In print | September 28, 2006

To the Editor:

On Tuesday’s reserved student list an e-mail was sent out to the Swarthmore community by the Swarthmore Jewish student advisor, advertising an event organized by Hillel-Philadelphia with the purpose of recruiting Jewish Swarthmore students to participate in a free trip to Israel, organized by ¬Birthright Israel¬.

While Jewish students in the United States can earn a free trip to Israel — just for being Jewish — and while any Jew in the world according to Israeli law can become a citizen of Israel — just for being Jewish — my grandmother’s brothers and sisters, born and raised in the Palestinian village Berwe who had cultivated its soil with their own hands, are prohibited by the Israeli state from returning to their land — for not being Jewish — and have remained as refugees in Lebanon since 1948.

I ask the Swarthmore community to be aware that such free trips, whether organized by ¬Birthright Israel¬ or any other Zionist organization in the United States, take students to an Israel where Arabs do not exist. Or, if we do exist, we the Arab citizens of Israel are demonstrated as separate and divided tribes and religions, and not as one national identity.

For students who are interested in visiting Palestine and Israel, Jews and non-Jews, I urge you to participate in the non-free FFIPP (Faculty for Israeli-Palestinian Peace) delegation to Palestine and Israel, where you will be a witness to the lives of both peoples of the Holy Land. For more information go to FFIPP.org.

Shadi Rohana ’08

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