Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Birthright Won’t Vet Applicants Despite Walkouts Protesting Israeli Occupation

Despite several highly publicized walkouts on its program, Birthright does not intend to introduce a vetting procedure that would weed out potential troublemakers from the free trips it offers to Israel.

In recent weeks, Jewish-American participants have filmed themselves walking out of three separate Birthright trips to protest the occupation and the absence of discussion of it on the program. In response, Birthright has forced them to pay for their return flights to the United States and has notified them that their deposits will not be refunded.

The protesters were all affiliated with IfNotNow, an anti-occupation organization that is fiercely critical of Israel.

Asked by Haaretz whether Birthright intended to implement any measures to prevent walkouts and whether it planned to bar IfNotNow activists from trips, a spokeswoman said in a statement: “As stated in our website, Birthright Israel does not inquire about the political views of its applicants and will continue welcoming all Jewish young adults from around the world, so long as they do not disrupt the experience of other participants or intentionally divert from the tour’s itinerary.”

As part of their campaign against Birthright, launched earlier this summer, IfNotNow activists have also been ambushing Birthright participants at the airport and handing them material about the occupation before they embark on their trip.

“As an apolitical organization Birthright Israel has no official position on Israel’s borders” the spokesperson said. “We constantly work with our tour guides to ensure they illuminate the broader context and full complexity of the geopolitical issues at hand, without any partisanship. Birthright Israel will reiterate its overall educational framework with the entire guide body, as part of our routine protocol.”

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.