Above Photo: If Not Now
Protesters blocked traffic near Birthright’s Midtown offices and blocked access to the office building.
MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — Jewish activists protesting Birthright Israel, the organization that sponsors free trips for people with Jewish heritage to Israel, were arrested during a Friday morning protest in front of the organization’s Midtown offices, according to activists and police.
Protesters stood in the crosswalk of Third Avenue and East 45th Street to prevent any vehicles from accessing the block and sat in front of the entrance to Birthright’s offices to block access to the building. The protest was organized by a group called IfNotNow, which has called on Birthright to educate its participants on the Israeli government’s occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip.
An NYPD spokesman said that police were called to the scene around 9 a.m. to respond to a “disorderly group” of about 50 protesters, but could not confirm how many people were taken into custody.
“Over the past year we’ve asked Birthright to make simple changes like adding the Green Line marking the Palestinian territories to the maps they give participants. But Birthright has refused to engage with us. Now we’re at their headquarters, demanding they hear our stories, engage with us in the streets, and choose us over their donors,” Zu Weinger Darmstadt, a Freshman from the University of Michigan who traveled to New York to protest, said in a statement.
Alyssa Rubin, another protester who went on Birthright in 2014, said that: “Going to Israel in 2019 and not learning about the Occupation is like going to the Jim Crow South and not learning about segregation.”
Birthright participants walked away from the program in the summer of 2018 after trip officials refused to answer questions about Palestine, causing Birthright to update its code of conduct. Under the organization’s new rules, participants who ask such questions are kicked out of their 10-day trip and forced to buy their own plane ticket home, organizers from IfNotNow said.
A spokesman from Birthright told Patch in an email that the organization refused to meet with IfNotNow protesters on Friday because: “We do not respond to threats and demands from political activists leveraging our long-standing good reputation in order to advance their agendas.”
“Birthright Israel is an apolitical organization. We encourage our tens of thousands of participants each year to challenge themselves by asking difficult questions and engaging in conversations with our educators and their peers, including Israeli participants. IfNotNow maintains a radical approach to an agenda they know does not align with the facts. Birthright Israel provides a multifaceted view of Israel, Jewish heritage and Jewish values,” Birthright’s statement reads.
The spokesman added that Birthright participants engage in “discussions of the geopolitical realities in Israel, including the conflict, and meetings with Israeli Arabs and other minorities in Israel.”
Our generation has totally shut down 3rd Avenue. @birthright could come right now and talk to us and put a stop to this. It’s #UsOrTheDonors. pic.twitter.com/Apy6uqs6wg
— Yonah Lieberman 🔥 (@YonahLieberman) April 5, 2019