The Union of Jewish Students (UJS) has established a new role within the organization of "Israel Engagement Officer", a post being taken up by Canadian Beca Bookman.
Bookman comes with considerable experience in working with the Israeli regime to undermine Palestine solidarity, and is a past recipient of a "Hasbara in Action" award from the Menachem Begin Foundation.
According to the advertisement for the job, the position is part funded and supported by UJIA, Jewish Agency for Israel and, the Community Security Trust (CST).
In addition, the work of the Israel Engagement Officer will be complemented by another new addition: an 'emissary' (schlicha) from the Jewish Agency for Israel, sent to Britain in part to help hasbara initiatives on campus. These changes are being overseen by new president Joe Tarsh, who hopes to serve in the Israeli army and believes "UJS should be representing Israel on campus".
In preparation for the term, the UJS team has met with the Israeli Ambassador to the UK Daniel Taub, and held a training summit that featured speakers from the Israeli embassy (Director of Public Diplomacy), Israel lobby group BICOM, and Labor Friends of Israel.
Representatives of liberal Zionist advocacy group Yachad, BICOM project ‘We Believe in Israel’, and StandWithUs UK have also held a panel discussion on campus hasbara, which is concentrating on promoting Israeli regime’s policies among British students and picking pro-Israel student leaders from among the students.
In Britain, supporters of the Zionist regime’s aggressive policies and its destructive measures in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, have been dwindling in recent years thanks to a growing Palestinian solidarity movement as well as the activities of English language TV channels such as Tehran-based PRESS TV, which promotes the Palestinian cause all across the world.
Meanwhile, young British Jews are increasingly turning against traditional ‘Israel right or wrong’ approaches. Therefore, pro-Israel advocacy groups are struggling to adapt to these new developments.
Their strategies to deceive young Britons at the campuses include first trying to introduce every pro-Palestinian campaigner as an extremist and second seeking to portray Israeli regime’s apartheid as anti-Semitism, which is a totally different issue. They must acknowledge the fact that fighting Zionism and its apartheid policies has nothing to do with the Jews and their religion.
SHI/SHI