Seven Oaks Magazine.

Even in the face of changing realities that have almost entirely eradicated the figure of the Student Radical, it is a figure which looms largely over our quasi-mythical conceptions of insurgent politics. In an era where skyrocketing tuition fees, coupled with a more generalized de-escalation of confrontational politics has largely eliminated political categories such as those filled in by the 60s activists of Students for a Democratic Society or, closer to home, those who raised hell at Simon Fraser University in the early years of its existence, one area remains where we stay fixed upon the goings-on of student politics: the confrontations surrounding the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Invariably, during dissections of the "New Anti-Semitism" - which has the peculiar quality of, quite frequently, not being anti-Semitic - the perceived plague of campus anti-Semitism is among the first threats mentioned in an effort to discredit those defending the national rights of the Palestinian people. While efforts such as the frighteningly Orwellian Campus-Watch.org monitor mostly professors and faculty in the field of Middle Eastern studies, many observers have turned towards the student body, looking for bogeymen and, more often than not, finding them. Across the United States, pro-Israel commentators have accused the organisers of divestment campaigns based upon the South African model of a toxic Jew-hatred; in Canada, CanWest Global has likened a broken window at an anti-Benjamin Netanyahu at a Concordia protest to kristallnacht ; Simon Fraser's Peak newspaper (the journalistic alma mater of three-quarters of the Seven Oaks editorial board) was singled out by the Jewish Western Bulletin in a 2001 article entitled "Slant at SFU Worries Jews." The aim of such observers, quite clearly, is to identify a pattern.

But the stories of this remnant student activism almost inevitably leave out an enormous upsurge in pro-Israel activities on these same campuses. Where once the Zionist narrative with regards to Middle Eastern history and current affairs went largely unchallenged in the halls of the academy, a growing challenge has mounted in faculties, syllabi and student groups, sending many pro-Israel groups into a flurry of activity aimed at regaining lost ground, or at least presenting some resistance to the increased profile of pro-Palestine activists on campus. In the past few months alone, Vancouver colleges and universities have played host to such stalwart Zionists as notorious anti-Muslim Daniel Pipes (son of Cold Warrior Richard Pipes, and cut from much the same cloth) as well as Israeli Consul General Yaacov Brosh. When the UBC Alma Mater Society presented world-renowned scholar and activist Noam Chomsky at the Orpheum Theatre, pro-Israel student activists rushed to their places at the microphone stands in the audience in order to denounce the speaker and his hosts.

Here, too a broader pattern is at work; if many of the activities and tactics offered up by Zionist sympathizers on various campuses seem similar, it's likely because they are. Manuals, such as the over 100-page long Hasbara Handbook , are giving specific instructions to pro-Israel activists in their efforts to defend the actions of the 'only democracy in the Middle East.'

Published by the World Union of Jewish Students, with sponsorship from the Joint Distribution Committee and the Education Department of the Jewish Agency for Israel, the handbook is a remarkable collection of very cynical suggestions. On page 22, the Israel activist is instructed to <<Call 'demonstrations' "riots", many Palestinian political organizations "terror organizations," and so on.>> The following page reiterates the long-standing, racist conception of Israel as a 'bulwark of Western civilization' in the savage East by reminding the reader that "Israel is a Western democracy in the middle of the Middle East. It stands for freedom, equal rights for all; it is a civilized country whose opera, ballet, and world-class universities ensure that Israeli culture is very advanced." The table of contents offers a list of "Resource Reviews," including the Anti-Defamation League website as well as the The Clash of Civilizations by "Samuel P. Huntingdon" [sic.]. And sick.

Perhaps equally disturbing is the handbook's own anti-Semitism, falling back on the old story that it is the special responsibility of Jewish students to defend the Israeli state: "Unfortunately, many Jewish students express their dissatisfaction with some government action or other by ignoring Israel, giving up on her just when she needs the most help and support." Implying the inability of Jewish students to rationally and lucidly analyse and evaluate - like any other student - the actions taken by Israel in its occupation of Palestinian territories, the handbook posits that "the reluctance of Jewish students to get behind Israel unconditionally is probably connected to the gradual shift in our generation towards attempting to find personal meaning in Judaism. This Hasbara Handbook attempts to acknowledge all of this, whilst providing Jewish student with the tools to defend Israel as a country."

Jewish students have absolutely no responsibility to be the loudest defenders - or critics - of Israeli policies. By pandering to the kind of anti-Arab and anti-Jewish sentiments outlined above, documents such as the Hasbara Handbook work to ensure that the patterns shaping up on campuses across the continent will continue to be destructive, divisive and, ultimately, stand in the way of achieving durable peace with justice in the Middle East.