"No meaningful discussion, about any topic, can occur without accurate facts and appropriate context." This is part of the mission statement of the Students for Accuracy about Israeli and Palestinian Affairs, a student organization that was approved to become a chartered campus club on Dec. 8, 2013.
The club was founded by Daniel Mael '15, Guy Morag '17 and Ari Givner '17.
SAIPA's core mission is to expose media manipulation in order to further establish campus event accuracy by attending campus-sponsored events. SAIPA then issues a report on the event with the intention of holding campus speakers accountable to any misinformation they may have shared. "This will change the nature of Middle-East affairs discussions because when people know they are being monitored they are much less likely to present their opinions as facts." Morag noted in an e-mail to the Justice.
"We always want to make sure that everyone has a fair chance to explore the issues from a factual perspective. Brandeis is a perfect climate to debut a club like this because there are so many groups that care about it," Mael said.
Mael, Morag and Givner had been talk for a long time about starting a group that exposes media manipulation. Mael explained that they reached their tipping point at a Brandeis Israel Public Affairs Committee event in which there was conflict between certain campus groups over facts and definitions.
Brandeis already has several clubs that are involved in the Israeli and Palestinian debate. "We felt that every group that was talking about the Israeli conflict, [on campus] was an interest group," Mael said. "We are simply trying to make sure that students have a fair shot at that facts ... [and] can form their own opinion afterward," Mael said.
SAIPA hosted an event on Oct. 29, in which it brought in guest speaker Sgt. Benjamin Anthony, an Israeli Defense Force combat veteran.
"He was explicitly clear that this is his narrative, and that it did not represent what our organization thinks. We believe that it is important that we hear varying perspectives and give them a forum to speak," Mael said. The event was hosted in conjunction with the Brandeis Libertarian Conservative Union and the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America.
Mael indicated that the group hosted the event as a way of raising visibility for SAIPA in their early stages, but that going forward, SAIPA will focus on exposing media manipulation and ensuring the accuracy of campus events hosted by other groups.
On Nov. 12, Neil Hertz, professor emeritus at John Hopkins University, gave a presentation called "Pastoral in Palestine." The University and six other campus organizations sponsored the event. SAIPA attended and wrote a report following the presentation. "[Hertz] supported boycott divestment and sanction movement in his question-answer session. That is his opinion and SAIPA made no mention of that in our report." Mael said. "What we did make a mention of was that he said that excavating the city of David was a private-public joint venture in displacing Palestinians from East Jerusalem ... [describing what] is in the Jewish tradition a very significant place as simply a venture in displacing Palestinians is misleading to the community."
SAIPA has not been well-received by all campus clubs that deal with Israeli and Palestinian affairs.
"My question for those that oppose us or have problems with SAIPA is why is a group that is oriented to find the truth problematic? It should be no problem that a set of students have come together to try to ensure that an objective truth is presented," said Mael.
Responding to the club's mission and activities thus far, J Street U Brandeis Co-president Catie Stewart '16 stated in an e-mail to the Justice that "[W]hile interrogating assumptions and perspectives is a value we share with SAIPA, we believe that no group is truly apolitical or 'objective' and we would hope that the organization is frank about their own political motivations."
J Street U is a self described "pro-Israel, pro-peace organization advocating for a two-state solution."
Anyone, despite their stance on Israel, is welcome to join the club. "I don't know many people who are happy to have others monitoring their work and then finding their biases published online for the world to see. With that said, we have encouraged members of all organizations on campus to join us," Morag noted.
SAIPA plans to extend their "pro-truth, pro-honesty" agenda through a monthly or biweekly publication where they can share the perspective from two sides. "I think that's very unique because when someone actually has to articulate a thought on writing, you would hope they bring their best honesty and most well thought out ideas," said Mael.
"If one student can be positively impacted and have a little bit better understanding of media manipulation and fact manipulation I think we've done a good job," Mael said.