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September 14, 2001
Israel Connections - Hebrew U conference
Discussions open minds
World-class Hebrew U scholars enlighten students.
BAILA LAZARUS EDITOR AND PAT JOHNSON REPORTER
Why does Israel get such a bad rap? This is one of the nagging
questions that has been on the minds of people following the media
war in the Middle East. The major news stations in the United States
have pegged Israel as the aggressor in the conflict and they don't
look like they are going to change their minds.
This, said Hebrew University professor Dr. Gadi Wolfsfeld, is what's
known in journalism as a "frame" or storyline that designates
who are the heroes and who are the villains.
"Once you establish a storyline, you can't deviate from that
storyline," Wolfsfeld told a full Norman Rothstein Theatre
at the opening of Stretch Your Mind: The Best of Hebrew U.
In his speech - Understanding Israel's Image in the International
News Media - Wolfsfeld explained the rationale behind the decisions
of many newsrooms to make the Palestinians look like victims in
the conflict. The biggest issue, he said, is that North American
audiences don't really care about foreign news. To make such news
entertaining, it has to be very graphic and very simple. That means,
you can't change who the good guys are, otherwise the viewing public
will get confused and look for another news station, Wolfsfeld explained.
In addition, most newsrooms like to believe they are doing something
that fights injustice. The Palestinians become the underdogs because
the perception is that the root of all evil in the Middle East is
Israel's treatment of the Palestinians, Wolfsfeld said.
Wolfsfeld, who is a professor of political science, communication
and journalism, was the keynote speaker of a program that brought
six scholars from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem into Vancouver
for a night and day of learning.
The opening event Sept. 8 also included a reception in the Jewish
Community Centre of Greater Vancouver (JCC), Havdalah prayers, musical
entertainment and a dessert reception.
Tough to defend Israel
On Sunday, the scholars each presented three sessions focusing
on their areas of expertise. Topics were as diverse as Jewish Mysticism
as a Path of Freedom, and Gene Delivery Systems and Therapy. Prof.
Frances Raday, in a session titled Religion, Secularism and Human
Rights in Israel, discussed the long Jewish tradition of respect
for the individual and how that tradition impacted on the Enlightenment
sensibilities in Europe.
The founding of the state of Israel in 1948 confronted Jews with
a whole new challenge: that of governing.
Israel has a state religion, which makes it no different, Raday
pointed out, from England or Scandinavian countries. As in those
countries, she explained, having an official religion does not mean
that religious minorities are not respected or accorded full civil
rights. She acknowledged that Arab citizens in Israel suffer from
employment discrimination and other disadvantages, but pointed out
that they have legal recourse and the right to vote.
Raday forcefully attacked the religious lobby in Israel, whose
political power in minority governments she credits with holding
other citizens hostage.
Charedi officials, said Raday, use their powers to manipulate the
system. For example, restaurants with belly-dancers have been denied
kashrut certificates - effectively damning their businesses - for
reasons that have nothing to do with the food preparation. Most
irritating to average Israelis, she added, are the incongruous rules
regarding military service by Charedim and non-Charedi Israelis,
which are a result of nothing but political force.
Finally, she said, the recent United Nations conference in Durban,
South Africa, represented the triumph of lies over truth. An apparently
left-wing Israeli professor, Raday nevertheless acknowledged that,
despite its failures to ensure that the finest aims of human rights
laws are realized in daily activities, Israel has done well at protecting
its minority citizens. To call Israel an apartheid state, as happened
in Durban, is a lie that seems to gain credence with repetition.
On the other side, she said, defending Israel is tough.
"It's very hard to overcome prejudice with facts," she
said.
No military solution
Winding up the weekend, Raday joined professors Wolfsfeld, Rachel
Elior and Gershon Golomb for a panel discussion on the topic Israel
- Current and Future Challenges.
Wolfsfeld said there is no real choice other than seeking peace
with the Palestinians, as there is no military solution to this
conflict.
On the domestic front, Wolfsfeld said, the constitutional guarantees
for protection of minority peoples have not been adequately enforced.
The key to Israel's future, he said, must be to make those theoretical
rights real.
Golomb, who is a professor of cancer studies, took a more right-wing
perspective. He said the whole debate pivots on a false vocabulary.
"We liberated the territories, not occupied them," he
said.
Of the challenges facing Israel, he cited things such as building
a subway system in Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem, which should be the next
step in the development of a technologically advanced industrial
society. He was greeted by laughter when he suggested that one of
Israel's problems is that, by not demanding exact change, the buses
are slowed by drivers fumbling for change. However, he argued that
the exact change problem is symptomatic of Israelis making things
more difficult than they need to be.
Elior, head of the Hebrew University's department of Jewish studies,
said Israel's problems stem from the fact that, for 2,000 years,
Jews prophesied that they would return to the land from which they
came. When they did return, she said, they found the land had not
remained unoccupied during their absence.
"The land that we dreamed of was a land of milk and honey."
Unfortunately, she added, "Our land of dreams is also the land
of dreams of others."
In rebuttal, Golomb quipped that finding Palestinians who share
the peaceful sentiments of his fellow panelists is the real dream.
Also participating in the weekend program were Marilyn Koolik,
director of the Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive, and Yair Zakovitch,
dean of humanities at the university.
Stretch Your Mind, the Best of Hebrew U was presented by the Jewish
Federation of Greater Vancouver, Canadian Friends of the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem and the JCC.
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