Ilene Schneider, a writer for the monthly Orange County Jewish Life, has written a puff piece on the Olive Tree Initiative, which is below. You should know that OC Jewish Life receives funding from the Jewish Federation. My own comments are in bold print.
http://www.ocjewishlife.com/site/lingering-issue/
"The Olive Tree Initiative (OTI) is in the news again, because a 2009 document indicating that students participating in the OTI program met with a Hamas leader came to light recently. The news about the discovery of the letter broke around the same time as Jewish Federation & Family Services (JFFS) unveiled its on-line publication of the Rose Report, citing the accomplishments of the Rose Project, which seeks to be “a community initiative to combat anti-Israel rhetoric on our local university campuses, and to educate and empower our students to become advocates for Israel and the Jewish people.”
In April the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) called on the University of California, Irvine (UCI) to terminate a university program called the Olive Tree Initiative (OTI) – set up to build understanding and dialogue about the Arab-Israeli conflict – and called upon JFFS to stop funding and supporting the program, after it was revealed that students who participated in an OTI trip to Israel, including Judea and Samaria, met with a top leader of Hamas and then were instructed to keep the meeting a secret. The 2009 letter from leaders of JFFS – Jeffrey H. Margolis, co-chair, Rose Project; Dr. James Weiss, co-chair, Rose Project; and Shalom C. Elcott, president and CEO of JFFS – to UCI Chancellor Michael Drake, expressed shock and concern about the secret meeting.
Fousesquawk comment: And where is the UCI response to that letter, which has never surfaced? Meanwhile, the Jewish Federation never disclosed the issue to the community until the Federation letter was recently obtained from UCI under the state Freedom of Information Act. Furthermore, that incident remained kept under wraps in 2010 while the Federation and Hillel were bashing a Jewish woman in the community for expressing alarm about OTI meetings with Internatiuonal Solidarity Movement activists in the West Bank in 2008 and 2010. The 2009 itinerary was not even published by OTI until 2010.
Orange County Jewish Life met with officials of Jewish Federation and Family Services for clarification on the matter.
Who, Ilene?
Q: What is the role of JFFS in OTI?
A: JFFS is extensively involved in combating the campaign to delegitimize Israel, and have been working diligently with many strategic partners over the last several years to combat the anti-Israel and anti-Semitic activity at the University of California, Irvine campus. The Olive Tree Initiative is not a JFFS program. The program was founded by a group of UCI students from a variety of backgrounds, including Jewish and Muslim students. It is a program of UCI that offers school credit.
Q: Does JFFS fund OTI?
A: Jewish Federation & Family Services, Orange County does not fund the trip or its speakers with community dollars. Instead, donor-designated giving has provided scholarships to a few Jewish student participants. Although at one time Rose Project funding represented the largest single contribution to the program, that has not been the case for quite some time. Funding sources for the program include UCI directly, many non-Jewish community philanthropists and the parents and family friends of the student participants. The students are responsible for raising the money themselves and hold several fundraisers throughout the year.
The Rose Project, which has funded travel of Jewish students on OTI trips, is a creation of the Jewish Federation.
Q: How does the OTI trip affect students who participate in it?
A: One of the incorrect claims that has been perpetuated is that these Jewish students come back less pro-Israel. It is actually quite the opposite. Not a single Jewish student has ever come back less pro-Israel or returned ready to join the anti-Israel camp. Indeed, they come back as stronger advocates, more passionate about pro-Israel activism and express a greater connection with their Jewish identity. These particular Jewish students who participate on the program are recognized by several prominent U.S. pro-Israel organizations as the very best and brightest pro-Israel activists on campuses in America, and receive significant training before departing.
At least two students, (on two different UC campuses) whom I shall not name because they are students, happen to be involved with Students for Justice in Palestine-a virulently anti-Israel organization.
Q: How does Jewish student participation in the OTI trip affect the perceptions of other students?
A: The Jewish students have been quite successful during the trip, and then after, in helping their non-Jewish peers see through any anti-Israel rhetoric or propaganda. These Jewish students have many times offered and asked the critics who make this claim to meet in order to discuss their experiences from the trip. Ironically, those offers have all been turned down.
It sure has not improved the climate at UCI judged by the Oren incident and the May 2010 Israel Apartheid Week to say nothing about the 2009 event. The next anti-Israel week, hosted by the Muslim Student Union, begins May 9.
Q: Does OTI have an anti-Israel agenda?
