Birthright Israel Foster Long Distance Nationalism: Article Analysis

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In the article, Does Taglit-Birthright Israel Foster Long Distance Nationalism, it discusses how participants from the program feelings were affected based on attachment to Israel and their political standpoint. The commonly known belief that attitude towards your homeland is linked to ethnonationalism, which is connected to the work done by Benedict Anderson. Anderson’s theory of long distance nationalism is that diasporans feel disconnected because of the distance between themselves and their homeland and their lack of political responsibility. In the article, they do a study by surveying Birthright Israel alumni and nonparticipants to understand their attitude towards Israel. The survey had questions about political views of the Israeli-Palestinian …show more content…
According to the article, Birthright Israel tries to keep the program only cultural so that the participants will be able to develop their Jewish identity, but because of this, Israel comes off as free of conflict and depoliticized. The participants only visit cultural sites and do not see the Gaza strip or the West Bank. Birthright Israel does not explain the conflict happening in Israel because they want the participants to have a purely cultural experience and feel comfortable in their homeland. But, Israel is not isolated from the surrounding countries and it is nearly impossible for the participants to not be exposed. In the article, they have a section titled “What You Will Hear on Birthright,” and within this section they list direct quotes off of Birthright Israel’s website and clarify if they are true or false. For example, they quoted “We believe that the experience of a trip to Israel is a building block of Jewish identity.” The article gives a response sharing their opinion on the quote from the

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