The Birthright Agenda

Alongside all of the rich history, physical beauty, and modern achievements of Israel (or perhaps in tandem with them), a lasting impression of my Birthright tour was how effectively it guided the majority of a mostly progressive group--one that I think would typically be at least sympathetic to a people facing deep injustices such as the Palestinians--into wholehearted lovers and supporters of Israel. I mean to say this without judgment, because I felt the love too at times, and it truly was hard not to. Throughout the tour we are fed loads of compelling information about the greatness of Israel, and have so many enriching and enjoyable experiences that we come to associate with the country, and meet so many wonderful and charismatic Israelis, and rarely have a moment's time to stop and think about the context of our trip: the fact that our trip is funded by wealthy Zionists who surely are not simply interested in us liking Israel; the fact that we are told specifically not to think about the conflict in Gaza on several occasions--only to think about it when a polished presenter is discussing it from "the Zionist perspective"--and never discuss the West Bank; the fact that we are introduced to dozens of Israeli Jews, but the only Arab we meet out of the millions living in the region is a Bedouin, on the fringe of the conflict (though I learn later that Bedouins have also been subject to very poor treatment by the Israeli government). ___________________________________________________ I could point to a number of frustrating examples of perspectives that we were given that, in retrospect, deserved some serious critical thinking and disseminating. The Brit who gave us the "Israel Update" acknowledged his bias at the beginning of his lecture, but that meant little after he charmed the socks off of the room with a witty and almost lyrical approach to his presentation. It was hard for me to tell if others in my group flinched when he said outright and without pause that a "Jewish Democracy" was a conundrum, that it either had to be "Jewish" or a full "democracy", and that it would be a "demographic problem" if Arabs were to outnumber Jews--a perspective that is not only inherently racist but could also, say, lead to the large-scale, totally unethical and unprovoked displacement of Arabs in the region who have lived there for centuries (the newly elected mayor of Jerusalem, incidentally, won on a campaign where he promised to knock down Arab neighborhoods and replace them with Jewish homes). The same presenter used the depravity of Hamas to justify the cluster bombing being used by Israel in Gaza that has taken hundreds of innocent lives, an approach that, a friend told me just before the lecture, was condemned the same day by every country in the UN except for the United States. ___________________________________________________ There was also the quintessential yenta at Hadassah Hospital that gave us a sermon about how we as a generation "are among the most ignorant Jews in history" and the woman at Independence Hall in Tel Aviv who proudly noted the part of the Israeli Declaration of Independence about the equal treatment of other peoples. The presenter that offended me most, though, was the supposed expert on the coexistence of Israelis and Arabs at a Jewish community village in the diverse but fully segregated northeast region of Israel. When we walk into the room, there is an image on the screen saying "welcome" in English, Hebrew, and Arabic, and behind it are two hands clasping one another--maybe a superficial start, but nothing that led me to suspect the almost painful patronization to come. ___________________________________________________ Our presenter starts by noting that when we talk about Arabs, we are talking about people "who don't embrace the concept of state" (Palestinians have been trying to secure a free state for decades; maybe he confused their resistance to the concept of state with resistance to a particular state, one that treats them as a "demographic problem"). He showed a video that I guess was supposed to show us that the victory by an Arabic soccer team in the Israeli Cup was a sign of growing acceptance of Arabs, and used the example of a peaceful protest of 100,000 Palestinians as a sign of growing co-existence (obviously, the fact that those violent Arabs were being peaceful was a sign of their progress; no mention of what it was they were actually protesting). I asked him how he responds when the Arab-Israelis he knows bring up the occupation in the West Bank, for example, and he responds dismissively that "I am aware of their narrative." No apologies for anything. And in response to my question of whether or not he ever does these presentations alongside an Arab-Israeli: "We decided now was not a good time for that." The perspectives that we are not afforded; if this man was the expert on coexistence in Israel, there is truly no hope. A short bathroom break after the presentation, and we are quickly whisked off again to the next site. ___________________________________________________ Perhaps as a postscript to this vent of sorts, I should briefly (yeah right) note two instances later that day, during which the subject was the defense of Israel against its neighbors. First, at a fortress used in battles with Syria, Elad makes note of something (I neglected to write it down...I sort of checked out after the co-existence seminar) and qualifies it by saying "this is not propaganda." Then, at a video on I think the Yom Kippur War, Elad stops the group before we leave the room: "I am not trying to brainwash you, I am not speaking for birthright, I am speaking for myself. Nothing is black and white--but if someone wants to shoot me, I am going to shoot first." I wondered what prompted Elad to qualify his statements in that way; if he had overheard someone in my trip discussing the "agenda", or if he knew of birthright's reputation, or if he too thought some of the other information we received was loaded with propaganda. I had really hoped to meet up with him after the trip and discuss that among other things, but never had the chance.