Eyewitness students
Students from 24 US universities toured Israel last week as part of a program using firsthand testimonies to help counter misinformation about Israel. The students attend universities including UCLA, Duke, UC Berkeley, and the University of Michigan.
On their 10-day visit, participants of the Hasbara Fellowships and IsraelAmbassadors.com delegation met politicians, visited the site of the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre, met a former hostage, and toured Israel’s northern borders for an on-the-ground understanding of the reality there under the ceasefire with Hezbollah.
“This is not a sightseeing trip, it’s a hard-core 10-day pro-Israel activist mission,” said Michael Eglash, co-founder of IsraelAmbassadors.com. “These students will go back to their campuses in a few weeks with the knowledge and content to be effective activists for Israel. They will refute the lies and propaganda against Israel on campus as proud Zionists.
Ohad Ben Ami, who was held in Gaza for 491 days, urged the group to “raise their voices” and “remind the world that Israel’s hostages must be freed.”
“With so much misinformation being spread and pressure to make Jewish visibility and support for Israel shameful, learning the truth firsthand matters now more than ever,” observed Sam May of the University of Texas. He said he was “looking forward to returning to campus with a clearer perspective and the tools to fight against antisemitism.”
Antisemitic incidents on college campuses rose last year more steeply than in any other location, according to the ADL.
The visitors toured the Nova Festival site, Sderot’s destroyed police station, and the Tkuma “car graveyard,” comprising vehicles destroyed at the Nova festival grounds. They also visited the Me’arat HaMachpelah (Cave of the Patriarchs) in Hebron and other sites of significance for Jewish history.
The visit’s schedule included a communications summit featuring Middle East expert Khaled Abu Toameh, a Senior Distinguished Fellow at Gatestone Institute and a Fellow of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and JNS contributor. —JNS
