Questioning our ‘Birthright’
BY JULIA WEDGLE AND CHASE CARTER • MARCH 4, 2015
We write this op-ed as Jewish Tufts students who went on Taglit-Birthright Israel. In sharing some of our experiences, we hope other students may begin to question Birthright. Birthright exposed us to the facts on the ground in Israel/Palestine and forced us to confront and reject the Zionist ideologies we grew up with. It showed us that Israel is doing the exact opposite of what our Jewish values teach us. Birthright led us to stand in solidarity with Palestine.
Julia’s Experience (Summer 2012):
“Tzedek, Tzedek, Tirdof: Justice Justice, you shall pursue” were the words I was taught to live by growing up as a Jewish-American. I was also taught I had a “Birthright” to Israel — that I should connect to, travel to and even live there, simply because I am Jewish. My Birthright trip and the two months I spent in Israel/Palestine afterward transformed me into the anti-Zionist Jewish woman I am today. Somehow I saw through Birthright’s propaganda and learned to apply my Jewish values to all people, especially those oppressed in my name. If I had not gone on Birthright, I do not know if I would be in Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP). Knowing all that I do now, however, I would never have made the decision to participate in Birthright in the first place.
During my Birthright trip, we stayed in a settlement. When I asked about it, I was told that it was not a settlement, because under Israeli law, the settlement was legal and the word “settlement” implies illegality. In reality, any settlement in the West Bank is illegal under international law. To get to Jerusalem from the illegal settlement, we had to pass through a checkpoint. We were told it was a tollbooth. When I asked why we did not pay the toll, I was told we had an E-ZPass. We did in fact have an E-ZPass, but not like the one we have on cars in Boston. Instead, it was our Jewish privilege, embodied by the Taglit-Birthright Israel sign on the front of our bus. As Jewish tourists, we passed right through the checkpoint, while Palestinians attempting to cross it to get to work or to the hospital were stuck in multiple-hour-long queues. In five years, 67 Palestinian babies were born at checkpoints. 36 of them died. That doesn’t happen at tollbooths.
Continued @ http://tuftsdaily.com/opinion/2015/03/04/questioning-birthright/
source : http://www.kibush.co.il/
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