A: The belief that the program is an anti-Israel body with an agenda to delegitimize Israel is incorrect. Indeed, the group has met with several speakers that we find problematic (and we have expressed this to the group leaders and the university administration), but that does not make the program itself anti-Israel.
Clearly over-represented to the Palestinian narrative.
Q: How does Rose Project participation in OTI help to ensure balance in the programming?
A: We have seen it as our responsibility to make sure that the student participants, Jewish and not Jewish, get the right information about Israel. We have helped coordinate many of their meetings with well-respected pro-Israel speakers, and have helped arrange their visits to Sderot, Yad Vashem, the Begin Center and the city of Ariel, to name a few. In coordination with Israel’s Foreign Ministry (LA Israeli Consulate) we work to ensure balanced perspective on the itinerary and that a strong Israel voice is presented.
Q: Have the leaders of the Rose Project considered terminating the organization’s involvement with OTI?
A: OTI will continue with or without us. Given the choice of having no involvement whatsoever, or having the opportunity to have influence over the itinerary and students, before and the trip, we have chosen the latter.
If I recall correctly, that was part of Albert Speer's defense at Nuremberg.
Q: How did JFFS respond to the OTI meeting with a Hamas leader?
A: The 2009 OTI trip had an unapproved, off itinerary meeting with Aziz Dwaik, a leader of Hamas’s political faction, and the disputed (and unrecognized) president of the Palestinian Authority. Upon the group’s return, JFFS learned of this meeting and met with Chancellor Drake to express our concern and disappointment for this meeting. JFFS requested an investigation be made into the decision by the UCI staff who were responsible for the group’s visit, and filed a letter on the record stating that OTI had crossed a red line."
Why is there no record of an official university response? Was a response expected, or was the Federation letter just something to stick in the files in case it was needed someday? Again, why was the incident not revealed to the local Jewish community?
Finally, where are the apologies to the female activist who brought everything to light and was object of an organized smear campaign within the local Jewish community?
Some journalism.
BTW: Here is my comment on the post to OC Jewish Life. We shall see if they publish it.
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First of all, who was interviewed?
Where is the UCI response to the Fed letter? Was there a response? Was one even expected?
Keep in mind, that during 2010, (name deleted) was being smeared in the local community for raising concerns about the presence of the International Solidarity Movement activists meeting with the OTI students in the West Bank. All the while, nothing was said to the community about a 2009 meeting with a Hamas official. It only came to light with a Freedom of Information request to UCI which revealed the letter. Where are the apologies to (name deleted)?
Finally, given the recents events regarding the Fogel family massacre, the rocket attack on an Israeli school bus and the reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas, who just is it OTI wants to dialogue with?
God forbid that one of these students gets harmed on an OTI trip. Then watch the lawsuits fly.
Gary Fouse
Adj teacher
UCI-EXT
4 comments:
UCI owes no explanation to the Zionist Organization of America. It is a private advocacy organization, which is free to express its opinion.
ZOA might reasonably remonstrate with Rose, ZOA's considered opinion that support for OTI is not consistent with the stated mission of Rose. Rose might reasonably agree, or disagree.
ABC might like DEF or dislike GHI, but JKL doesn't have to respond to any of them, nor to MNO, over its alliance with PQR. For that matter, none of them know exactly shat STU is up to, and it is none of their business, although VWX provides them all with monthly news bulletins, which YZ does not.
UCI as a state tax-payer funded institution will always owe an explanation to the public when these problems arise.
The Jewish Federation and the OCJL are too concerned about their reputations and need to save face in the light of clear and present danger, from the trips onto Samaria and Judea. With the increase in violence in those areas ( murder of the Fogel family, murder of a worshiper at Joseph's tomb) and the newly cemented relationship of Hamas and Fatah, OTI trips to this area should cease. Hamas and Fatah are clearly hostile to Israel and Jews, which will continue, as prescribed by Islamic writings. As a friend said to me, no insurance company would underwrite these trips. As stated in the blog "God forbid" that there is a disaster.
Squid
Since when is ZOA "the public"? Any individual, or organization, may of course make an informational inquiry, which in general should be responded to, particularly inaccordance with freedom of information laws. That doesn't mean anyone who chooses to step up as The Voice of the Public is entitled to an EXPLANATION of policy decisions.
A legislative committee, with assigned jurisdiction, might well do so.
Similarly, when Squid is elected to the board of OTI, I'm sure his opinion will be solicited as to whether trips to Israel and the West Bank should or should not continue.
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