whose mission is to "foster support
for Israel on campus," promote "Israel advocacy," and "counter the worrisome
rise of anti-Israel activities on college campuses." In December 2006, the
Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), a member of the ICC, expressed
concern that the Union of Progressive Zionists (UPZ), another ICC member,
has been sponsoring a program on campuses that harshly and falsely
criticizes Israel for human rights abuses against the Palestinian Arabs.
The UPZ-sponsored program - called "Breaking the Silence" - omits historical
facts, provides no balance or context, and promotes outright falsehoods
about Israel. The ZOA acknowledged the UPZ's general right to promote this
hateful program, but not as a member of the ICC, which was set up to build
support for Israel and reduce anti-Israel intimidation and harassment on
college campuses.

Examples identified by the American Jewish Congress from Breaking the
Silence's Web site demonstrate how the program demonizes and incites hatred
of Israel. Israel is condemned for its alleged "violence and law-flouting."
The IDF is condemned for supposedly ordering its soldiers "to shoot to kill
unarmed people without fear of reprimand." Allegedly, Israeli soldiers "who
stick to morality are the exceptional," not the norm. And Jewish settlers
purportedly "inflict the purest evil on their neighbors."

Ilan Benjamin, a Professor of Chemistry at the University of California at
Santa Cruz, and an Israeli who served in the IDF, attended the program when
it came to his campus. In a letter to the ICC, Professor Benjamin said that
"the presentation was neither fair nor balanced, but was rather unabashedly
anti-Israel." According to Professor Benjamin, "there was almost no mention
of why the Israeli Army is inside Arab towns. [The program's speaker]
dismissed the notion that security checkpoints prevent a large percentage of
the suicide bombers, despite extensive data about this. . . . [S]tudents who
attended the event did not get a crucial point of information necessary for
a critical understanding of the conflict, namely, that Israel is in a state
of war with a terrorist organization imbedded in civilian neighborhoods."

Professor Benjamin recounted that "[d]uring the question period, some of us
tried to raise issues which could bring a modicum of balance and accuracy to
the discussion, but the speaker refused to answer these on the grounds that
he did not come to discuss politics (?!)." To make matters worse, at the
program's conclusion, the speaker "encouraged the audience to think what
they could do to 'continue the resistance to "The Occupation" and bring the
Israeli army to the international court of justice.'"

The program uses highly inflammatory photographs, including one of soldiers
lounging near a young man who sits blindfolded and handcuffed. The program
does not mention that Palestinian terrorists deliberately hide in civilian
neighborhoods, providing a context for Israeli soldiers' presence there.
There is no reference to the fact that blindfolds and handcuffs are used so
that suspected terrorists will not be able to identify the military bases to
which they are brought, for the protection of the Israeli soldiers who are
serving in the area. The program does not mention that Palestinian
terrorists have already murdered almost 2000 Israelis and maimed 15,000
more. There is no reference to the fact that Israeli soldiers do not
deliberately target noncombatants, and that more than any other army in the
world, the Israeli army's policy is one of restraint, committed to taking
every possible measure to prevent harm to civilians. The program does not
address the Palestinian Arab society's culture of hatred against Jews and
the State of Israel, which is promoted in its media, schools, camps and
religious sermons.

Further evidence of the UPZ-sponsored program's hostility toward Israel is
that the program is frequently co-sponsored by such anti-Israel groups as
Muslim Student Associations and Amnesty International. Based on the program's
hostility and its omissions and inaccuracies, the ZOA urged the ICC to
investigate whether this program supports the ICC's mission. If it does
not, then the ZOA contended that the program should no longer be sponsored
or promoted by the UPZ if it wishes to remain part of the ICC. As a member
of the ICC, the UPZ is being given credibility as supportive of Israel, when
the program it sponsors shows the opposite.

