Swastikas deface Chicago campus

   Anti-Semitism and attacks against Israel have spiked this week as Israel Apartheid Week was ushered in on around 40 campuses across the country, plus some in Canada and Europe. The week, which runs from March 1-8, threatens to be more hate-filled than its four predecessors, according to the international Israel education organization StandWithUs, as organizers use the recent Hamas-Israel war to push their agenda.
    The IAW's goal is to demonize Israel by equating it with racist Apartheid South Africa, explained StandWithUs in a press release. It is an effort to lynch Israel through a free-for-all of misinformation and wild exaggeration that often crosses the line into traditional anti-Semitic libel applied now to the Jewish State.
    This week, several IAW and pro-Israel counter events were held, sparking shrill and sometimes threatening situations. According to Dani Klein, StandWithUs Campus Director for North America, swastikas were painted on flyers for a pro-Israel event held Tuesday at Chicago's DePaul University.
    "We found the flyers all around campus with the swastikas," Klein told this reporter. "It was reported to the Chicago police."
    At Boston University there was a heated IAW event, when pro-Israel students showed up and attempted to distribute their own flyers. They were screamed at and "quasi-accosted," explained Klein; they were bullied into not handing out their materials.
    Canadian campuses seem to be among the worse hit by IAW. At the University of Toronto, said Klein, a student was physically assaulted by an IAW event organizer and supposed security guard. A similar situation happened at York University. Police were contacted, but nothing was done.
    These incidents came just days after an anti-Israel poster caused uproar on Canadian campuses. Hundreds of protesters demonstrated last Thursday at Carleton and Ottawa Universities after the schools made a decision to ban a poster advertising IAW that depicts a gunship labeled "Israel" firing a missile at a boy wearing a kaffiyeh and holding a teddy bear. Supporters of Israel said it portrays Israelis as child-killers, an old anti-Semitic theme (see full article).
    Klein said he does not see physical attacks happening at large, such as to pro-Israel students who are simply walking on campus, but tensions have certainly been high all around. He noted that many of the pro-Palestinian students held their rhetoric in February, the month after Israel unilaterally withdrew from its operation in Gaza, likely because they were "saving their ammunition for this week. ... You see a lot of the same slogans and rhetoric from anti-Israel rallies in January."
   What can students do? Klein said they should get educated.
   StandWithUs has put together a number of booklets to counter what the pro-Palestinians are saying for distribution on campuses and as references for those who want to stand up. He said parents and educators need to make sure the pro-Israel students are aware of the facts and can stand up and defend the Jewish state.
    "We can't allow the IAW organizers to hijack the message about Israel," Klein said.

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