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ICC Convenes Emergency Summit
September 12, 2006Comments (0) | Add | E-mail this to a friend
 The Israel on Campus Coalition presents a declaration of support to the Embassy of Israel.
With the new academic year under way, the Israel on Campus Coalition (ICC) convened an emergency summit in September at Hillel’s Charles and Lynn Schusterman International Center in Washington, D.C.
Representatives from the 30-member organization hammered out strategies for handling student Israel advocacy on college campuses during the upcoming year.
“It was an incredibly productive summit,” said David Harris, executive director of the Israel on Campus Coalition. “The ICC serves as a strategic and collaborative body, especially during difficult times for Israel. Our coalition partners engaged in meaningful collaboration, discussing key points of where we can work together and share views.”
The 52 summit delegates agreed to address campuses’ needs by offering speakers, distributing educational materials, providing activist training locally, and organizing conference calls for students.
“It was extremely important to gather at this time to coordinate, organize and agree on common goals,” said Harris.
A lunchtime presentation provided a preview of the ICC’s new study: “In Search of Israel Studies.” Later this semester, the ICC will release this landmark publication which examines the number of Israel studies programs on American college campuses.
Following lunch the group went to the White House for a National Security Council briefing with a senior director for Near Eastern affairs.
Their next stop was a visit to the Embassy of Israel where they presented an ICC pledge of support to Deputy Chief of Mission Jeremy Issacharoff. The pledge, drafted by ICC members, declared:
We, the thirty national member organizations of the Israel on Campus Coalition, pledge to mobilize hundreds of thousands of students on hundreds of geographically diverse college campuses across North America to express solidarity with the State of Israel and its people during the month of September and throughout the fall semester.
Committed as we are to promoting Israel education and advocacy on campus, we further pledge to work individually and collaboratively to educate students on campus, through teach-ins, speaker series, travel to Israel, and other methods of engagement – and to
assist the organization of student-led rallies, petitions and programs demonstrating solidarity with the State of Israel during the month of September.
Issacharoff thanked the group on behalf of the government of Israel for showing solidarity with Israel especially during the present difficulties in the Middle East.
“There is a profound need to educate students and engage them in Israel advocacy,” said Harris. “The breadth and depth of the many coalition members would normally pursue different creative approaches to meet this need. It is remarkable that that we came together and agreed on strategy.”
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