Pro-Israel protesters don't all support the fence route

Not all the Israeli students who flew to The Hague this week to defend Israel's case support the current route of the West Bank separation fence. According to American philanthropist Joey Low, founder of the Israel PR organization Israel at Heart, some of the 55 Israeli students he flew to the The Hague this week would like to see it follow the 1967 borders more closely.

"We didn't see our presence there as supporting the fence or the Israeli government," Low told Anglo File this week before he left The Hague, where the International Court of Justice was debating the legality of the fence Israel is building. "But we do support Israel's right to protect itself and how it does that should be an internal Israeli issue," he said.

Low, a left-leaning Zionist who founded the non-partisan Israel at Heart nearly two years ago out of frustration at the way Israeli government officials were making their case abroad, has funded numerous trips abroad for Israeli youth to tell their personal stories about life in Israel to both Jewish and non-Jewish audiences.

The group which travelled to The Hague, costing Low close to $50,000 from his own pocket, spent three days demonstrating against the hearings, attending a memorial ceremony for Israeli terror victims and speaking to the media, he said. "We were really happy we went because there were not thousands of people there and it was important to make the statement that the world has to judge Israel by the same standards as it judges everyone else."

Low said that prior to the trip he had been afraid that the pro-Israeli demonstrations might be dominated by right-wing groups, but in fact he had not seen anybody supporting the fence from "the settler point of view." He added that the "peaceful presentation" of Israel's position sharply contrasted with the hatred shown by pro-Palestinian demonstrators, who he said screamed and spat in the direction of the Israeli protesters.

Low, who sent 30 young Israelis on speaking tours across Europe for the first time in November, plans to send Spanish and Portugese-speaking advocates for the first time to South America in April, as well as more students to North America and the U.K.

	Israel at Heart activists marching in The Hague earlier this week. "We support Israel's right to protect itself, and how it does that should be an internal Israeli issue."
	Photo by: Ayelet Zur