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May 3, 2002/Iyar 21, 5762, Vol. 54, No. 33
Hillel rallies for Israel
Group responds to pro-Palestinian demonstration
BARRY COHEN
Editor
A pro-Israel rally, organized in reaction to a pro-Palestinian demonstration where protestors equated Israel with Nazi Germany, drew nearly 150 people to Memorial Union at Arizona State University April 30.
Leaders from ASU's Hillel Jewish Student Center felt forced to respond to the April 28 pro-Palestinian event at ASU's university bridge, said rally organizer Falynn Glickstein.
"The pro-Arab signs equated the Israeli flag with swastikas," she said. "They also compared (Ariel) Sharon to Hitler."
American Friends for Palestine - a local group of Muslims, Christians, Arabs, Arab-Americans and South Americans - sponsored the earlier demonstration.
"We believe that what Israel is doing to the Palestinians is the same as what Hitler did to the Jews, if not worse," said Marwan Ahmad, spokesman for American Friends for Palestine and publisher of the Arizona Muslim Voice.
The pro-Israel rally gave pro-Israel supporters a chance to have their voices heard, said Rabbi Barton Lee, Hillel executive director. "Students wanted to counter the (prior) event with a positive rally for peace against anti-Semitism."
Pro-Israel speakers addressed the current conflict in Israel, the nation's history, and the importance of U.S. support.
"Israel is fighting the same war that the U.S. is fighting - to root out terror and terrorism," said Rabbi Robert Kravitz, executive director of the Arizona chapter of the American Jewish Committee. "(But) Jews teach hope. We are here to express our support for that hope, for that brighter future for all, to support those who are attacking the cancer of terror."
The war between the Israelis and the Palestinians is a tragedy for all involved, said Lee from the podium. "Death is death. War is ugly. ... Peace and partition are the only way," he explained. He called on the Palestinians to reject suicide bombings, recognize Israel and return to the negotiating table.
"Until the Palestinian people, who have been suffering because of poor leadership for many years, understand that terror and violence will lead them nowhere, there will not be peace in Israel," Eitan Ben-Ami, shaliach of the Israel Center of the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix, told the demonstrators.
The group included ASU students and members of the Valley Jewish community.
"Jews in the world are in tremendous jeopardy, and the media war is being won by the Arabs," said Barbara Mark Dreyfuss. She was there as one of approximately 12 members of Temple Chai in Phoenix to help ensure that "Jews have a voice" and use it in "a positive, dignified, intelligent, humane way."
"If one Jew stands up and tells the truth (about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict), decades of lies will be washed away," said speaker Devin Sper.
Some ASU students in the crowd questioned the truthfulness and sincerity of the pro-Israel message.
"It's all one-sided. They claim to stand for peace. By that they are inferring that the Palestinians are the devil," said ASU student Shawn Trumpfeller. "They're not really here to educate the people as to what is going on."
"They're talking about pro-peace, and they have these pro-peace banners, but ... they haven't given one proposition of how we can work for peace," said student Hicham Cheikh-Hussein.
Israeli and Palestinian supporters blame each other for the current violence, he said. "We can't come to a solution like this."
As the April 30 rally drew to a close, several pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian advocates standing at the back of the crowd argued about the source of the current violence in the Middle East.
"I think it's fantastic that people are actually talking about the controversy," said Thomas Walker, program coordinator with the ASU Intergroup Relations Center. He said the center's purpose is to encourage people of conflicting political, religious or ethnic groups to talk about their differences "rather than to sit quietly and plot and hate and seethe."
Daphna Gold of Phoenix disagreed with Walker's assessment. "I don't think this is useful. The best way would be in a town meeting, where everyone can express his or her view in a more civilized way."
Contact the writer at barry_cohen@jewishaz.com.
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