I am going on Birthright to a homeland I have never considered home. My father is Jewish, but we were never raised with religion. I have been to a synagogue three times. Two weddings and a Bar Mizvah. I always felt as though I was on the outside of a special clique with my Jewish friends at high school in Toronto. They went to Jewish camp, had huge parties for their Bar and Bat Mizvahs and had a family and social dynamic that I could never relate to. I don’t look Jewish. My dad certainly doesn’t act Jewish. It was only as I became older and started exploring my family history and spending time with my Jewish relatives in Australia that I have really connected with this part of myself.
When I was in my second year of university at McGill in Montreal, I met a Lebanese-born Canadian girl of Palestinian heritage. Dina is bright and driven and passionate. She is currently working in Ramallah in the West Bank for the Negotiations Affairs Office of the Palestinian Liberation Organization. She co-edited an Arab-Israeli Journal focusing on peace in Israel and Palestine. She is one of my best friends. It was her suggestion that I go on Birthright. She wants me to visit her.
The conflict in Israel is something I have always skirted around. As much as I read about the topic, I can never decide how I really feel. I don’t believe in violence. Yet when a people have been oppressed, discriminated against, exterminated, because of ignorance and prejudice, I can understand when violent measures are taken. But then, driving people out of their land, and discriminating against them in the very same senseless way, seems counterintuitive to me. I just don’t know.
So there it is. I am a not-very-Jewish girl going on a programme for Jewish youth, a trip that I have been told before is unapologetically pro-Zionist (and borderline emotionally manipulative). After the trip, I will be staying with my impassioned Palestinian friend in the West Bank, and travelling around with her and her equally active boyfriend. Will I be able to stay where I am, sitting on the fence? Or will this trip prompt something to change in me? Can I possibly get a clearer idea of how to feel about an inherently incomprehensible and complex situation?
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My trip to Israel begins here, in Montreal, with the preparations. I will film myself while I am packing, as I speak to a friend about my thoughts on what the trip will be like.
When I arrive in Israel, I will be travelling all over with Birthright. I will be filming every step of the way, and I intend to interview my fellow travellers, as well as the people we meet along the way. I’m sure I will be able to get some great interviews with people from the Israeli side promoting the actions of the country/government. (And I know that I will need to be careful not to be labelled a shit-disturber and get kicked off the programme!)
I also want to speak to Israeli locals about how they feel about the violence, the possibility of peace, and what sort of threat they are under from the Arab world. I’m going to try to be as impartial as possible. I am a humanist and I don’t believe that the violence that has been used and continues to be used is the only way. I really don’t have issue with Israel per se. I just can’t align myself with policies that wilfully ignore logic in favour of violence.
After ten days of whirlwind travelling around Israel with the trip, I will be starting on the second leg of my journey. I will take a bus to Ramallah in the West Bank to stay with Dina. She and her boyfriend, Hazem, who lives and works in Bethlehem, are going to show me Palestine and introduce me to many people in the communities of activists with whom they interact. Dina volunteers at a refugee camp where she teaches English and French. Hazem is making a documentary himself, and has promised to organize interviews with various interesting people with whom he interacts. I have no idea what will really happen. I just want to go into this with an open mind.
I’d like to tie in history and current affairs as much as possible, although this is more about me learning first-hand about a place and situation, than about informing the world about what I think is going on. I want to get a wide range of people’s opinions. It will be interesting to see how accurately the reality of the region is actually portrayed in the media. What do we, in the West, really know?
I am going to include myself in the footage (i.e. speaking to the camera as I shoot, turning the camera on myself to discuss what I am seeing/learning/feeling.) I’m not going to try to make a film that’s out of my reach. What I want to make is a film that enables the viewer to see a situation through the eyes of someone who is learning, and trying to figure out how she feels about an incredibly complex situation, rather than someone whose mind is already made up.
