Israel on Campus Coalition
The Israel on Campus Coalition is a pro-Israel umbrella organization founded in 2002 under the auspices of the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation and Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life.[1]
Mission and activities
The ICC was created in order "to evaluate the worrisome rise in anti-Israel activities on college campuses across North America" and "serves as the central coordinating and strategic body to address campus issues and intelligently impact a pro-active, pro-Israel agenda on campus."[1] ICC coordinates groups as well as individual students and faculty members to respond to anti-Israel activism by providing what it calls "pro-active, pro-Israel" information and programs.[2]
The ICC collects and publishes data on the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. It publishes an annual campus trends report on this topic.[3]
National Day of Coexistence
The ICC declared October 14th, 2015 to be the "National Day of Coexistence." This was in response to the "International Day of Action" declared by Students for Justice in Palestine on the same date. The ICC said their goal was to "promote dialogue at colleges and universities across America, and we will raise funds for initiatives that build bridges between Israelis and Palestinians."[4]
Issues
Anti-BDS legislation
The ICC supports legislation to prohibit state pension funds from investing in companies that support BDS. In response to the passage of such a bill in Illinois in 2015 the ICC wrote: "Illinois is the first state to take concrete, legally binding action against the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign, providing a legislative model for the rest of the country. At its core, the BDS movement is rooted in anti-Semitism and the denial of Israel’s right to exist. Israel on Campus Coalition applauds Illinois for leading the way in the fight against the growing BDS movement."[5]
Leadership
Jacob Baime
Jacob Baime is the executive director of the Israel on Campus Coalition.[6]
Speaking about the ICC's mission and tactics in an interview with Tablet Magazine, Baime said the group looks “to a broader set of issues that have great currency in the campus environment, such as racial, gender, and economic equality. We have seen how a handful of students, faculty, and outside agitators can turn a campus into a hostile and challenging place for pro-Israel students. They shift tactics constantly, and they are not interested in preserving the reputation of the campuses on which they operate. To the contrary, they want to make each campus a no-go zone for pro-Israel students. We will not succumb to this kind of intimidation, and we reject such false choices.”[6]
References
- 1 2 "Israel on Campus Coalition". Archived from the original on 26 July 2011.
- ↑ Wisse, Ruth R. (23 March 2016). "March Madness, the Anti-Semite Bracket". The Wall Street Journal (New York, New York). Retrieved 8 April 2016.
- ↑ Stoil, Rebecca Shimoni (24 August 2015). "BDS gains campus cred in US, but pro-Israel efforts improving, report says". The Times of Israel (Jerusalem, Israel). Retrieved 8 April 2016.
- ↑ Baime, Jacob (13 October 2015). "On U.S. campuses, students call for intifada". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 12 April 2016.
- ↑ Staff (19 May 2015). "Pro-Israel campus group applauds Illinois anti-BDS legislation". Jerusalem, Israel: The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 12 April 2016.
- 1 2 Leibovitz, Liel (31 March 2016). "BDS, Inc.". Tablet Magazine (New York, NY). Retrieved 8 April 2016.