Birthright Unplugged

Birthright Unplugged was designed as a response to the popular Birthright Israel trips.¹ The name "Birthright Unplugged" is a spin on the Birthright Israel program, whose name implies that Jews have the exclusive rights to own the Holy Land and to reside in it.² The name "unplugged" implies that participants will experience a different version of reality. The organization's runs a second program, Birthright Re-Plugged, which takes Palestinian children on field trips in Israel to see the villages their families left in 1948 . Birthright Unplugged is an organization that offers education and travel programs designed to support of justice-movement work. Their Unplugged trip seeks to expose mostly North American people to the realities of Palestinian life though travel and conversations with a range of Palestinian people . In six days, they visit Palestinian cities, villages and refugee camps in the West Bank and spend time with internally displaced Palestinian people living inside Israel . They help participants develop an understanding of daily life under occupation and the history of the region from people profoundly affected by and under-represented in Western discourses about the occupation . They are particularly interested in travelers who come to their work with an anti-racist framing and are committed to using what they learn on the trip to work for justice. Their Re-Plugged trip is for Palestinian children living in refugee camps. In two days, they visit Jerusalem , the sea and the children’s ancestral villages, which is nearly impossible for most Palestinians in the West Bank , Gaza and outside Palestine . The children document their experiences and create exhibitions in order to contribute to the collective memory in the refugee camp and to share their stories with people abroad. They have also worked with Palestinian children living in refugee camps in Jordan , Lebanon , and Syria , and incorporated their photography and writing about their experiences and family histories into our touring exhibitions.³