OPINION: Birthright tours must never again spend the night beyond the Green Line
A young British Jewish campaigner explains why she opposed this summer's decision to take one tour to a West Bank settlement for three nights
Dalia Blass recently joined Yachad as their Youth and Student Outreach Worker. She graduated from the University of Edinburgh last year with a 1st Class degree in Classics, and has been actively involved in the Jewish community from an early age.
In recent months, a Birthright trip and six youth movement tour groups stayed for several nights in the West Bank settlement of Almog.
Together with over 100 young British Jewish leaders, I signed a letter opposing this.
The letter aims to hold the tour organisers (Israel Experience, Jewish Agency, Tlalim) accountable for their decision which we believe serves to normalise settlements.
Our position is mainstream: the UK government states that “settlements are illegal under international law, constitute an obstacle to peace and threaten a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict”.
I was actively involved in the Zionist youth movement Noam for over a decade as a chanicha and madricha, and believe that normalising settlements goes against the foundational values of our movement.
From an early age, Noam encouraged me to adopt a nuanced and questioning approach to Zionism, as well as to Israel-Palestine.
The movement instilled in me a profound love for Israel, while also educating and empowering me to speak critically of government policies that fail to uphold the values enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, to which Noam remains committed.
I am proud to have been part of such a vibrant and dynamic community, and one that promotes robust engagement with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and facilitates informed debates on related issues.
Having spoken to other signatories of our letter, many feel similarly about their respective youth movements. Those who have signed it come from a broad spectrum of Jewish communities and movements, including Tribe, JLGB, FZY, BBYO, Noam, Habonim Dror, RSY-Netzer, and LJY-Netzer.
Our cross-communal and cross-denominational opposition to actions that condone the occupation and normalise the settlement movement demonstrates that young British Jews are united on this issue.
Some tour organisers have responded by alleging that their decision was logistical rather than political: the timing of the tours coincided with a busy summer in Israel, which left them with little choice of accommodation.
Nonetheless, participants and leaders were not informed in advance nor given the chance to question the decision.
We object to the fact that the voices of our peers were not heard and that their agency in this situation was removed. Hence the urgent need for our letter, which aims to ensure that future UK programmes will not be sent to stay beyond the Green Line.
Some members of the Jewish community criticised the young signatories of our letter while others chose to attack us, dismissing the complex manner in which we relate to Israel.
We believe that Israel should be allowed to thrive as a Jewish and democratic state alongside an independent Palestinian state. We criticise actions that entrench the occupation and infringe on the human rights of Palestinians.
The ongoing occupation not only harms the Palestinians whom it oppresses, but also the future viability of an Israeli state. Settlement expansion pushes Israel further into the West Bank and reduces the Palestinian state to no more than a distant idea.
Having recently participated in a 10-day delegation to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories that was jointly facilitated by Breaking the Silence and Hashomer Hatzair, robust engagement with these issues feels more important to me than ever.
Together with other young European Jews, I visited Hebron, Masafer Yatta, and Sheikh Jarrah. I learnt about the historic and current situation in these areas and met with several Palestinian activists living there.
Hearing first-hand about the discrimination and violence that they experience on an almost daily basis was shocking. More than that, it was incredibly confronting.
As a Diaspora Jew who firmly believes in the existence of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, had I hitherto been complicit in their suffering?
Our letter represents one manifestation of young British Jewish leaders recognising and accepting this responsibility: we will not be complicit in the occupation and settlement enterprise, and we will raise our voices so that others feel able to do the same.
Dalia Blass recently joined Yachad as their Youth and Student Outreach Worker.
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