A group of five Birthright participants from the United States staged a walkout on the final day of their trip on Thursday in order to attend a tour of Hebron run by the European-funded Breaking the Silence organization.
The group, activists from the progressive IfNotNow movement, said that Birthright was was “hiding the realities of the occupation.”
The activists live-streamed their protest, which began with one of them taking the microphone at the front of the bus to announce their decision before the rest of the participants headed to a program in Tel Aviv.
IfNotNow has been conducting a series of informational events in recent months targeting Birthright participants at airports as they departed the US.
“Like a lot of you, I came on this trip to be in a community with fellow Jewish youth and to learn. I really valued a lot of the experiences I’ve had,” said 25-year-old Bethany Zaiman.
Although the tour guide attempted to cut her off, Zaiman refused to surrender the microphone and stated that she and her friends had been asking questions throughout the trip in an effort to engage more deeply with the conflict.
“We have not been able to do that and as a result, the five of us will be leaving as we get off the bus and will be going on a trip with Breaking the Silence to learn about the occupation from the perspectives of Palestinians and IDF soldiers,” she said.
As Zaiman got off the bus, the tour guide chastised her for “trying to enforce [her] opinions on the rest of the participants.”
“You did not come to learn about Israel, you came to learn about Palestine!” he shouted at the group of young women, who he said had came on the trip in in order “to bash Israel on purpose, and in public in front of all your friends.”
As they began gathering their belongings, the five were approached by several fellow participants who chided them for showing a lack of appreciation for the free trip that they had been given.
“You say [Birthright is] about community, but you’re disrupting everyone’s experience,” one fellow participant told the women.
Speaking to journalists from their tour in Hebron, one of the participants, Danielle Raskin, said that she and her four peers came to a realization halfway through the trip that “we weren’t really going to get the full picture [of the conflict] from Birthright,” leading to their decision to reach out to Breaking the Silence.
The 22-year-old argued that the trip’s goal “to get participants to fall in love with Israel seemed disingenuous,” given that she felt that they weren’t getting “the full picture.”
“I also don’t think we should have to go out of our way to get this educational experience. It should be part of the ten day trip,” she added.
In a statement that they drafted from Hebron the five women said that American Jews should know “that Birthright is not providing the education our generation deserves. It is morally irresponsible to participate in an institution that is not willing to grapple with reality on the other side of the wall.”
Birthright, which has brought more than 650,000 young Jewish adults on 10-day trips to Israel since 1999, condemned the actions of the five women.
“Since we respect the ability of our participants to formulate their own views, we reject the promotion of any agendas, attempts at manipulation or provocations from either political side,” the organization said in a statement.
Birthright has been the most effective organization at fostering a national consciousness among Diaspora young adults. But the organization’s refusal to deal with complicated political issues has alienated more socially conscious Diaspora Jews interested in engaging the conflict beyond its “G-rated” presentation. These young Jews shouldn’t be viewed as a threat but rather as an expression of the next generation’s healthy rejection of the pro-Israel establishment’s one-sided approach.
If Birthright hopes to remain as relevant and effective as it has been, the organization will likely need to incorporate Palestinian perspectives, as well as other issues that highlight Israel’s imperfections.
