After I
read this, it reminded me of the article about the horrors on American
campuses by Anatoly Sharansky. And I ask again: Where is Hillel, the
Jewish students organization? Please, send this to every student you know and
ask them to pass it on.
Naomi
A proud Israeli By
Ismail Khaldi October 03, 2004
{ Ismail Khaldi is an Israeli Bedouin, who graduated from
Aviv University with an MA in political science. He served with Israel
Police, IDF, and the Defense Ministry, and worked at the U.S. Embassy in
Tel Aviv.}
Two years ago, a few proud Bedouin Israeli citizens like
asked: what is our position and status in the State of Israel in
the midst of its current situation? After all, Bedouin are part
of Israel's success story. During current times, when Israel is
being attacked and accused of being a racist state, an 'aggressor and
an oppressor', we decided that the smallest and probably most
effective thing we could do is to spread our story as part of Israeli
society.
I, Ishmael Khaldi, am Israeli. I served with the IDF, with the
Israeli police, and with the Israeli Defense Ministry. In the
last year, I have lost two Bedouin friends on army duty (God bless
their memory) defending the State of Israel. My friends and family
feel that we have a common destiny with the Jewish people in Israel:
our grandparents created this land with Jewish immigrants who
arrived during the 1920s, '30s and '40s to build a democracy.
Because
of this connection to the State of Israel, I cannot stand on the sidelines
during Israel's time of need. I feel that I must speak up and be
heard.
I recently returned from a two-month campus speaking tour North
America, mostly organized by Hasbara Fellowships. This was
the fourth tour I had done over the past year. I've traveled the
United States coast to coast (of course, being a Bedouin nomad, I mainly
took Greyhound!) and flew for a ten day tour across Canada.
The tour
was certainly miraculous - a Bedouin shepherd who had never been to any major
city before, all of sudden found himself in downtown Manhattan! It
proved to be one of the most adventurous, challenging and enriching
experiences of my life.
I came to the U.S. and Canada to speak on college
campuses about Israel, as one who certainly holds a perspective that is
rarely heard - a proud Israeli that is not Jewish. I came to share one
man's tale of Israel's culture, society and politics from the perspective of
a Bedouin minority in the Jewish State.
Arriving in North America,
committed to defending Israel from the poisonous venom of hatred and attacks
that I had heard so much about, I expected to see the same commitment on
campuses among the Jewish students. Unfortunately, this wasn't the
case.
I had heard much about the struggle of pro-Israel
student activists, attempting to counter the unbalanced, biased and
false accusations made against Israel. I had not come to North America
to preach that Israel was perfect. As all Israelis know, Israel
has problems like all nations of the world. Still, many students tried
to stop me from speaking. There were even students who had the
audacity to compare me to Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister,
making false claims that I was doing the same for Israel.
The United
States has always been described as being the home 'of the free' and a home
for free speech. How can New Hampshire's slogan read, "live free or
die" if the student union is allowed to ban me from telling a cultural
story? I can't believe that the hatred for Israel is so strong that
student governments are able to defy their own dignity as free American
citizens, in order that the truth about Israel should remain a
secret.
The deep-seated hatred manifested itself clearly
throughout the country with the many loaded questions asked by anti-Israel
students. For example, a Muslim student at Rutgers University completely
ignored the fact that Israel is a free state and asked, "how could you
support a Hebrew state if you're not Jewish?" Another questioner
asked, "don't you think that if Israel didn't exist, then the
Palestinians wouldn't have any problems?"
In Milwaukee, I was asked
"how many Palestinian old men and women have you humiliated while serving in
the Israeli police?" How can such a question be asked? If only
the truth were known, that Israeli soldiers have on many occasions helped
Palestinians!
The situation I encountered on many of the campuses in
North America and Canada was horrifying. I was not as shocked by the
Arab
questioners as I was with the personal threats from, and the severe
apathy of the majority of Jewish students.
In my years of
speaking to people, I've never received threats or personal attacks like I
did speaking on campuses. There were threatening incidents at both the
University of Florida and at California State University. Both were
chilling. The crowd in Florida was one full of anger and hatred, yet I
had to stand before them unsure of the enemy who had sent threats earlier
that day. In California I spoke facing a young student who wore a
T-shirt with a swastika on it, chewing on a piece of paper as some sort of
protest against my talk.
Even more upsetting, I expected to see many
more Jewish students who were aware of the situation in Israel, but that
wasn't the case. I expected the Jewish students to realize that the
situation was not only affecting Israel and Israelis, but Jews all over the
world.
On the other hand, the Arab students and their supporters
almost all had the last minute news clips from the Middle East. How
can Israel's voice be heard if the Jewish students don't have the facts
or the knowledge to speak up? I don't take the mass of Jewish
students to task for not agreeing with all of Israel's policies, but I do
take them to task for not caring about Israel or what happens there. It
is the apathy which allows the anti-Israel propaganda to strengthen itself
more and more over time.
As a personal aside, sixty years after the
horrors of the Holocaust, Israel is going through one of the most critical
times in its history. More than 60 years after my grandparents joined
their destiny to that of the Jews coming to the Land of Israel, I feel
that history is somehow moving backwards. Antisemitism and hatred
towards Israel is soaring. Comparing me, a Muslim Bedouin who
supports Israel, to the Nazis is just another clear piece of
evidence.
And yet, 60 years after the horrors of the Holocaust, I felt
that on campus, the Jewish voice is silent. Where are the
Jewish students fighting back? My commitment in these crucial days,
while Israel is struggling for its right to exist, is to continue
the heritage of my grandparents and to stand together to fight for
the State of Israel.
History will not tolerate us if we keep our voice
silent. We must roll up our sleeves once again to build a better future
for Israel and all of its loyal citizens. Israel's right to exist is
my right and my people's right, just as Israel's destiny is our
destiny.
But just as history demands for me to fight for Israel,
history also will not tolerate a generation of Jews who don't
care.