The bright blue background of the website at http://www.birthrightisrael.com depicts smiling Jewish kids popping up in goofy Flash animations, along with the words “Your adventure. Your birthright. Our gift.” For many, Taglit-Birthright Israel equals a free vacation. Trips to the Masada, target practice with the IDF, working on a kibbutz, three and four star hotels, a little eco-tourism, late night DJ parties and “mega events”, and maybe some sex on the beach.

The “Birthright” experience shields participants from Arabs in the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem, or Israel’s Arab largest communities. All itineraries are cleared by the government, and the authorities are aware of each group’s location at all times via GPS. Participants are unlikely to get a glimpse of what life is like in the Occupied Territories for Palestinians or within Israel proper for Arab Israelis like former Knesset member Azmi Bishara.

Taglit-Birthright Israel describes itself as a “unique, historical partnership between the people of Israel through their government, local Jewish communities (North American Jewish Federations through the United Jewish Communities; Keren Hayesod; and The Jewish Agency for Israel), and leading Jewish philanthropists”. Since its inception, over 200,000 young adults, 75% from North America, have made the 10-day trips. The cost of the program to-date has been $450 million. Any American Jewish young adult from 18-26 who has never been to Israel before and who is part of a Jewish community with a Zionist organization (Federation or UJC) qualifies for this program – designed to encourage young adults to make aliyah (immigrate) to or to at least enhance ahavat Yisrael (love of Israel).

Under Israel’s original Law of Return, any Jew (technically a person with a Jewish mother) could become an Israeli citizen. In 1970 the law was amended to permit non-Jews with a Jewish grandparent, in-laws, parent or spouse to immigrate as well. The Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law of 2003 restricts immigration of Arabs of childbearing age who are residents of the West Bank and Gaza. But American Jewish and even non-Jewish Russians of childbearing age are most welcome to come to Israel and alter the demographics. Interestingly, Israeli law and Zionist programs like Birthright seem to be designed to slow Arab population growth more than to preserve Judaism. Israel now has more than 300,000 non-Jewish Russians alone. In 1999, half of all Russian immigrants were not Jewish.

But if you really want to clinch the deal, bringing kids to Zionist Disneyland isn’t quite enough. You’ve got to show them the crematoria. Taglit-Birthright Israel has combined a program with the International March of the Living tour of Polish death camps.

The website explains:

“A special emphasis is placed on the topic of the Holocaust and Jewish life in Central Europe prior to WWII. Included are visits to concentration camps and centers of Jewish life and culture in Poland prior to the program in Israel. Also explored is the absorption of WWII survivors into Israeli life after the War. […] The tours and activities incorporate all of these subjects into experiences with the sights, sounds, smells and sense of touch in contemporary Israel.”

And apparently it works. There are countless stories, like this one, from disaffected Jewish teens who have overnight become card-carrying Zionists. Others, like this one, reflect on the emotional manipulation of these tours.

An Alternative

Birthright Unplugged is not funded by Jewish federations or Zionist philanthropy, but offers Jewish teens a tour which provides a more accurate view of the reality for Palestinians:

In six days, we visit Palestinian cities, villages and refugee camps in the West Bank and spend time with internally displaced Palestinian people living inside Israel. Throughout the journey, we help participants develop an understanding of daily life under occupation and the history of the region from people profoundly affected by and under-represented in Western discourses about the occupation.

It also runs trips for Palestinian teens which often gives them a first glimpse of East Jerusalem or the sea:

Our Re-Plugged trips are for Palestinian children living in refugee camps. In two to three days, we visit Jerusalem, the sea and the villages their grandparents fled in 1948. The children stay with families who are Palestinian citizens of Israel. They document their experiences with cameras and create exhibits in order to contribute to the collective memory in the refugee camp and to share their stories with people abroad. […] This experience is nearly impossible for most Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, who receive identity cards at age 16 which Israel uses to control their movement. As internationals we are able to move with relative freedom and so, unlike the children’s parents and grandparents, we can take them on this trip.

