Birthright Unplugged’ Is About

What ‘Birthright Unplugged’ is about I get all sorts of email messages, including from groups like this one, which mistakenly assume I’m sympathetic. This anti-Israel group parodies in its name the pro-Israel Birthright program that sends young American Jews to Israel. Let there be no mistake. Birthright Unplugged clearly indicates below that it wishes to help undermine Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people, referring explicitly to ending “apartheid” in Israel and “to implement the right of return for Palestinian refugees.” It has no connection to such organizations as Meretz USA, the Geneva Initiative, J Street, and the New Israel Fund that promote reforms and international agreements that would end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with a two-state solution and work for equal citizenship rights for all current citizens of Israel. This is how their misdirected email to me begins: Attention organizers, activists, students, faculty, artists, cultural workers, and more!!! Birthright Unplugged’s Summer 2011 Program Since 2005, Birthright Unplugged has facilitated travel in Palestine for numerous groups. We do this because Palestinian people we work with welcome delegations and because we have found that when people have firsthand experiences of Palestine and relationships with Palestinians, it strengthens their resolve, credibility, and accountability to do sustained justice movement work. Our 2011 program will include seven days of travel and optional, post-travel, short-term volunteer placements. Our work is designed to support work related to the 2005 call from Palestinian civil society for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions against Israel (BDS). This call seeks to bring about the end of apartheid in Israel, the occupations of Gaza and the West Bank, and to implement the right of return for Palestinian refugees. It is a non-violent strategy that has been crucial to bringing about the end of other systems of oppression, most notably apartheid in South Africa. To date, we have worked with student and faculty groups, activists and organizers, and faith-based groups among many others to help develop and strengthen their respective understanding of the situation on the ground in Palestine and to support their BDS and campaign work in their home countries. 2011 Travel Component: In seven days, we will visit Palestinian cities, villages, and refugee camps in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem and spend time with internally displaced Palestinian people living inside Israel/’48. At this time, we are unable to travel to Gaza and so we will have a video conference call with people living and working there. Throughout the journey, we will help participants develop an understanding of daily life under occupation and apartheid and the history of the region from people profoundly affected by these realities who are otherwise under-represented in Western discourses. ….

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