So sayeth a foundation that offers Jewish adults between the ages of 18 and 26, regardless of religious affiliation, “who have not traveled to Israel before on a peer educational trip or study program nor have lived in Israel past the age of 12,” an all-expenses paid, 10-day trip to Israel. 100,000 people have taken advantage of the offer, mostly Americans, but some of them decided to explore Palestine whilst in the area and this has set-off a controversy.
Rachel Shabi writes in, Come, See Palestine!, that Taglit-birthright israel was conceived around 6-years ago by two of Israel’s most generous American philanthropists, Michael Steinhardt and Charles Bronfman. The “billionaire Bronfman inherited the Canadian Seagram’s liquor empire while Steinhardt made a small fortune as a Wall Street wizard. The latter, a self-proclaimed atheist, is nonetheless worried that Judaism is in danger of becoming obsolete.”
One 25-year-old graduate student from Chicago describes the last day of the trip, on a Tel Aviv beach. “It’s a really hot day and one guy from our trip runs into the water, and the sea’s beautiful, at a perfect temperature for swimming and he says, ‘OK, OK, I’m a Zionist!’ It’s facetiously said, but also ironic because that’s exactly what [tour leaders] want.” This graduate is still with the young Jewish woman he met while on the trip last summer. The matchmaking element is a key component of birthright trips, say past participants. After all, the idea is to stem the assimilation tendencies of Diaspora Jews.
Describing itself as a “unique partnership” between “the Israeli people through their government” and Zionist organisations based in the U.S., its main supporters include one European, the infamous Marc Rich, who has resided in Switzerland since fleeing the U.S. in 1983 to escape “charges of racketeering, illegal trading and evading a tax bill of $48m.” Thanks to the lobbying efforts of then-prime minister Ehud Barak and other Israeli notables such as Elie Wiesel, and to large contributions made by ex-wife, Denise Rich, to the Democrat party, to Hillary Clinton’s election campaign and to Bill Clinton’s presidential library, the departing Clinton granted Rich and crime partner Pincus Green last-minute pardons in 2001.
“TAKE JACK’S WORD”:
THE PARDONS OF INTERNATIONAL FUGITIVES
MARC RICH AND PINCUS GREEN (.pdf)
Marc Rich’s pardon petition included a number of letters of support from prominent Israelis, including: Shlomo Ben-Ami, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Public Security; Itamar Rabinovich, the former Israeli Ambassador to the United States; Yaakov Neeman, the former Minister of Finance and former Minister of Justice; Ehud Olmert, the Mayor of Jerusalem; Isaac Herzog, the Israeli Government Secretary, and Shabtai Shavit, the former Director of the Mossad.489 A number of these officials received some sort of financial contributions from Marc Rich. Olmert received a $25,000 political contribution from Rich in 1993.490 A community development organization called Yedid, which was linked to Shlomo Ben-Ami, received $100,000 from Rich. 491 Herzog’s wife worked for the Rich Foundation. 492 More important than the letters of support, though, were telephone calls to President Clinton from some of these Israeli leaders. Most importantly, Marc Rich’s supporters were able to have Prime Minister Ehud Barak raise the Marc Rich pardon with President Clinton. Prime Minister Barak described the approach to him by Avner Azulay as follows:
Few months ago [sic] I was approached by the chairman of the Rich Foundation in Israel. The chairman, Mr. Azoulay is a man I know [sic] for many years, who had contributed a lot to the security of the State of Israel. The Rich Foundation is well known and highly appreciated in Israel for its philanthropic activities in the fields of healthcare, education and culture.
Mr. Azoulay asked me to raise Mr. Rich case with President Clinton. I raised the subject with President Clinton several times (probably three) in the course of routine telephone conversations during the last two or three months of his presidency and made a personal recommendation to him to consider the case.493 Avner Azulay’s efforts to enlist Israeli officials in the pardon effort were helped dramatically when, in early January 2001, Marc Rich himself flew to Israel to attend a convention for Birthright Israel, a recipient of Rich’s largesse. While Rich was in Israel, he took the opportunity to meet senior Israeli political officials as well as Jewish-American leaders.
“Scooter Libby’s Client, Marc Rich,” was more recently named as one of several prominent oil traders who were under investigation for making “illegal payments to Iraq in order to obtain the lucrative oil contracts.” Rich allegedly did so in the months immediately following his pardon by Clinton. According to Craig Copetas, Marc Rich’s biographer, “To be sure, he has powerful allies: oil man Marvin Davis, former secretary of state Henry Kissinger, lawyer Leonard Garment, Deputy Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger, public relations gurus Harold Burson, Robert Gray, and Frank Mankiewicz, opera superstar Placido Domingo, and a boxcar full of European princes, American politicians, OPEC sheiks, and Fortune 500 bosses.” It was Libby (.pdf p.36) “who briefed the newly-hired Jack Quinn,” (Clinton’s former White House counsel). “Libby was instructed to cease all work on behalf of Rich and Green in the spring of 2000.” He “then segued into position as Dick Cheney’s chief of staff. Then there’s David Bossie, Rep. Dan Burton’s chief investigator and a veteran of the impeachment hearings, who was hired by Quinn to brief him for his appearance before a House investigating committee this week – one that just happened to be chaired by Rep. Burton.” The newly instated President George Bush, when asked if a probe into the pardon should be continued, said that it was “time to move on.”
