The fifth annual Israel Apartheid Week, which ended on Sunday, was a more popular, better attended, and more aggressive series of anti-Israel rallies and lectures than ever before.
"Forty-four international cities held IAW events, which is twice as much as last year, and in Toronto thousands of people attended events. Almost every building was filled to maximum capacity," Golda Shahidi, spokeswoman for Students Against Israel Apartheid, told The Jerusalem Post by phone from Toronto on Wednesday.
The rise in participation was largely due to the world's reaction to the recent war in Gaza, said Amos Hermon, the head of the Jewish Agency's Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism. "We haven't seen a wave of anti-Israel feelings this strong in the last two decades."
"After Cast Lead, it was easier for certain 'students for life' to manipulate opinion on campuses. They're equipped and very well funded by Arab countries and anti-Israel organizations to set up an agenda against Israel. They get away with it too because many faculty members on campuses are anti-Israel and don't try hard enough to keep the balance," Hermon told the Post on Wednesday.
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