Hen
Mazzig is the Campus Coordinator for StandWithUs' Pacific Northwest chapter in the United
States. He was IDF (Israel Defense Forces) for almost five years.
As a lieutenant in the COGAT unit, he worked as an intermediary between the
Israeli Defense Forces (the IDF) and the Palestinian Authority (the PA), the
UN, and the many non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that work in the West
Bank. Hen's unit was responsible for overseeing the construction of medical
facilities, schools, environmental projects, roads, water-related
infrastructure, and for security coordination with the Palestinian Security
Forces, part of the Palestinian Authority.
When I served as a soldier in
the West Bank, I got used to having ugly things said to me, but nothing
prepared me for the misinformation, demonization of Israel, and the
gut-wrenching, anti-Israel, anti-Semitic hostility expressed by many students,
professors, church members, and even some high school students right here in
the Pacific Northwest.
I was further shocked by how unaware the organized
Jewish community is and how little they are actually doing to counter this rising anti-Semitism, which motivated me to write
this article. This new form of bigotry against Israel has been called the “new
anti-Semitism,” with “Israel” replacing “Jew” in traditional anti-Semitic
imagery and canards, singling out and discriminating against the Jewish state,
and denying the Jewish people alone the right to self-determination. The new
anti-Semitism is packaged in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign
(BDS), which claims to champion Palestinian rights, though its real goal is to
erode American support for Israel, discredit Jews who support Israel, and pave
the way for eliminating the Jewish state. One of BDS’ central demands is the
“complete right of return” for all the descendants of the original Palestinian
refugees, subtle language that means the end of Israel as the Jewish homeland
because it would turn Israel into a Palestinian-Arab majority state.
It is surprising that an extremist group
like BDS is ever taken seriously, but BDS advocates have found receptive
audiences in some circles. Their campaigns are well organized and in many
cases, well financed. They have lobbied universities, corporations, churches,
performing artists, labor unions, and other organizations to boycott Israel and
companies that do business with Israel. But even if these groups don’t agree to
treat Israel as a pariah state, the BDS activists manage to spread their
anti-Israel misinformation, lies and prejudice simply by forcing a debate based
on their false claims about Israel.
To give you a taste of the viciousness of
the BDS attacks, let me cite just a few of the many shocking experiences I have
had. At a BDS event in Portland, a professor from a Seattle university told the
assembled crowd that the Jews of Israel have no national rights and should be
forced out of the country. When I asked, “Where do you want them to go?” she calmly
answered, “I don’t care. I don’t care if they don’t have any place else to go.
They should not be there.” When I responded that she was calling for ethnic
cleansing, both she and her supporters denied it.
And during a presentation in Seattle, I
spoke about my longing for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. When I
was done, a woman in her 60’s stood up and yelled at me, “You are worse than
the Nazis. You are just like the Nazi youth!” A number of times I was
repeatedly accused of being a killer, though I have never hurt anyone in my
life. On other occasions, anti-Israel activists called me a rapist. The claims
go beyond being absurd – in one case, a professor asked me if I knew how many
Palestinians have been raped by IDF forces. I answered that as far as I knew,
none. She triumphantly responded that I was right, because, she said, “You IDF
soldiers don’t rape Palestinians because Israelis are so racist and disgusted
by them that you won’t touch them.” Such irrational accusations are symptomatic
of dangerous anti-Semitism...