And so Taglit-birthright israel was born in part with seed money from a criminal seeking a pardon, and thrives on the same blood money, from a man who makes billions “buying and selling the earth’s crust.” Rich once said, “You can’t run a business based on sympathies, otherwise our business would be hampered.” Nary an American would argue he’s conducted himself accordingly, as the bulk of his fortune was made at their expense, whilst he was a citizen of the U.S. – according to Dan Burton’s Committee findings – “Rich and Green have had extensive trade with terrorist states and other enemies of the United States. Despite clear legal restrictions on such trade, Rich and Green have engaged in commodities trading with Iraq, Iran, Cuba, and other rogue states that have sponsored terrorist acts. By engaging in these activities, Marc Rich and Pincus Green demonstrated contempt for American laws, as well as the well-being of Americans who were harmed or threatened by these states.”
Yet Rich’s association with Taglit-birthright israel is not the controversy that Rachel Shabi reports on in “Come, See Palestine!” The dating service is upset that some of its participants concluded their adventure by taking advantage of another programme. Birthright Unplugged was founded by Dunya Alwan and Hannah Mermelstein, both members of the International Women’s Peace Service (IWPS), to facilitate “access typically denied to the communities with whom we work.” The women offer two trips, one for international passport holders, and another for Palestinian children. It’s the former that has Taglit-birthright israel crying foul.
Our Unplugged trips are designed primarily for non-Israeli* Jewish people though we do welcome participants of all ages and backgrounds.
In six days, we visit Palestinian cities, villages and refugee camps and help participants develop an understanding of daily life under occupation. We meet with Palestinian and Israeli community leaders, NGO representatives, peace activists, political figures and families. We encourage participants to be deeply reflective and give them a chance to ask tough questions. We keep in touch with participants after the program and support their involvement in related social justice work.
We realize that this experience is largely missing from most Jewish-led trips to the Middle East. As Jewish people, we have a specific responsibility to understand the situation well and to promote concepts of social justice and human rights for all people in the world.
According to Shabi’s report, “To Taglit leaders, the birthright trips have had some unwanted consequences. Some participants have used the trips to either “birthleft” or “desert,” as they put it.”
But “birthlefters” have no qualms over misused money. They say the idea of a blanket Jewish birthright to Israel is fundamentally flawed, given that countless Diaspora Palestinians are accorded no such right. “Billions of dollars are used to give free trips to American kids and if the Israel government funds it then that comes through the U.S., people’s tax dollars,” says Gordon. She sees anti-occupation work as a good use of that money. Others point out that in the P.R. battle between pro-Israelis and pro-Palestinians, the former has huge resources while the latter “has to do bake sales to fund our next event.” Moreover, says Gordon, “If Birthright is going to weed people out according to politics, then it’s not really about Judaism anymore.” And yet this emerging dynamic, between Birthright and those who seek to counter it or provide alternatives, is precisely about Judaism. It comes up time and again when speaking to birthlefters who say that, prior to visiting the region, they felt unable to find a voice in the Israel-Palestine conflict. Raised on Jewish Sunday school and years of Jewish summer camp, Jessy Tolkan says, “I purposefully stayed away from the Israel-Palestine argument, unable to reconcile myself with being a pro-Israeli Jew and also a left-wing person.” After seeing the situation on the ground in Palestine, she says she felt “sad and angry that I had been lied to by the Jewish community that I was and continue to be proud of.” Until that point, she says, she had been “using a different framework to view the Israel-Palestine conflict that I use to view everything else in the world.”
One week before she was to depart on her adventure, Sierra received word that she would not be able to redeem her “gift.” Taglit discovered through an e-mail that she intended to take a trip with Birthright Unplugged so pulled her ticket:
Wednesday morning, May 31st, I received a phone call from Tel Aviv with Avi Green, the director of Israel Outdoors, on the other line. Israel Outdoors is the trip organizer contracted by Birthright Israel for the trip that I joined. He called me bearing “unfortunate news.” According to Mr. Green, it wasn’t meant to be a value judgment on Birthright Unplugged, but I must be removed from the pending Birthright Israel trip due to my anticipated participation with the Birthright Unplugged tour. When I asked if my removal was caused by an email sent to Birthright Israel, informing them of my planned trip with Birthright Unplugged, he said that he was not able to discuss that topic.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
1) Call Birthright Israel and tell them what you think about their attempt to stop people from learning firsthand about the situation in Israel/Palestine. Birthright Israel phone number: 888-99-ISRAEL (994-7723). Israel Outdoors program (the specific program Sierra planned to go on): 800-566-4611.
2) Support Sierra to come on Birthright Unplugged. Now that she is not going on a Birthright Israel trip, she needs to raise the money for a plane ticket if she wants to join our Unplugged trip. We want to send a message to Birthright Israel that they can’t stop people from learning. Please contact us ASAP at info@birthrightunplugged.org if you are interested in sending a donation to help buy Sierra a plane ticket, and let us know how much you are able to give.
3) Donate to Birthright Unplugged to support our important work at a time like this! As walls and barriers continue to go up, we are more committed than ever to continue our work and cross those barriers. To send a tax-deductible donation to Birthright Unplugged, please make checks out to the Gandhian Foundation, with a notation in the memo line for “Birthright Unplugged”, and send to Birthright Unplugged, 18 Northview Drive, Glenside, PA 19038. (If you don’t need a tax deduction you are welcome to make checks out directly to Birthright Unplugged.)
Birthright Unplugged, info@birthrightunplugged.org