A pro-Israel rally in Los Angeles (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons, Israeli American Council).

1. Be proactive.

Start the campus conversation on Israel. From the first month on campus, create a monthly seminar educating your fellow students about Israel’s human rights record and how it is the only democratic state in the region. Table for Israel by handing out informational flyers that tackle myths about Israel. For example, explain the security necessity of Israel’s security fence; relaying the fact that the mortality rate from suicide bombings went down by more than 90% after the security fence was put up. Do this before an anti-Israel event is scheduled. Invite speakers to campus to help give a positive impression of Israel, today. Write op-eds to the school newspaper from the beginning of the year. Post pro-Israel messages on social media. Invite SJP (Students for Justice in Palestine) members to events and ask them for an open dialogue in the school paper — if SJP ignores the invitation, they will be discredited in the eyes of others due to their refusal to engage in discussion.

Pro-Israel students often scramble to respond to SJP and BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanctions) without enough time to come up with an appropriate response to an anti-Semitic event, such as “Israel Apartheid Week”. Subsequently Israel looks weak. Rather than letting anti-Israel groups frame the conversation, proactively put them on the defensive.

2. Volunteer or do community service in the name of Israel.

One of the most effective ways to promote Israel on campus is to be a role model and anyone can do this. Volunteer in your community by going to the local homeless shelter. Then wear an “I love Israel” t-shirt to work and express pro-Israel sentiment during shifts-even in an apolitical setting. From personal experience, Talia Friedman has found this to be a very effective tool because shortly after she started volunteering at a hospital wing near her, people in the hospital started commenting. A nurse said, “if my child is ever sick, I am converting to Judaism.” A security guard said, “only Jews volunteer regularly and can be relied on to help.” A Latin American family commented that “Israel is blessed to the Jews-the people who are blessed. Thank you for coming.” After two years of volunteering in the hospital, many staff members voluntarily salute the Israeli flag. If people admire you, then they will admire what you stand for. Doing community service changes the dialogue on Israel and demonstrates that whenever people are in need, Israel and Israel-supporters are there to help.

3. Use every platform to promote Israel.

Rather than limit Israel advocacy to pro-Israel events, use every club, organization, and team to support Israel. Name an intramural sports team the “Maccabees”; choose “The Wave” or books that discuss Israel in the book club, pick “Save A Child’s Heart” or a charity in Israel for a campus fundraiser; challenge an engineering club to build new technology that solves one of the problems Israel faces today. Display pro-Israel sentiment on campus to humanize the discussion about Israel. This also engages students who would normally have had nothing to do with Israel and provides them with an opportunity to see the only Jewish state in an untainted light.

4. Redirect the attack.

As anti-Israel groups such as SJP hold “die-ins,” mock “apartheid walls,” or protests on campus, do not respond by having a falafel culture night. Think of effective ideas for how you can use their operations to your own benefit. Engage with them during their events and offer to have a conversation about Israel with them. Change bystanders’ first impressions of the country that SJP is misrepresenting.  Record what BDS/SJP members say during their events–it is legal to videotape protesters in most states–and ask them questions to expose their true motives. If you know an anti-Israel group has organized a ‘walkout’ from a pro-Israel speaker’s event, announce at the beginning of the event that a pro-Israel sponsor will donate money to a charity in Israel for every person that walks out the door in protest. In other words, use all SJP actions to promote, instead of hurt, Israel whenever possible.

5. Display the facts and expose the true motive of the opposition: the destruction of Israel as a Jewish state.

Educate your peers about what anti-Israel groups such as BDS and SJP preach. These groups are not “pro-Palestinian” like they claim, as they hurt the very same people they say they support by taking away Palestinian-Arab livelihood through the boycott of Israeli companies. Rather, they are anti-Israel, anti-Semitic hate groups that try to deny the 3,000 year old Jewish connection to the land of Israel. Explain the anti-Semitic motives behind their tactics – how they have repeatedly harassed Jewish students during and outside of demonstrations and made them feel unsafe on their own campus – and give students the tools to become more self-aware of what’s really going on during “movements” like ‘apartheid week.’ Have a screening of Crossing the Line 2 and, after the film, clarify how SJP events manipulate casual observers into hating a free and democratic nation. Students will not want to affiliate with a group that reminds them of racism and bigotry; comparable to the KKK or the Westboro Baptist Church.

Talia Friedman and Josh Ashkenazi are former ZOA Campus interns. Talia recently graduated from Rutgers University and was heavily involved in Israel advocacy on campus. Josh is a freshman at the University of Maryland and plans to be involved in the pro-Israel groups on campus.