Translated by Rann

The original can be found right here.

A young American woman will not participate in the Zionist Birthright-Israel
project, after she requested a tour of refugee camps and villages in the Occupied Palestinian Territories

By Eli Bradnestein
June 4, 2006

As part of the Birthright-Israel program the state of Israel tries to implant some Zionism in young people from abroad and to bring them on a 10-day tour of Israel. Recently, the directors of the program decided to cancel the participation of one young American woman. The reason: she planned to hop over for a visit to the PA at the end of the trip.

The young woman, named Sierra, planned to go on a 6-day tour organized by a competing organization called ‘Birthright Unplugged’. “The purpose of the visit in Israel is to learn from both sides, the Israeli and the Palestinian about their situation,” said Sierra. “I wanted to travel to Israel to learn and to deapen my ties with Jewish culture and religion, and also to
learn about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict not through some organization or the media.” Sierra added that she does not consider this to be a reason to cancel her arrival.

The tour of the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) includes visits to villages and refugee camps and meetings with residents of the OPT and Israeli leftists. Birthright Unplugged usually recruits its participants from among those who come to Israel for free through Birthright-Israel. They charge around US$300 for the visit to the OPT.

“We started this program so that tour participants could meet Palestinians and learn from them first-hand about the situation in Israel and Palestine and so that they can use their knowledge to bring positive change to the world”, said Hannah Mermolstein, one of the founder of the organization, “in preventing Sierra from taking part in this educational experience, Birthright Israel only proves our necessity all the more strongly.”

A number of American Jews have already donated the cost of Sierra’s flight so that she can participate in the tour of the OPT.

The marketing director of Birthright-Israel, Gidi Mark said that “we supply an educational tour to young Jews that have never been to Israel before and want to familiarize them with Israel and the traditions of the Jewish people.”

Mark emphasized that “we will not take those who are merely looking for funding for a plane ticket to actually got to the OPT. There are enough who just want to come and get to know Israel.”

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