Randa Darwish

Many groups have been seen lately walking off the “Birthright Israel” tours in Israel in protest at the Israeli policies toward Palestinians. A counter-campaign was launched by the “If Not Now” group of American Progressive Jews, called “Birthright: Not Just A Free Trip” with the aim of appealing to the public over Jewish support for Israel.

For diaspora Jewish youth, the “Birthright” movement has been funded by the Israeli government and several US Jewish organizations to offer a two-week free “educational” trip to Israel.

However, several groups taking part in the Birthright trips have been seen walking off the tours in two separate incidents during the past two weeks.

The young participants are preferring to join anti-occupation protests and make visits to the Palestinian families affected by the occupation, in order to learn more about how Israel is affecting the lives of people on the ground.

According to the young Americans who left the tours, the trips were “one-sided, misleadingly educational,” offering a skewed perspective on Israel and its relations with Arab neighbours.

The last split-off incident was documented in a video posted on Facebook, by one of the young Americans who filmed the whole incident.

Becky Wasserman, 26 from Boston told Haaretz: "We think that part of the story is the occupation and unfortunately Birthright will not show us this reality, they try to leave the occupation out of the story.”

She confirmed that they were given a map of Israel that did not depict the West Bank borders on it, and when participants tried to point out to occupation, they got no response.

As a result a “Birthright: Not Just A Free Trip” counter-campaign has launched, in order to educate participants of Birthright tours about the facts they are missing when joining such a trip.



The groups members aim to get in touch with larger base of American young Jews who are being exposed to the Birthright propaganda.

The group campaigners arranged activities where they will be able to meet groups of youth going on the Birthright trips. From meeting departing tours at New York airport, to help split-off groups inside Israel learning more about what is happening on the ground.

The campaigners said they will spend the summer encouraging Birthright participants to get real answers for their questions about Israel’s occupation. They have also collected testimonies from the movement alumni about what they did or see during their trip.

One of the activities was a visit paid for a Palestinian family in Eastern Jerusalem, as they are being threatened to be evacuated from their homes. The group want to learn more about the reality of the occupation.

The youth groups had received support for the courage they showed during their trip, from the risk they took to visit an Arab families and dig for the truth.

On the other hand, they are still facing backlash from the older generation of Israelis and American Jews who are still holding on their means to preserve the Jewish identity from any misrepresentation or distortion.

In a time while opinion polls in the US showed a significant change in the attitude of American Jews under 30 towards Israel, many of the new generation are starting to question the Israeli discriminatory policies in Palestine.