Other ICC members echoed the ZOA's concerns. In a letter to the ICC, the
American Jewish Congress noted that the UPZ-sponsored program "contradicts
[the ICC's] mission statement and . . . does great harm to the cause of
Israel." Instead of speaking the truth, the program "brings one-sided
condemnation of Israel, ignores the larger context of terrorism and . . .
adds to the serious problem of anti-Israel prejudice on campuses." The AJ
Congress asked that the ICC "remove the AJ Congress as an affiliate of the
ICC." The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations
also raised concerns about the UPZ's program. In a letter to the ICC, the
Jewish National Fund expressed "deep concern and disappointment" about the
UPZ's campus program, stating that "UPZ used poor judgment" and "stained the
reputation of all of our Jewish organizational partners." StandWithUs
voiced concerns, too, noting that the UPZ-sponsored program "distort[s]
facts" with "anti-Israel rhetoric," and "unqualified moral denunciations of
Israel." According to StandWithUs, it is "highly inappropriate for the ICC
to be connected to a group that adds to the malicious accusations of alleged
IDF abuses."

Despite all these concerns about the factual distortions and omissions of
the UPZ's program, and about the anti-Israel climate such programming would
encourage, the Steering Committee dodged the issues raised by the ZOA and
echoed by fellow ICC members. According to a statement issued by the
Steering Committee on January 22, 2007, the Committee unanimously voted not
to "establish a mechanism to monitor campus programming of ICC member
organizations," and not to "revisit the ICC membership criteria and founding
mission statement." Also, UPZ could continue to sponsor this anti-Israel
program and remain a part of the pro-Israel ICC.

Morton A. Klein, the ZOA's National President, expressed his surprise and
disappointment in the Steering Committee's decision: "Our own campus
professionals have attended this UPZ-sponsored program, and there is nothing
pro-Israel about it. In fact, our Campus Coordinators brought three former
IDF soldiers to the event at Columbia University. All of these soldiers
served in elite units, and one of them is now a student at Columbia Law
School. Other IDF soldiers were also present at the event. All of these
soldiers in the audience vehemently disagreed with the UPZ-sponsored speaker
and tried to counter his presentation by sharing their own personal
experiences. They were not given the opportunity to provide context and
balance to his one-sided presentation, thus leaving the audience with the
feeling that Israel is a ruthless and oppressive abuser of human rights,
when nothing could be further from the truth.

"I myself have spoken with dozens of officers and soldiers in the Israel
Defense Forces, and know that the UPZ-sponsored program is promoting
outright falsehoods. Like any democracy, Israel can make mistakes in
seeking to protect its people from terrorists - particularly when many
terrorists deliberately hide in civilian neighborhoods. But in Israel, when
mistakes are made, soldiers are called to account for them. This essential
fact, among many others, is missing from the UPZ-sponsored program. The
program does nothing to support the ICC mission of building support for
Israel on our campuses. Instead, it incites hatred of Israel, and inflames
the already-existing anti-Israel sentiment that is a serious problem on many
campuses. The ICC Steering Committee should have taken the necessary steps
to ensure that the ICC's mission is being fulfilled by its member groups.
Part of the reason that the ICC was established in the first place was to
fight against exactly this kind of anti-Israel propaganda promoted by Arab
and other anti-Israel groups on campus. The Steering Committee took the
easy way out and did nothing, which will not assist in promoting support for
Israel on our campuses. In fact, the Steering Committee's failure to
establish any criteria for monitoring the campus programming of ICC member
groups, and its failure to review its criteria for membership in the ICC,
will permit groups like the UPZ to demonize Israel on campus and yet still
disingenuously identify themselves as ICC members advocating on campus for
Israel.

"We were told that as long as they support Israel's right to exist as a
Jewish state within secure and recognized borders, groups are welcome to be
part of the ICC. This standard is hardly enough; it means that a group that
meets this standard, but that also demonizes Israel through falsehoods,
would be welcome as an ICC member.

"The American Jewish Committee, the ADL, AIPAC, Aish HaTorah, the Jewish
National Fund, Hillel, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the Conference
of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, and the Shusterman
Foundation are the members of the Steering Committee who unanimously voted
to accept programming by ICC member groups that contradicts the ICC's
mission. They each owe the Jewish community an explanation for the basis of
their votes. The United States Commission on Civil Rights, an independent
bipartisan federal agency, recently recognized that anti-Semitism, including
Israel-bashing, is a serious problem on our campuses. The Steering
Committee's vote will unfortunately do nothing to stem the problem."