In the opening event of Israel Pride Week last night, Israeli activist Avner Even-Zohar argued that Israel is at a social and political crossroads, with opportunities for both positive and negative change.

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Mike Ramm

Activist Avner Even-Zohar discusses opportunities for change in Israel at a speech that kicks off Israel Pride Week.

Even-Zohar, who is the campus division director for the San Francisco-based Israel Center, titled his speech “Yesh matzav?” — Hebrew for “There is a situation?” — to highlight the uncertainty surrounding the nation. He referenced coffee in his opening remarks to examine the uniqueness of Israeli life, pointing to the recent failure of Starbucks in Israel.

“Entrepreneurs thought that everything you brought over from America would be a hit,” he said, noting that fast food giant McDonald’s is thriving there. “But Israeli’s prefer their cafes.”

But the socialist tradition that has made Israel so different from its peers in Western Europe and North America is in danger of being undone by privatization and cuts in services, Even-Zohar argued. The gap between the richest and poorest citizens, once the smallest in the world, has now ballooned.

“Twenty years ago, you didn’t see any homeless people because there were none,” he said, a shift he attributes to the government’s close alignment with the capitalist United States and the decline of the Kibbutz system.

Even-Zohar also pointed to a rise in religious conflicts within Israel. As evidence of social tensions, he highlighted this summer’s Jerusalem World Pride parade, a rare lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender gathering in the Holy Land that has ignited an international uproar among religious conservatives. Growing distaste for Orthodox Judaism — due in part to the sect’s disapproval of interfaith marriages — has led to the creation of the secular Shinui Party, he explained.

Before the speech, sophomore Lubya Wolf — co-president of the Stanford Israel Alliance, one of the main sponsors of the Israel pride festivities — stressed that the week’s events are intended to look beyond violence in the region.

“There is too much emphasis on the conflict,” she said. “There is a culture, a people and a faith. We want to show another face of Israel.”

But Even-Zohar’s talk ultimately returned to familiar territory, as he sought to present an objective take on the political situation facing Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Liberation Organization Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

But even this nonpartisan analysis was not entirely uncontroversial. Even-Zohar equated the Israeli settlement withdrawal to “giving the land back to the Palestinians,” eliciting an interjection Armin Schwartzman, a statistics graduate student.

“What do you mean give back?” Schwartzman asked. “When was it ever ‘Palestinian’ [land]?” In response, Even-Zohar shrugged in casual disagreement.

Aside from the Palestinian conflict, Even-Zohar stressed that Israel’s political structure offers hope for the future, noting that the country’s constitution is highly adaptable to the will of citizenry.

“People of our generation have the power to shape the constitution,” he said. “That’s what gets people excited about Israel.”

The second annual Israel Pride Week, sponsored by an array of Jewish campus groups, will offer students a diverse offering of cultural activities, ranging from martial arts classes to parties with “hookah and hummus.”

Wolf said the week’s coordinators planned it to be lighter in tone, a celebration rather than a debate.

“People have felt like our events have been intimidating and not dialogue-provoking,” she said.

Freshman Mishan Araujo, vice president of programming for the Stanford-Israel Alliance, agreed, pointing to the myriad of social and cultural developments in Israel that transcend the conflict.

“I think it’s important that the Stanford community know what’s going on in Israel,” she said.