For Liberal Zionists, Israel Apartheid Week is Exhausting

By Natasha Spreadborough March 21, 2016

This article originally appeared in Zionish on March 2, 2016. Israel Apartheid Week strikes a significant chord with the Jewish community everywhere. As the cardboard, graffiti-covered walls and faux-checkpoints go up around university campuses, so do the leaflets, tweets and Facebook posts about Jewish-Arab coexistence, Palestinian terrorism, “the real Israel/apartheid/take your pick”. On both sides the…

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Why Palestinian Advocacy Groups Don’t Partner With Hillel

By Tom Pessah July 2, 2014

In his post on New Voices last week, Tomer Kornfeld recounts how he worked with his campus Hillel to set up “a debate, or ‘mock peace talk’ with Students for Justice in Palestine.” But “instead of reciprocating our goodwill, sitting down with us and working things out, S.J.P. sent out an email to club members…

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Together We Can: A Call for Unity in Peacemaking

By Tomer Kornfeld June 27, 2014

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the most divisive issues in modern politics. For years, the world—as much as Israeli and Palestinian leadership—has been trying to reconcile their differences, and, though there has been some progress, sadly, a full peace has yet to be achieved. To tell you the truth, there are times when this…

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What Does it Mean to Be a Zionist on a College Campus?

By Amram Altzman May 5, 2014

I have alluded before to (what I see as) the somewhat sorry state of Israel education and advocacy today, especially on college campuses. I spoke about the fact that simply greeting people who claim that Israel is an apartheid state with some falafel and a blue-and-white cupcake is not an effective tool for advocacy in…

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Challenging “The J Street Challenge” (or, Why I Didn’t Go To AIPAC This Year)

By Amram Altzman March 17, 2014

I am an American. I am neither an Israeli, nor am I a Palestinian. However, I am a Jew, and a pro-Israel American, who lives in a country which has strong, positive relations with Israel. As a Zionist, I see it as my job to defend Israel as a Jewish State, and that means protecting…

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The Israeli Apartheid Week that was [Today in New Voices]

By David A.M. Wilensky March 7, 2012

Whew. That was quite a week. Now that it’s over, check out Dafna Fine’s terrific piece of news analysis on this year’s Israeli Apartheid Week: While reactions came in different forms from different pro-Israel groups, they were almost unanimous in their embrace of a new strategy this year: Avoid a direct attack on pro-Palestinian groups…

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New Voices in The Forward’s Reporters’ Roundtable podcast

By David A.M. Wilensky March 5, 2012

I can’t figure out how to embed the podcast, though that would have been ideal: In this week’s podcast, host Josh Nathan-Kazis [a former editor of New Voices] talks with Forward Washington correspondent Nathan Guttman about the odd collection of groups that make up the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. Then, with…

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Kanazi: “This Poem Will Not End Apartheid” [Israeli Apartheid Week]

By Zach C. Cohen March 5, 2012

One-part comedy routine, one-part slam poetry and all Palestinian advocacy. This is the recipe for Remi Kanazi, a Palestinian activist and poet who spoke at American University Students for Justice in Palestine’s final event for Israel Apartheid Week on March 2. “I think I’m funny but I’m not, so bear with me,” Kanazi said. “The…

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The one-state solution comes to Brandeis [Israeli Apartheid Week]

By Dafna Fine March 2, 2012

To mark Brandeis University’s first ever Israeli Apartheid Week, Brandeis Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace brought Ali Abunimah to campus on Wednesday as the keynote speaker for the week of protest. A Palestinian American journalist and co-founder of Electronic Intifada, Abunimah presented his vision for a one-state solution to end…

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What happened to IAW at Portland State? [Israeli Apartheid Week]

By Gabriel T. Erbs February 29, 2012

The level of anti-Israel discourse at Portland State University is a “5.” What I mean to say is that pro-Israel students needn’t avoid the random keffiyah, but at the same time, a campus-wide Am Yisroel Chai party isn’t in the works either. The stairways of the student union are usually peppered with the latest BDS…

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Discussing the analogy of the week [Israeli Apartheid Week]

By Zach C. Cohen February 29, 2012

“Israel – Worse Than Apartheid?” was written on the whiteboard of an American University classroom yesterday during a “Discussion on the Israeli Apartheid Analogy,” part of AU Students for Justice in Palestine’s roster of events for Israel Apartheid Week. Being an SJP-organized event, opinions in the room tended to be favorable toward the pro-apartheid analogy…

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Different ways of coping with IAW… and Brits fling water ‘missiles’ [Israeli Apartheid Week]

By David A.M. Wilensky February 28, 2012

I’ve got two items of note on the Israeli Apartheid Week front today:  Tablet Magazine has a nice selection of opinions on how to deal with IAW And Brits throwing water balloons. I’ll leave the water balloons aside for a minute and focus on the Tablet piece, which brings together a variety of people all combating IAW in their own…

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Israeli Apartheid Week continues; Obama’s Jewish fundraiser; Agunot and Facebook, and more [Required Reading]

By pkessler February 28, 2012

Training to be a Jew [Tablet] Jake Kohlman, a Jewish soldier in the American armed forces, reflects on how his basic training enabled him to connect to his religion. “At that Sunday service, for the first time, I started to understand. The chaplain’s words lifted my spirits. I remembered why I had joined in the…

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IAW starts early with a mic-check and some pepper spray [Israeli Apartheid Week]

By David A.M. Wilensky February 27, 2012

Israeli Apartheid Week began on Sunday. But some pro-Israel protesters at the University of California, Berkeley got started a day early, pepper spraying some folks on Saturday. Not to be outdone, a group of anti-Israel students mic-checked a speaker at the University of New Mexico on Thursday (see above video). On Thursday, protesters interrupted a…

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Disorganization, lack of information characterize run up to annual event [Israeli Apartheid Week]

By Dafna Fine February 24, 2012

Israeli Apartheid Week begins on Sunday and runs through Saturday, March 3. New Voices writers will be covering it all week on several campuses. If you know of  IAW events — or its counterpart, Israel Peace Week — on your campus, let us know by emailing Dafna Fine at dafna@newvoices.org. The trailer below is from…

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