Author: Jessie Salter
As winter break approaches, students across the country are preparing to depart on Birthright trips to Israel, where they will explore and celebrate their connection to a land that has been the home to both Jews and Palestinians for thousands of years. The experiences provided by Birthright should uphold the values and traditions central to the Jewish community, and should not come at the expense of the freedom, justice, peace and equality promised to all people by the Israeli Declaration of Independence. That a Birthright trip, and donations we made as young children, might support actions that violate these central values, and which make a two-state solution and peace for both Israelis and Palestinian increasingly out of reach, should be deeply alarming to the Jewish community. Perhaps even more pertinent to those who support and travel on Birthright, is that without a two-state solution, Israel itself cannot survive as both a democracy and a Jewish homeland.
In contravention of Birthright’s stated policy to not take participants beyond the Green Line separating Israel from Palestinian land in the West Bank, some of those trips will include visits to the City of David. Located in the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan in East Jerusalem, the oft-toured archaeological site is now owned and managed by a right-wing Israeli organization El’Ad, which in turn uses the revenue from admission fees to fund the group’s campaign to increase the population of Israeli Jews in traditionally Palestinian East Jerusalem. Given that the basis of any workable resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is widely understood to require Palestinian sovereignty over Arab neighborhoods and Israeli sovereignty over Israeli ones, with East Jerusalem as the capital of the future state of Palestine, El’Ad’s efforts to blur the distinction between Israeli and Palestinian neighborhoods makes the achievement of an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement all the more difficult.
Recent events around the City of David demonstrate the pressing need for young Jews to think critically about these values in connection with the Jewish homeland, as well as the challenges presented by current Israeli policy. One such event is the proposed eviction of a Palestinian family, the Sumarins, from their home in Silwan inside of the City of David National Park. The family is being evicted on the basis of the Absentee Property Law, the same law being used to seize Palestinian homes throughout East Jerusalem, as both Israeli and international organizations have documented. The stipulations of the law are not applied to Israelis. Even more troubling, however, is the connection between the eviction and an organization with a special place in the minds and hearts of many Jewish-Americans.
Many young Jews grew up giving weekly tzedakah (charity) to the Jewish National Fund (JNF), an organization known for planting millions of trees throughout Israel and for being Israel’s primary land trust. For generations, the JNF has been the primary means through which Jews around the world have supported the existence of Israel. This is a legacy celebrated throughout the Jewish community. Without the JNF, Israel would not be what it is today.
Nevertheless, the JNF has traditionally maintained a policy of not operating over the Green Line, which separates West Jerusalem from East Jerusalem. The Sumarin home is being handed over to an organization called Himnuta, which will then turn it over to El’Ad, the group who operates the City of David site. Himnuta is owned by the JNF, and the chief financial officer of JNF also serves as Himnuta’s executive. The implication that the JNF has created Himnuta to do business across the Green Line is troubling, and the thought that the JNF puts the nickels and dimes collected in Hebrew school toward evicting a Palestinian family is deeply at odds with the Jewish values taught to us in those same institutions.
Just a few days ago, JNF/Himnuta announced that they will postpone the eviction, originally planned for Nov. 28, to a later date, due partly to the outcry from concerned individuals, many of them J Street U students and supporters. By announcing the postponement, the JNF has acknowledged that they indeed bear overall responsibility for the still-probable eviction of the Sumarins—something they have denied previously. J Street U and its supporters want to encourage the JNF to hold to its policy of not operating over the Green Line and to turn the lease over to the Sumarins. We hope that this eviction will not just be delayed but voided altogether.
The JNF and Birthright are two of the most important organizations in the Jewish community and both do much work that is vital to Jewish people abroad and to Israel. Yet these circumstances are a clear violation of the most basic values of the Jewish community. Moreover, they undermine the possibility of a two-state solution. It is important that the JNF build upon its legacy by supporting Israel’s future, rather than jeopardizing it by supporting expansion beyond the Green Line. The JNF can, and should, stand for values that the Jewish people strive to exemplify and at the same time live up to its long legacy of promoting Israel’s security and survival.
Before they leave, Birthright participants should ask questions about what is going on in the City of David and the implications for displaced Palestinian families. Trips about exploring Jewish identity should not in any way support the usurpation of identities and rights of others, and the JNF should stand by its policy of not operating beyond the Green Line. Doing so jeopardizes not only the future of families like the Sumarins but also the peace and security of Israel. If you are heading to Israel on Birthright this winter, think first about the values you stand for and those that you want your homeland to uphold.
Jessie Salter is a sophomore biology major. She can be reached at salter@oxy.edu.
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