The Israel on Campus Coalition is a pro-Israel umbrella organization founded in 2002 under the auspices of the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation and Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life. The organization was created in order "to evaluate the worrisome rise in anti-Israel activities on college campuses across North America."[1]
Today, "the ICC serves as the central coordinating and strategic body to address campus issues and intelligently impact a pro-active, pro-Israel agenda on campus."[1]
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The coalition coordinates a speakers' bureaus that incorporates numerous speakers from its member organization.[2]
The ICC offers Israel Advocacy Grants "to provide seed-money for student-initiated Israel advocacy initiatives that produce a more positive view of Israel on campus."[3]
In late 2006 and early 2007, a controversy arose within the Israel On Campus Coalition when one the more left-wing member groups, the Union of Progressive Zionists (UPZ) sponsored speeches by former Israeli soldiers who spoke out against alleged human rights abuses in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories. This was not appreciated within the coalition's more conservative (right-wing) "pro-active pro-Israel agenda" members of the coalition. The Zionist Organization of America called for the expulsion of the UPZ. Jewish National Fund did not call for the group's exclusion, but demanded that the UPZ end the speakers’ activities. The World Zionist Organization supported the UPZ, as did a group of 100 academics from Israel. Although the coalition's steering committee voted 9-0 against expulsion in January 2007, the issue resulted in a debate among major Zionist organizations. The American Jewish Congress threatened to quit the coalition out of dissatisfaction with the decision to allow the UPZ to remain.
The ICC comprises 33 organizations "committed to a pro-active, pro-Israel agenda on college campuses":[4]
(Affiliate Members)