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Israel News After Getting Kicked Off Birthright, Trio Regroups In West Bank
A day after being kicked off a Birthright Israel trip, three young American Jews went to the exact place Birthright would never take them: the West Bank. They are meeting with residents of a Bedouin village to ask them about living under Israel’s occupation of the territory, Emily Bloch said. Bloch, 29, along with Shira…
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Opinion Birthright Alumni Reflect On The New Trip Guidelines
Last summer, 13 activists staged dramatic walkouts from their Birthright trips. To prevent more, Birthright added a clause to their Code of Conduct, that participants commit not to “highjack” discussion by turning it toward the occupation. Last week, they made good on the new contract when several Americans were kicked off their Birthright program for…
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Opinion I Was Kicked Off Birthright For Asking Questions About The Occupation
On the fifth day of my Birthright trip, as we drove south from a Kibbutz up north to Tel Aviv, I asked our trip leader if the towering concrete wall I could see from my window was the wall that separates the West Bank from Israel. Two hours later, I stood on a street corner…
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Opinion Birthright Is Chasing Away Engaged Jews To Please Pro-Israel Hardliners
Picture the scene: A group of young American Jews, visiting Israel for the first time on Birthright, demand more education about the country and its politics, trying to realize an age-old Jewish ideal of sharp, open debate. They form new organizations and movements around Jewish political activism, and they form links with groups of Israeli…
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Fast Forward Birthright Said To Expel 3 For Questions About ‘Wall’
Updated December 24 Fresh from its PR disaster after announcing vague new anti-free speech conditions, Birthright Israel has reportedly thrown three young Jews off their trip for asking about the separation barrier between Israel and the West Bank past which they were driving. In a Facebook post, participant Shira Leah said that she and two…
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Israel News Birthright Blasted By Activists For New Ban On ‘Hijacking Discussions’
Birthright Israel has sparked fresh outrage from critics by imposing vague new conditions barring participants from “hijack[ing] a discussion” during its flagship trips. The critics say the new clause in the contracts that all participants must sign could be used to squelch any discussion of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands — even though Birthright insists…
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Opinion The Intellectual Dark Web’s Hypocrisy When It Comes To BDS
“Free speech is the fundamental principle of Western civilization.” These are the words of Jordan Peterson, who is perhaps the most prominent figure in what is referred to as the “Intellectual Dark Web” (IDW), a loose network of thinkers and commentators brought together by their opposition to progressive discourse on the left. In a gullible…
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Opinion Trump Tweeted His Way Out Of Syria. Will He Blindside Israel Too?
President Donald Trump’s abrupt decision to announce the withdrawal of 2,000 American personnel from Syria immediately provoked reactions comparing his approach to Syria to President Obama’s: “Mr. Trump’s view that American forces cannot alter the strategic balance in the Middle East, and should not be there, was fundamentally shared by his immediate predecessor, Barack Obama,”…
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