I just came across an organization in Stoughton called the No Place for Hate Committee. Interestingly, it’s a project of the Anti-Defamation League, which should be a bit sensitive to religious hatred.

I wonder if they know there’s a big problem with Islamophobia right in town?

Specifically, the Ahavath Torah congregation, which has run a welcome for Dutch racist Geert Wilders, whom Britain had the good sense to keep from spewing hate speech there, and also a kaffee klatch with an author promoting her book, Allah is Dead.

Stoughton also experienced the famous Danish Flag Incident in 2006, when Town Manager Mark Stankiewicz felt compelled to fly the Danish flag alongside Old Glory to thank the Danes for running the equally famous Muhammad cartoon.

Feel free to call the town and inquire what, if anything, the No Place for Hate Committee is doing. You can reach Mark Stankiewicz at +1 (781) 341-1300, Ext. 211, twnmgr@stoughton-ma.gov.

Dear Mr. Axelrod,

I watched President Obama’s speech from East Jerusalem, where I was staying during a long tour of Israel and the West Bank. The president’s speech made me proud and I was also moved by expressions of hope from Palestinians I talked to afterwards, although they have been betrayed so many times by U.S. policies that this hope can only be described as a guarded hope.

During my stay I visited the Dheisheh refugee camp, just down the road from Bethlehem, and wept at the desperate life for children who followed us around. I was surprised to see how friendly and open inhabitants were to an American, despite the fact that the IDF rousts them every other night and our nation’s relationship with Israel is well-known. I visited Hebron, a microcosm of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, where I met both gun-toting settlers and a worker for the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem. Again, I was shocked at the war zone “reality on the ground” for Arab residents of the H2 zone in Hebron.

I talked to Israelis in Sderot and Ashkelon who have been the target of thousands of Qassam rockets. I talked to Hebrew University students in Jerusalem,  visited Bir Zeit university in Ramallah, and listened to two men from an organization called “Combatants for Peace” who had each lost daughters to violence from the other side.

People on both sides of this conflict are tired and living in fear and under intolerable conditions, particularly Palestinians living under perpetual martial law. The situation simply cannot go on forever. We talked to an Israeli professor who described Israel’s settlement efforts as “cantonizing” Palestinians into islands which will ultimately be linked together by bridges and tunnels (already being constructed) to try to satisfy a legalistic requirement of “contiguity.” To Palestinians, each of whom knows the details of Oslo, Camp David, and the roadmap to a degree that would shame most journalists, what Israel is doing is tantamount to creating large Indian reservations. And I agree. I can tell you, based on all the conversations I had, any “cantonization” plan would be rejected by even the most moderate of Palestinians. And there are 7 million Palestinian refugees outside Palestine. Any new Palestinian state must be big enough to accommodate some fraction of them who decide to return to a new state.

I urge President Obama to pressure Israel to accept the Green Line, to remove the “Berlin-like” walls, and to recognize a divided Jerusalem. If Israel cannot do this, the president should hit Israel with sanctions, as the first President Bush threatened to do. The issue of huge illegal settlements like Ma’ale Adumim which cut into the heart of the West Bank, must be negotiated. It might actually serve interests of peace for a few Jewish towns to exist in a new Palestine, just as Muslim towns like Nazareth exist in Israel. But ultimately these are decisions that the PA and Israel will have to make. President Obama’s job is to be an honest, unbiased, peace broker.

I hope the president’s speech really is a fresh start with the Muslim world, but Muslims, as he must certainly know, are sensitive to betrayal or words that are not accompanied by action. I hope the president’s inspiring words translate into concrete action during the next two years. Otherwise, hope can fade into frustration, and frustration can boil over into violence. I urge the president to demonstrate he meant every word in his Cairo speech, and to deploy Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Mitchell in finally ending this nightmare.

Regards,

David Ehrens