Sign on to Our Demands. Tell Birthright to Confront the Crisis

Taglit Brithright

We demand that Birthright confront the crisis of the Occupation by April 5th. on that day, hundreds of young american jews will gather at birthright headquarters to ask birthright one last time — will you confront the crisis?

Every year, 50,000 young American Jews go on Taglit Birthright — a free, 10-day trip to Israel. Birthright has been considered a rite of passage in our Jewish journey. It has also been designed to rationalize and defend the Israeli Occupation. Birthright constructs an experience that deliberately obscures the Occupation. Participants neither witness the brutality of checkpoints, spend any time in Palestinian villages, nor are they educated as to the daily nightmare of occupation for Palestinians. Israel denies Palestinians freedom and dignity by depriving them of civil, political, and economic rights. Nearly 5 million Palestinians live in the occupied Palestinian territories, including 3 million in the West Bank and nearly 2 million in Gaza. All are under direct or indirect Israeli military control.

Our generation is the future of the Jewish community and we have a vision for the future we want to build: one that embraces freedom and dignity, not one that shies away from the truth. We can no longer allow a free trip that denies the truth about the Occupation to be synonymous with being a young Jewish person in America.

We demand that  Birthright confront the crisis of the Occupation on its Summer 2019 program by April 5th. On that day, hundreds of young American Jews will gather at Birthright Headquarters in New York City to ask Birthright one last time — will you confront the crisis?

Here are some simple changes Birthright could make to ensure its program confronts the crisis:

  • Mark the West Bank on every map.

  • Educate participants on the daily nightmare of the Occupation.

  • Show a checkpoint from a Palestinian perspective.

Birthright would not have to start from scratch. Organizations on the ground in Israel/Palestine are already doing this work. Human rights group B’Tselem provides groups with honest maps of the region and has developed curriculum for talking honestly about the Occupation. Breaking the Silence, a group of former IDF soldiers, leads trips to show the reality of life under occupation in Hebron. Palestinian young people in Youth Against Settlements meet with trips in Palestine to talk about life under Occupation from their perspectives.

Birthright, will you listen to an entire generation of young American Jews and commit to confront the crisis of the Occupation by April 5th?

We know that Birthright — which wants to be viewed as an apolitical, free trip — hides the truth about Israel and the Occupation. Our generation will no longer be manipulated by right wing donors and Birthright who tell us a story about Israel that deliberately hides the Occupation. We demand that  they confront the crisis of the Occupation, and meet our four simple demands by April 1st.

Sign on to our demand if you think Birthright needs to confront the crisis!

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IfNotNow Movement

To: Taglit Brithright
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For too long, we’ve seen how Birthright refuses to confront the Occupation: from using maps that exclude the West Bank, to accepting large donations from shady right-wing donors, to kicking participants off for asking questions, and so much more.

We're demanding that Birthright confronts the moral crisis of Occupation and stops hiding the truth from participants. We know that young Jews deserve better than a trip that obscures and ignores injustice. We’re asking that Birthright commits to confronting the crisis of the Occupation by April 5.