Opinion
HIPAC seeks to clarify Israel’s position
By Samuel Kaplan ’18
October 1, 2015
The Hamilton Israel Public Affairs Committee (HIPAC) is a nascent political group on campus born out of the necessity to combat a horrifying domestic and international trend: the new brand of anti-Israel sentiment spawned from a series of falsehoods and mischaracterizations of the still-young democracy. The fact of the matter is that much of what people know about Israel comes from a biased media. They see the U.N. Human Rights Council’s condemning Israel more than all other countries combined and they think that Israel is a bastion of hate and racism. In fact, this is more a result of gross corruption in the U.N.
People also hear about alleged human rights violations in Gaza and the surrounding area, but they do not hear the whole story. Even if these acts are taken out of context and skewed; they do not deserve even close to the condemnation they have received. Where are the condemnations for Syria, a nation plagued by mass murder and genocide? As a result of these media misconceptions, Israel’s legitimacy is constantly called into question. Despite the global horrors occurring every day outside of Israel, it is the only nation whose existence is called into question. This is horrifying. As an organization, we certainly do not aim to say that Israel has a flawless government. There is a time and place to criticize any government, but calling Israel’s existence into question is something for which we will not stand.
In America, following Prime Minister Netanyahu’s visit with Congress, support for Israel, a matter once met with unilateral support, suddenly became polarized. Our goal as an organization is to foster support for a healthy US-Israeli relationship. We hope to do this by dispelling some of the misconceptions about Israel and painting it as the global contributor that it truly is. Aside from clearing up some of the untruths about Israel, we want people to see all the ways in which this relationship with America is crucial. We hold weekly meetings to discuss matters stretching from the Iranian nuclear deal to Israel’s tech sector (many people do not realize that Israel is the largest tech hub outside the Silicon Valley).
Another thing that many people do not understand is how culturally diverse Israel is. I cannot tell you how many people came up to me at the student activities fair and asked if they could join this HIPAC even though they were not Jewish. I cannot stress this enough: this is not a Jewish organization. The American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the lobbyist organization from which we derive our name, receives the bulk of its donations from non-Jews. Israel is a nonsectarian matter. It is our ally in democratic values, and the only nation in the Middle East and North Africa considered “free” according to Freedom House rankings. In fact, it is the only nation in the immediate area without explicit laws discriminating against Palestinians.
As an organization, HIPAC showcases Israel’s diversity through cultural events. Last year, we had a cultural food truck event at which we served Israeli food from the Druze, Bedouin, Jewish and Muslim cultures which thrive in the young nation-state. Turnout for this event was incredible. This year we will be doing an even bigger cultural food event as well as other cultural events which are to be announced.
In addition to our cultural events and weekly meetings, we aim to bring a series of speakers to Hamilton this year to discuss pressing political matters. We will be hearing about academic freedom and the BDS movement from Cornell’s Professor Jacobson (a Hamilton College alumnus). We are also working on bringing Jeremy Medved, a pioneer in crowdfunding, to discuss the tech industry in Israel. These are just a few of the events we wish to host this year. We welcome people of all political views and beliefs on the matter of Israel to join us for these events, as long as they do so respectfully.