For over six months, campustruth.org has launched a media blitz of provocative advertisements in college newspapers across the nation. The organization hails itself as a purveyor of intellectual inquiry and argues, according to its website, that its advertisements “spur students to think through the issues.” But in actuality, the campaign’s primary aim is to demonize a people.
It is telling that the advertisements’ reductionist depiction of Palestinians has been rejected by mainstream pro-Israel organizations on campus, as these caricatures of complex issues serve no purpose other than fomenting hostility and furthering stereotypes.
At a time when the Israeli-Palestinian debate on campus is filled with tension, these advertisements help prevent the establishment of dialogue and common ground. This campus can ill afford more bile injected into this debate.