By Emma Goss, ICB Contributor 
Facebook could be the tool to bring democracy to Iran. That was a key message delivered by Dr. Raanan Gissin at Columbia University last week.
Gissin, who served as a senior advisor to former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, came to Columbia to discuss how today’s youth are using social networks to bring about political change.
He noted that Facebook was a catalyst that helped bring about the Arab Spring, the series of political uprisings throughout the Middle East since December 2010.
The Arab Spring, Gissin said, is “part of an overall global phenomenon of young people rising and using the new technology not just to communicate, but to mobilize to social action.”
Gissin coined the term “cyber-solidarity,” and explained that although people on social networks may be strangers, “they share through the language of the computer the same values, the same perception. There’s almost instant communication.”
This cyber-solidarity wields much power, he said, because Facebook is “not just an instrument to pass information, which it does very effectively, but it’s a powerful instrument of social and political mobilization.”
Gissin hopes that social mobilization through Facebook will lead to democracy in Iran.
“Iran is a country which is very vulnerable to internal pressure,” Gissin said. Noting the role played by Facebook in the Arab Spring, he said the same tactic would work in Iran because “not only is Iran vulnerable, but Iran offers the real hope that if a regime changed, there would be
democracy.” Iran has a large, educated middle class that does not favor the current regime, he added.
Gissin came to Columbia as part of Caravan for Democracy’s speakers bureau sponsored by the Jewish National Fund. Through this program, prominent Israeli speakers are brought to college campuses to increase the Israeli narrative.
Danielle Obrart, JNF’s Israel advocacy and education area director for New York, noted that the program enables students to engage in an intimate setting with Israeli political leaders.
Nearly 20 students attended Gissin’s lecture. Most of the students were Jewish Columbia and Barnard College undergraduates. Obrart noted that future programs might include dialogues between Jewish and Arab students. Barnard College senior Shira Poliak, who is a member of LionPAC, Columbia’s pro-Israel public affairs committee, said Facebook played a major role in publicizing Gissin’s lecture.
Gissin was not surprised. “Your generation is a generation of click and delete,” he said. “You understand each other when you communicate in that language. It’s a powerful tool for those that are part of this system.”
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