Challenging Zionist Indoctrination: Birthright Israel 'Unplugged'

By Corey Balsam - AIC Special to Salem-News.com

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Birthright Israel therefore plays a significant role in the infrastructure of Zionist indoctrination in the Jewish Diaspora, which includes Zionist schools, camps, youth groups, and so on. Most significantly, what Birthright Israel trips are able to do is bring more young Jews, regardless of their level of affiliation with Jewish institutions, into the Zionist fold.

As Israel is becoming more and more difficult to defend, a growing number of young Jews are expressing staunch opposition to the Israeli government and Zionism, shouting "not in my name!" for all the world to hear.

Hannah Mermelstein is one of these young Jews. Together with co-founder Dunya Alwan, Murmelstein created an organization called Birthright Unplugged in 2005, in part to counter Birthright Israel and the skewed picture it paints in the minds of young Jews.

Open to both Jews and non-Jews, Birthright Unplugged takes participants to see the devastating effects that Zionist colonization and occupation have had on the Palestinian people in the West Bank and within what is now the state of Israel.

"Zionism is failing. It's on the decline." says Mermelstein. "Our role is to speed up the fall of Zionism," she added, “while at the same time standing in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle to survive and resist Zionist policy."

So while Birthright Israel continues to bring thousands of Jews around the world on their “birthright” each year, the mounting frequency of Diaspora Jews to unplug from Zionism and emotionally divest from Israel is emerging as a serious challenge to the Zionist project and its infrastructure of indoctrination.