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Shalhevet girls at UN: Bridges, not boycotts

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Representatives of Midreshet Shalhevet’s Committee for Israel Action, accompanied by teacher and club leader Simcha Bader, had the incredible opportunity to be a part of 1,500 pro-Israel activists, students and representatives of Jewish organizations coming to the United Nations for an international summit to battle the anti-Israel Boycotts Divestments and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

The gathering, on May 31, was the largest to date.

“Look around you,” Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon told attendees. “This is an historic moment in the UN.”

Shalhevet was represented by students Zahava Fertig, Rachel Fishbein and Sarah Austin.

It was chilling standing in the General Assembly waving Israeli flags and singing Hatikva not even 70 years after Israel became a state.

“I think it’s great just to bring everyone together to talk about this issue,” Fishbein said. “It’s exciting to have all these people in one room fighting for something important especially in THIS room. I’m amazed that the UN is allowing this conference to take place here”

The conference, Build Bridges not Boycotts, united over a dozen Jewish organizations such as Stand With Us and C.A.M.E.R.A.(Committee for Accuracy in the Middle East Reporting in America) to discuss how we can all combat BDS on campuses as well as using law to invalidate BDS arguments. 

Prime Minister Netanyahu addressed the opening session via video.

In his speech, Ambassador Danon said that the BDS phenomenon amounted to “modern-day anti-Semitism,” and that those who wanted to fight it “must unite to reveal its true face and put an end to its ideology of hatred and lies. Together, we will defeat BDS.”

Also addressing the General Assembly, speakers included Vice President of the Israeli Supreme Court Justice Elyakim Rubenstein, Chief Legal Counsel of the American Center for Law Jay Sekulow, and President of the World Jewish Congress Ronald Lauder, to name a few. 

During the afternoon, participants listened to a panel of speakers from all over the world. Each speaker gave ideas and solutions for battling BDS on college campuses.

David Sayble, Global CEO of Y&R said, “We need to stop talking to ourselves.” He meant that one of the ways we need to eradicate BDS is by understanding our audience and how to speak so that people will listen. 

“We were really struck by how many ways the law can be used to combat BDS,” said Austin. We really learned how to become active on college campuses in the fight against BDS, a skill we will certainly need in the next few years.”