Apparently Birthright enrollment closes tomorrow, the free trip to Israel for American Jews between 18 and 26. And in the University of Wisconsin newspaper, Steven Horn critiques the program. He went last summer and says, yes, he had a great time; Birthright made sure that "Israel will be associated with nothing but great memories spent with peers partaking in partying, drinking and debauchery — all of the stuff college students enjoy most." Didn’t stick. His account reinforces my sense that a lot of young people walk away from the attempted brainwashing shaking their heads. Horn:
First, the Zionist moving into Palestine is not taught by tour guides as a form of colonialism mirroring many other colonial movements throughout history, in which the colonizer displaced the indigenous population. Rather, the guides teach that Palestine was a “land without people for a people without land.” Second, the 1948 war through which the Zionists gained statehood is taught as a Moses-parting-the-Red Sea miracle by Birthright tour guides, when, in fact, roughly 750,000 Palestinians were forcefully evicted from their homes at the threat of Zionist guns.
…Taglit doesn’t teach anything relating to Israel and Zionism objectively and hopes that when you return home after the trip, you won’t fact check anything they taught you. Taglit wants you to go home and advocate for Israel, to return to Israel and, if they’re really lucky, you might even consider “Aliyah” — Hebrew for “to ascend” and better known as immigrating to Israel. Funny that the original indigenous population doesn’t have that right, but hey, that controversy won’t be discussed on the trip either.
So, by all means, go to Israel and enjoy the unquestionably unbelievable trip. But enter and exit with an open mind and realize that Birthright is a PR tool used by Zionists to promote their own biased political agendas and skewed worldview. Birthright should be the start of your exploration of the Israel/Palestine issue, not the end.
