The University of Central Florida Emet for Israel supported organization, Knights for Israel, signed up for the International Fair as soon as we heard about it because we understood the opportunity this would be for us. Tabling throughout the semester, I now understand the sheer magnitude of unawareness some college students possess, having seen the amount of students that don’t have the slightest clue what the Israeli flag is. In fact, close to 4 out of 5 random students we asked to identify the Israeli flag were not able to do so.
The International Fair provided us with a significant stage to showcase what we stand for, and most importantly, to fly our flag proudly with everyone else. The 11/13 attacks in Paris were fresh in our minds and we deeply emphasized with the French people. The fight against militant Islam is one that involves the entire world and the need to unify against extremists was desperately needed. We flew the French, American and Israeli flag side by side to show love and solidarity for our allies.
I could not emphasize enough how successful this fair was. The majority of people that approached our booth did so with an open mind and looking to learn more about this mysterious blue and white flag. We educated countless on the daily terror Israelis face and gave out CAMERA swag just for attempting to answer some of our questions about Israel. If the student got the first two correct I would ask them to name two cities in Israel. As one would expect we received some outrageous answers and not a single person could answer all three questions. However educating is was what we were there for and that is what we did for countless students.
Sadly, there were students upset that we had the “audacity” to compare what occurs in Israel to Lebanon and France. When these attacks occurred in places like Paris, Nairobi and Beirut they were condemned and mourned, but, according to these horrified students, in Israel, terrorism is justified. People stormed off and countless took pictures of our table as though we were an exhibit at the zoo. And you know what? We smiled in every one.
This was contributed by University of Central Florida CAMERA Fellow and President of UCF’s Emet for Israel supported group Knights for Israel, Ben Suster.